I think Conacher is getting left off because while he could qualify for a depth spot, it likely means he doesn't get the minutes he needs.
Funny that nobody has even mentioned Wilson. He's on the one-way deal...
Oh, yes. The forgotten man.
I hope the camp is cutthroat, but I could see coming out of it:
Pouliot-Stamkos-Purcell
Malone-Lecavalier-St.Louis
Conacher-
Tryout-Crombeen
Tyrell-Hall-Thompson
Pyatt
Hedman-Carle
Brewer-Salo
Mikkelsson-Lee
Bergeron
Lindback
Garon
the tryout guy is the spot up for grabs. The return of Dominic Moore, Wilson, Tyler Johnson, Killorn, maybe even Namestinkov (depending on how everything goes).
A practicality that's going to play a part is that the Lightning TC would be running during the AHL season, and between now and Jan 19th, the Crunch have 4 games. (Jan 9th, 11th, 12th, and 18th)
That's pretty inconvienient as they'll be playing during what's believed to be start of camp (Jan 9-11)
And given that both seasons with Guy Boucher have started off slow, due to the beginning of the season functioning as an extended training camp, we may be a world of hurt. There simply aren't the games to be messing around.
I'm on board with bringing back Moore, just to play it safe. You know what you're going to get out of him at the NHL level.
It also hedges against anyone else flopping, as the impact of that should be lessened by having Moore, who makes his linemates better. Failing Moore, maybe Wilson.
The way to look at this team isn't the same as when we came out of the last lockout. Missing a whole season actually made things easier. You've got to look at the 94-95 season and how the winning rosters were constructed then. SFY likes to take his time with making trades. This is not the season for that.
Of course, I have faith in SFY as his DRWs were the best team in that lockout shortened season, although they lost to NJ in the final.