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A Brief History of the 14th Pick in the NHL Draft

On June 22nd, the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to draft a teenager to play hockey. In all likelihood he won’t see NHL ice until after the next presidential election. He won’t change the world; in fact, at best, all the Lightning can hope is that he fills a role.

The Lightning have the 14th overall pick. Never in the history of their franchise have the Tampa Bay Lightning drafted 14th overall. That’s not a bad thing. Not drafting 14th overall means they’ve been good enough to make the playoffs or bad enough to draft higher.

Now that’s not to say they haven’t picked in the middle of the pack before.