Day One: Fresh faces & plenty of opportunity

The Tampa Bay Lightning opened training camp on Wednesday with medicals, testing and media day ahead of the first set of on-ice practices, set to begin Thursday morning at TGH Ice Plex.
The Bolts quest for a third Stanley Cup in four seasons and the fourth in franchise history has officially begun, but things are looking a little different ahead of opening night on October 11. With each new season comes a new roster and Tampa Bay will be without two big pieces from the back-to-back Cups when the puck drops at Madison Square Garden for the first game of the regular season.
Ryan McDonagh is a Nashville Predator.
Ondrej Palat is a New Jersey Devil.
With two big veterans out of the picture, the Lightning will have to fill the void. While these two pieces may be irreplaceable, the chance is there for other players on the roster to take that next step and make the most of the opportunity at hand.

One of those players is Mikhail Sergachev, who signed an eight-year contract extension with Tampa Bay in July, keeping the defenseman in blue and white through the end of the 2030-31 season. With the departure of McDonagh, Sergachev should get a big opportunity to take on some of those minutes and move up to the second defense pairing on the left side.
Opportunity is knocking at the door for Sergachev, who is still just 24 years old. He spent this offseason preparing for that opportunity and is looking forward to the added responsibility on the back end.
"I'm going to have a little bit more of an extended role, so it's a big opportunity for me to kind of show what I'm about," Sergachev said. "[This summer] I was trying to get stronger a little bit. I was working on my endurance so I could play more.
"I'm always working on everything. There's not one area that you shouldn't work on.
"I was working on everything - skating, shooting, battling, working out and stuff. The one particular area is endurance, for sure."

Drafted ninth overall in the 2016 NHL Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, Sergachev has all the tools from smooth skating to physicality to offensive ability. He already has two Stanley Cup rings, but the loss to the Colorado Avalanche in last year's Stanley Cup Final has only motivated him more as he looks to add a third Cup to his resume.
"It was one of the saddest moments of my life," said Sergachev. "It's tough. I still think about it sometimes, what I did wrong. You watch the games, obviously. They're on the TV. It drives me.
"As Vasy said, it was a cold shower. We're just going to try to win another one every year. It's an easy motivation for everybody."
It goes without saying, but Sergachev isn't the only one using last year's loss in the Final as motivation. Steven Stamkos still feels the sting of the loss from last season.
"I'm still kind of pissed off about that, if I'm being honest," said Stamkos. "But I just think it's motivating itself, to know what it takes to get to the top of that mountain and the feeling that you have. So that should be the motivation, for sure."
The Bolts have seen and learned so much over the past several seasons. In last year's deep postseason run, it was easy to notice Tampa Bay's experience playing a major factor in some of the most critical moments. There will be doubters when it comes to this group, but they know what it takes to get to the end and win.
"People are going to talk about how the core's getting a little older and things like that, but I still think the window's open," Stamkos explained. "It's not going to be given to us, that's for sure.
"We're going to have to go out and have a really good season. Guys are going to have to step up and the goal is always to just get in the playoffs and then that's when we can rely on the experience that we've had, especially the past three years. So that'll be the goal."

Stamkos was named captain of the Lightning in March of 2014. He's learned from leaders like Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and others along the way.
Last season, it felt like Stamkos took another big leap forward in the leadership department. He was laying down and sacrificing his body to block shots. He was going back to the locker room to get treatment and coming right back out to avoid missing his next shift. Not to mention, he had the best statistical year of his career, topping 100 points for the first time with 42 goals and 64 assists for 106 points.
Following the season-ending loss to Colorado in Game 6, an emotional McDonagh fought back tears and took time to make sure he gave an acknowledgement to the job that Stamkos did leading their group.
"I've got to really say a special acknowledgement to Stamkos," McDonagh said. "He was an unbelievable leader. His play was incredible. Just a great feel for the room. Great motivational player. Just a purebred hockey player through and through. I don't know really what to say. I'm just really proud of him."
With McDonagh now gone, his presence off the ice is going to have to be filled as well. Whether it was bringing concerns to the coaches or knowing when to speak up in the locker room, McDonagh was a big leader for the group.
Luckily for Tampa Bay, there are a lot of leaders on the roster. But between the losses of McDonagh and Palat, guys are going to have to accept the challenge and step up, both on and off the ice.

