In case anybody around here hasn't heard about this, the Tampa Bay Lightning are not leaving much to the imagination about who they might select with the No. 1 pick in the forthcoming draft. Steven Stamkos has been considered pretty much a lock to go No. 1 since long before Tampa Bay won the right to select him, but now it would appear to be pretty close to official.

The Kings pick second and the Thrashers third, with just about every draft projection I've seen having a group of three or four defensemen being the guys slotting in behind Stamkos. L.A. took Thomas Hickey last year, but the Kings could add Drew Doughty (Karl Alzner's partner at the WJC), Alex Pietrangelo or Zach Bogosian to Hickey and Jack Johnson to potentially have a dynamite defense corps in front of Jonathan Bernier in a few years. Maybe the Kings would waiver on taking a third defensemen in the top 5 in four years, but the Thrashers should be happy to collect another high-end blueliner to put with Tobias Enstrom in the future, because Atlanta is clearly lacking in the back end.

- Corey Masisak