Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman got his first taste of life in an NHL front office working for the Detroit Red Wings, and saw how their deliberate, patient approach with their prospects resulted in creating strong NHL players.

He's implemented that same philosophy during his tenure with the Lightning, stressing incremental growth until the players are fully developed and ready to step into an NHL lineup.

"It's mostly up to the individual," Yzerman told NHL.com. "Do they have the drive and determination to get better? Whether they're playing junior or college, you still have to get better every year. How do you do that? It's through your work ethic, improving your conditioning, improving your skills, maturing as a person. They all have to do that. The guys who figure it out tend to play."

Here's a look at the Lightning's top 10 prospects, according to NHL.com:

In 2013-14, forward Alex Killorn was one of several Tampa Bay Lightning players who found their game and helped the team overcome a tumultuous season to post the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. Entering his third season, Killorn is now tasked with building on that success.

If Killorn, who turns 25 on Sept. 14, improves his possession play and continues to develop, the Lightning could be an even more challenging matchup.

Killorn emerged last season with 17 goals and 41 points in 82 games, and ranked second on the Lightning behind Tyler Johnson with 173 shots.

The Tampa Bay Lightning faced several questions entering the 2013-14 season. And that was before their star, center Steven Stamkos, missed four months with a broken tibia and captain Martin St. Louis was traded to the New York Rangers at the NHL Trade Deadline. Despite those challenges, the Lightning kept winning thanks to breakout seasons from players including goaltender Ben Bishop, defenseman Victor Hedman, and rookie forwards Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat.

With a number of veterans added this summer through trades and free agency, here are five questions the Lightning must answer in 2014-15:

Despite losing their best player for four months with a broken tibia, trading their captain at the NHL Trade Deadline and dressing nine different rookies, the Tampa Bay Lightning emerged as one of the great surprises of the 2013-14 season.

But the Cinderella story ended abruptly. Goaltender Ben Bishop sustained an arm injury with three games remaining in the regular season and was forced out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Without their No. 1 goalie and with little veteran help, the Lightning were swept in the Eastern Conference First Round by the Montreal Canadiens.

After a busy summer, Tampa Bay is looking to make a deeper push this season.

The first full season for Jon Cooper as an NHL coach was a huge success.

Despite losing one superstar, Steven Stamkos, for an extended period because of a broken leg, and another, Martin St. Louis, for good after a trade request, the Lightning returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in seven seasons.

An injury to breakout star goaltender Ben Bishop cut Tampa Bay's postseason time short, but general manager Steve Yzerman made a couple of moves to strengthen the defense and the organization's bundle of young talent is beginning to blossom. If Bishop can prove last season was no fluke, Tampa Bay could be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Here's a look at the projected 2014-15 lineup for the Lightning:

There may come a time when the Montreal Canadiens will look back on the 2013 NHL Draft with great pride, knowing the organization hit the jackpot.

Five of the eight players picked that weekend are considered high-end prospects expected to have an impact with the big club in very short order. Canadiens director of player development Martin Lapointe singled out two players from that 2013 draft class that made quite an impression during the team's recent development camp, forwards Jacob De La Rose and Michael McCarron.

The Montreal Canadiens went through one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2011-12, but the reward was the chance to select Alex Galchenyuk with the No. 3 pick in the 2012 NHL Draft.

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, who was hired seven weeks prior to that draft, never had any doubts about Galchenyuk's potential to become an impact player in the League despite a torn anterior cruciate ligament that cost him all but eight games with the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League in his draft year.

"It was the look in his eyes," Bergevin said the night of the 2012 draft. "Hockey is the most important thing in his life. He wants to be a hockey player, and nothing's going to stop him from being a hockey player."

This might be the season Galchenyuk becomes not only a hockey player, but a star hockey player.

The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2013-14 season coming off an impressive turnaround, jumping from last place in the Eastern Conference to the second seed in the East in the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Canadiens were eliminated in five games in the first round of the 2013 playoffs by the Ottawa Senators, so general manager Marc Bergevin and coach Michel Therrien both attempted to temper expectations for their team in Montreal, a city hungry for a Stanley Cup contender.

Bergevin and Therrien each constantly repeated last season that the goal for the Canadiens was simply to qualify for the playoffs and see where that led them.

It led them farther than the Canadiens have been since their last Stanley Cup in 1993, coming two wins shy of reaching the Final in losing in six games to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final.

In each of the two seasons since Marc Bergevin took over as general manager and Michel Therrien as coach of the Montreal Canadiens, they have made a significant leap forward.

Two years ago, the Canadiens went from last place in the Eastern Conference to winning their division before bowing out in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Last season, the Canadiens finished third in the Atlantic Division, but reached the Eastern Conference Final before being knocked out in six games by the New York Rangers.

The next step will be a difficult one for the Canadiens, but the answers to these five questions may determine whether they are ready for it.

The Montreal Canadiens lost for the fourth time in five games March 12, then watched the Toronto Maple Leafs win the following night (against the Los Angeles Kings, no less) to push three points in front of their rivals from Quebec for second place in the Atlantic Division.

What came next was remarkable: Montreal gained 16 points on Toronto in 16 days, leaving the Maple Leafs in its wake. The Canadiens won eight of nine in that stretch to effectively secure a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, while the Maple Leafs lost eight in a row in one of the craziest and swiftest collapses in recent NHL history.

The Canadiens finished the season on a strong note, upsetting the archrival Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Second Round before a Carey Price injury left Montreal short against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final. Montreal lost high-profile NHL Trade Deadline addition Thomas Vanek to free agency, but added Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau in a deft trade and friend of the analytics community Tom Gilbert to possibly help shore up that department on the blue line.