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With the elimination of Rimouski in the Memorial Cup tournament, the 2008-2009 season has finally come to a close for all of the prospects of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. While the Lightning's record in 2008-2009 at the NHL was disappointing with the team finishing second to last in the league, the play of the team's youth was a bright spot. The team graduated three prospects this season: star center Steven Stamkos, physical defenseman Matt Smaby, and athletic netminder Karri Ramo. In addition, several other prospects made their NHL debuts this season, and most did not look out of place at hockey's top level. As a result, even with the graduation of three prospects, our Final Rankings for 2008-2009 reflect a solid roster of talent among the team's top prospects, which will only be added to in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft where the Lightning will hold three picks in the top sixty of the draft including the second overall pick.

As is customary, for those who have never read our rankings reports before, Bolt Prospects' rules are fairly simple. For skaters, a player is considered a prospect if they are less than 24 years of age on opening night of the Lightning's season and if they have not played 41 or more NHL games in a single season or 82 or more career NHL games. The same age standard applies to goaltenders, but their thresholds for graduation from prospect status are different: 30 or more NHL decisions in a single season, or 41 or more career NHL decisions. NCAA players are still considered prospects at the age of 24 or older for as long as they remain in school. Bolt Prospects will issue a Supplementary Rankings Update in late June after the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Without further ado, here are Bolt Prospects' 2008-2009 Final Rankings:

With about a month to go in the regular season over in Europe, and a little over a couple of months left to go in North America, the 2008-2009 season has turned out to be a good one for the prospects of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Asked to buoy the Lightning's sagging playoff hopes and to compensate for a spate of injuries on the top club's blueline, the team's youth has served admirably and done their part to help right the ship for Head Coach Rick Tocchet's club. Heading into the stretch run of the season, it looks like the youth in the Lightning organization may be priming for a big finish, capping a 2008-2009 season that in many ways has been a validation of the work that's been done by the club's scouts and developmental people, past and present.

Today, Bolt Prospects is releasing its Preliminary Prospect Rankings for the 2008-2009 season. Eight prospects make their debut in the Top 25 since the end of the 2007-2008 season. Half of the debutantes enter the list via the 2008 NHL Entry Draft including the #1 overall pick. The other half enter the list via various trades and acquisitions made by the new Lightning ownership.

Just a reminder of the rules: a prospect is any player under the age of 24 on opening night of the Lightning’s NHL season that has not played 41 or more games in an NHL season or more than 82 games in their NHL career. For goaltenders, the games thresholds are slightly different. Netminders will be considered prospects if they have not achieved 30 or more decisions in an NHL season or 41 decisions in their NHL careers. In addition, all college players will be considered prospects, regardless of their age, until they graduate. Players over the age of 24 on opening night that have not graduated are considered overage prospects.

With all the legal disclaimers out of the way, lets begin:

1. C Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay (NHL)

Despite a slow start to his rookie campaign, Stamkos remains the clear consensus choice as the Lightning's top prospect. It's only a matter of time before Stamkos, with his world class speed and shot, becomes one of the game's elite forwards. We just hope the Lightning can finally figure out the right linemates and role to put Stamkos in a position to succeed.

The Lightning prospects turned in an impressive defensive effort but drop their first game 1-0 to the Thrasher prospects in the opening match of the Traverse City Prospect Tournament today. Dustin Tokarski started in net for the Bolt prospects and went the distance, stopping 20 of 21 shots and looked sharp throughout the match. The only black mark was defenseman Paul Postma's even-strength blast from the left point in the first period. Atlanta's Chris Carrozzi stopped 26 Lightning shots including a great left pad save on a Chris Lawrence turnaround from the slot with 46 seconds remaining. Lawrence is wearing the 'C' for the Traverse City squad.

Ty Wishart led all Bolt prospects with 6 shots on goal and was a visible physical presence on the blueline, using the hip and shoulder on more than one occasion. Wishart was paired with Norfolk Admiral Daryl Boyle, and saw plenty of PP time. Tampa's top line consisted of Mitch Fadden centering Lawrence and Dana Tyrell. Lawrence and Boyle both fired 4 shots at Corrozzi. Free agent backliner Jeff May was paired with Mark Barberio. Free agent invitee centerman Brett Parnham was the only scratch.

See the boxscore for the remainder of individual stats, but the real story was the goaltending battle between Tokarski and Corrozzi. The Lightning three stars of the game were Tokarski, Wishart, and Boyle.

This game will be shown as tape delay Sunday night at 8pm ET on the NHL Network. The Lightning play their next game Sunday night at 7:30pm CT against the Detroit Red Wings prospects.

In-game reports courtesy of Mike Morreale who is blogging the Traverse City tournament at NHL.com

Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune published the Lightning's Traverse City Prospects Tournament roster today. And while Steven Stamkos is a glaring omission from the roster, it is composed mostly of 2007 and 2008 Lightning draftees including Finnish forward Matias Sointu. Recently acquired top defensive prospect Ty Wishart highlights the roster that also includes six free agent invitees and two Norfolk Admirals free agent signees. Five of the six free agent invitees are from the WHL, including Tri-City's surprisingly undrafted Kruise Reddick and Tyson Barrie's and Torrie Jung's Kelowna teammate Lucas Bloodoff.

There's one more unconfirmed player whose name has yet to be released.

Goaltenders
Torrie Jung, Dustin Tokarski

Defenseman
Ty Wishart, Kevin Quick, Daryl Boyle, Mark Barberio, Michael Ward, Scott Jackson, Jeff May

Forwards
Dana Tyrell, Mitch Fadden, Chris Lawrence, Luca Cunti, Kyle De Coste, James Wright, Matias Sointu, Lucas Bloodoff, Kyle Bortis, Brady Leavold, Brett Parnham, Kruise Reddick

Norfolk Free Agent Signees
Free Agent Invitees