"He was a big leader in that room," said Pat Maroon when asked about McDonagh. "Him and Stammer did a great job feeding off each other. It's a voice that we're going to miss a lot, but that's an opportunity for guys to step up and challenge themselves into that role.
"It's a good thing how he carried himself because he's a good guy to mentor and a good guy to look up to. I think there's guys in the room that understand what he did every day. I think guys can do a good job of kind of taking that role over.
"We have really good veterans in there - Stammer, Heddy, Killer, guys that understand what it takes and understand the room. Perry is another good example with Bellemare. We've got guys in there that understand what it takes."
In a salary cap world, teams are often forced to part ways with players they would love to keep. But with those departures comes opportunity. For Tampa Bay general manager Julien BriseBois, that opportunity is one that he's excited to evaluate and see which players take advantage.
"I'd like someone to force our hand and earn their way onto the team," BriseBois explained. "That's we're looking for.
"You don't want to win a spot on our opening night roster by default. You want to earn it.
"We have a number of players who are going to be given opportunities to showcase themselves because, based on what they've done up until now, they've earned the opportunity to get a little more of a chance to showcase themselves. I'm hoping that some of those players grab the bull by the horns and force their way onto the team."

BriseBois is tasked with constructing the best team possible, both for the present and the future. Typically, the salary cap increases with each year, but the seasons affected by COVID-19 brought that to a halt, making roster management even more difficult.
"We're accustomed to having the cap go up on a yearly basis and when you're signing players to long-term contracts, you build that salary cap increase into your projections," BriseBois explained. "And for the last few years, there has been no salary cap increase and for at least another year, maybe two more, there won't be any salary cap increases."
This threw another wrench into the already extremely difficult job for BriseBois. Yet still, the Bolts are set up to win right now and in the future. With a first-class core locked in for the foreseeable future, Tampa Bay is in as good of a spot as any team in the NHL and that starts with the chance to win the Stanley Cup again this season.
"I'm thrilled because we're starting the season and I look at our potential roster and it has the makings of a really good team," said BriseBois. "That's what we want going into the season. We have the makings of being a really competitive team and what went into the bigger decisions in the offseason, they were mostly driven by trying to make sure we stay competitive for as long as possible.
"[We wanted to] kind of set ourselves up to be competitive this year, but [also] next year and for the foreseeable future. That was probably the driving vision behind a lot of these decisions, making sure that we extended that window as much as possible."
One player that helps extend that window is Brayden Point, who suffered a lower-body injury in Game 7 of Tampa Bay's first-round matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Point is now fully healthy and ready for a big season ahead.

"Feeling good," said Point. "It was a bit of a long recovery process, but feeling good coming into camp here and no pain, so it's nice to be able to skate how I want to again.
"It's about just kind of getting that feel back and that timing back and kind of getting used to that game speed. That's something you can't really replicate in practice. I guess that's the same for most guys in camp.
"Just see how it goes and progresses and if you're feeling good, it's a big confidence boost. I don't think I'll have any problems."
While the Lightning may have lost some key pieces over the offseason, the team remains a top competitor for the Stanley Cup this season and beyond. With a wealth of experience, this group knows that the most important day is today. The Bolts aren't looking all the way to the playoffs. The journey to get there has just begun.
"I think it starts in training camp," Maroon said. "The winning caliber teams, it starts with training camp. I think [it's about] the work ethic and how we want to play and finding our identity. Bringing guys together and having the locker room chemistry right off the bat, I think that's the most important thing.
"Getting those battles in early in training camp, leaning on each other, pushing each other - you have to do that. You have to be ready.
"We are going to do that. We have a good leadership group and we know what it takes and we know how hard it is."