When the Tampa Bay Lightning were bought by Oren Koules and Len Barrie earlier this year the two promised the club would rebound from their woeful finish to the 2007-08 season, which saw the Bolts miss the playoffs only four years after winning the Stanley Cup in 2004.

Koules and Barrie displayed a flair for bold moves, replacing Jay Feaster as general manager with player agent Brian Lawton and John Tortorella as head coach with ESPN analyst and former LA Kings head coach Barry Melrose.

The new front office crew significantly overhauled the roster, acquiring forwards Ryan Malone, Radim Vrbata, Vaclav Prospal, Mark Recchi, Adam Hall and Gary Roberts, defenseman Marek Malik and goaltender Olaf Kolzig primarily through free agency, and dealt away veteran blueliners Dan Boyle and Filip Kuba for promising young defensemen Matt Carle and Andrej Meszaros respectively.

Toss in their winning the draft lottery and selecting center Steven Stamkos first overall, and dealing away defenseman Shane O’Brien to Vancouver for Lukas Krajicek, and  the Bolts headed into this season with nearly a dozen new faces in the lineup.  

Expectations were high but the criticism was plentiful from more than a few fans and pundits. Koules and company were making too many changes too quickly, and the one most questioned was hiring Melrose, who hadn’t been behind an NHL bench in 13 years and was whispered as having gotten his job due to his friendship with the ownership.

Koule, Barrie and Lawton were gambling that their radical moves would provide the spark the moribund Bolts lacked last season.

Only 16 games into this season, the Lightning were a woeful 5-7-4, sitting fourth in the Southeast Division and 13th overall in the Conference.

Things had gotten so bad this past week that Melrose took a “personal day” away from the team, but it did little good as the Lightning lost to the Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings.

That was enough for the front office, who handed Melrose his walking papers on November 14th, replacing him with assistant coach Rick Tocchet.

It’s easy to lay blame for the Lightning’s slow start on Melrose, and he deserves his fair share. The team's top scorers weren't scoring enough and it's been suggested by more than a few critics that he wasn't giving young Stamkos enough quality ice time.

But the bulk of the blame rests with the men who hired Melrose.

Koules and Barrie professed their faith in him as the coach their team needed to return to playoff contention.  He gave it his best shot, and while it’s clear he was struggling to adapt to today’s NHL, he was also working with an overhauled roster still adjusting to each other.

Optimists will look at their current record and say there’s still plenty of time for this team to gel and rebound, pointing out they’re not that far out of playoff contention and there’s plenty of time to get back into the chase.  They’ll likely point to a coaching change as just what this team needs to turn things around.

Perhaps, but this is also a team that was put together in slap-dash fashion, and strong coaching might not be enough to turn them into a contender this season.

The goaltending is in good shape thanks to Mike Smith, who was acquired by Feaster at last year’s trade deadline and has provided the Bolts with the caliber of goaltending not seen since Nikolai Khabibulin backstopped them to the Cup in 2004.  

Without Smith’s stellar play the Lightning wouldn’t have as many victories as they currently do. He was usually one of the stars in each of the four games he’s won thus far and faced well over 30 shots in most of them.

Lecavalier, Prospal, Recchi and Martin St. Louis are the Lightning’s leading scorers, although Lecavalier still appears to be feeling the effects from off-season shoulder surgery. As Lecavalier goes so goes the Lightning’s offense, as they’re not getting the secondary scoring the Bolts need to take the pressure off his line.  

Defensively the Lightning lack skilled experience, particularly on their blueline, where only Malik, Krajicek and recently acquired Steve Eminger have more than five NHL seasons under their belts. They’re lacking the kind of skilled veteran leadership young defensemen look up to for encouragement and advice if they’re to properly develop their skills.  

Other acquisitions – Malone, Vrbata, Roberts and Hall – have been major disappointments so far. Stamkos, who was expected to be a rookie of the year contender, has only four points in 16 games and while he may not have received the ice time some feel he should get he was still struggling at times to adjust to the NHL game.

Lawton’s most questionable move so far this season was trading Carle, who was considered the centerpiece of the return from the San Jose Sharks in the Boyle trade.

