32 Teams, 32 Players: Victor Hedman

His defensive game took a step backwards the past two seasons, but he seems to be bouncing back this season.

Now that the 2024-25 NHL season has arrived we are going to highlight one player on each team that stands out for the season. What kind of player? Well, a player that could make a difference, be an X-factor, be on the verge of a breakout, or just simply be a player under the microscope and needing to have a big season.

Basically — which player do I think is the most fascinating on each team.

We are not going in any particularly order and continue today with Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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After nearly a decade on top of the NHL it was inevitable that the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to experience a decline at some point. It happens to every team in that situation. The salary cap breaks apart your depth (even if some teams like the Lightning always figure out a way to work around it), core players get older and it is just really difficult to keep building a team that consistently great.

The Lightning have hit that little bit of a decline the past couple of years.

They are still good. They have still been a playoff team. But after being a regular in the Eastern Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final, they have lost in the first round of the playoffs two years in a row and have seen their win totals drop from the 50s down to the mid-40s. They have lost key depth and secondary players, while their top core players — Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brayden Point — are all either already well into their 30s, or getting closer to their 30s. They also lost one of their key long-term core players in Steven Stamkos to free agency.

Their ability to maintain a competitive team is going to rely largely on the core players that are still here.

They still have a lot of good news on that front.

Kucherov is playing some of the best hockey of his career.

Point is still a top-line player.

Vasilevskiy took a step backwards in 2023-24, but is off to a strong start this season and is still capable of putting the team on his back for games or extended stretches of games.

Brandon Hagel has turned into a top-line scorer and they brought in Jake Guentzel to help fill the void left behind by Stamkos.

The top-tier players are still very, very good.

But there is one that is going to be a huge wild card for what the Lightning are capable of. That is Hedman, their top defenseman.

Hedman is a future Hall of Famer and one of the best all-around defenders of his era. He has been a sensational player and a core piece of their run of dominance here over the past decade. He is also getting older, and he has also shown some signs of slowing down over the past couple of years. His offensive game is still elite for a defenseman. But can he still impact the game without the puck enough to help the Lightning get to where they want to be?

They are going to need him to given the lack of high quality depth around him on the blue line.

Let’s talk about it.