 Granted, Carle struggled during his short tenure with the Lightning, and Lawton claimed trading him to the Philadelphia Flyers was done to create cap space, but had the front office spent more wisely during the off-season there wouldn’t have been any need to give up so quickly on Carle.

Even if the Lightning were justified in moving Carle based on his play and salary it casts doubt on the logic for acquiring him in the first place.

The constant changes in recent moves have garnered the Lightning plenty of attention but not the right kind, making their front office decisions appear to be knee-jerk reactions rather than well-thought-out moves.

They now appear a club in turmoil and unless things turn around soon it’s only going to get worse.   

After facing over forty shots per game in their first three games (all losses, one in overtime) the Tampa Bay Lightning today decided to address the lack of experienced defensive depth on the blueine corps, signing former New York Rangers defenseman Marek Malik to a one-year, $1.2 million pro-rated contract.

Malik was an unrestricted free agent who'd been unable to land a contract during the summer with another NHL team after two rough seasons with the New York Rangers where he was pretty much booed out of town.

As predicted by many observers - myself included - the Lightning's defense corps is currently too young and inexperienced to handle the workload after management traded away Dan Boyle and Filip Kuba during the off-season, leaving them without veteran depth and leadership.

Malik actually posted up decent numbers during his years with the Rangers, including an impressive plus-minus of +32 in 2006-07 but too often he became the whipping boy of the Rangers fans for a preceived lack of effort in his game resulting in bad goals against the Blueshirts.

It remains to be seen if Malik will help provide the stability the Lightning's defense desperately needs, but at this point it's clear they need all the help they can get.

Over three weeks after the NHL UFA market opened on July 1st, there ain’t much left in the store for shoppers to choose from.

This summer’s UFA talent pool was already a thin one given that much of the best talent was re-signed to new contracts, in some cases (hello there, Joe Thornton and Jarome Iginla) a full year before their UFA eligibility date.

Globe and Mail blogger James Mirtle’s been keeping an updated list of the best available talent at each position and as you can see the pickings are slim indeed.

The best available forward remains Mats Sundin, who’s as valuable now as he was on July 1st, but the market is apparently limited to three Canadian teams – Montreal, Vancouver and of course his old stamping grounds in Toronto.

His agent claims Sundin will decide by August 1st if he’ll retire (unlikely) or return to action and if so which club he’ll choose, which should mercifully bring to an end the constant media speculation over his plans.

After Sundin, the depth drops dramatically.

Brendan Shanahan is still available, but apparently only talking with the Rangers, who’ll be hard pressed to find cap space for him unless he accepts a considerable pay cut or they move someone out (Petr Prucha, perhaps?) to free up the extra cap space.

Joe Sakic is available but nobody’s bidding on him because it’s understand that, if he does decide to return for another season, it’ll be with the Colorado Avalanche, period. Thus far Sakic has yet to make up his mind.

Teemu Selanne is still but despite some internet chatter of his signing with Montreal to play with old buddy Saku Koivu (and how many years has THAT old chestnut been flying around? Ten??) it’s Anaheim or retirement for Selanne.

Peter Forsberg’s still available but he’s sidelined until December rehabbing his problematic right foot and is likely facing retirement if it fails to improve things.

Looking at Mirtle’s list perhaps the best available forward is Ladislav Nagy, who was nearly on a point-per-game clip with the LA Kings until he was sidelined for the season with a neck injury.

Nagy doesn’t have the best playoff rep but for a team seeking a playmaking forward he could be just the ticket provided he’s made a full recovery from injury, and might not cost as much as the $3.75 million he earned last season.

If it’s experience and leadership on your checking lines, Martin Lapointe, Stephane Yelle, Martin Gelinas and Bryan Smolinski could be yours for reasonable prices.

The depth on defense isn’t much better.

Teppo Numminen is still available but is reportedly close to re-signing with the Buffalo Sabres. If his heart condition which sidelined him for all of last season doesn’t hamper him again he could be a good addition to the Sabres blueline.

Marek Malik, much-maligned by the Rangers faithful the past two years but still a YouTube star for his shootout trick shot goal over Washington three years ago, is also there and perhaps playing in a less demanding city might be just the tonic he needs to rebound.
In goal, there’s Jocelyn Thibault, JS Aubin and nothing else.

So check out Mirtle’s listing, gang, and let me know who else on it you think might be a good addition to your team.