Tampa Bay Lightning: What to expect from Julien BriseBois

Steve Yzerman has stepped down as the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager. Longtime assistant GM Julien BriseBois is replacing him. What can Lightning fans expect?

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the Tampa Bay Lightning got a huge surprise. General Manager Steve Yzerman, arguably one of the best minds in the NHL, announced he is stepping down from his current role. While he will remain with the Lightning in a senior advisory role for the time being, his contract is over after next season.

Fans were taken by surprise. After all, Yzerman has turned the Lightning into perennial contenders. They’ve been to three of the past four Eastern Conference Finals. The Lightning won one of those (2014-15) and lost to the Stanley Cup Champions in seven games in the other two (2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins and 2017-18 Washington Capitals). Yzerman’s played a significant role in that.

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Replacing him will be his longtime assistant Julien BriseBois. He’s been with the Lightning since the 2010-11 season. BriseBois has also been the general manager for the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa’s AHL team, during that span.

He has a lot of front office experience, serving as the Director of Hockey Operations and VP of Hockey Operations for the Montreal Canadiens while also serving as the Hamilton Bulldogs’ general manager during his time as the latter.

Experience

One skill which is critical for general managers is communicating well with their staff. BriseBois has a ton of front office experience and he has it in different positions. This should serve him well. BriseBois knows how to run a team.

An underrated reason for the success of the Lightning since the 2010-11 season has been their AHL team. Whoever it has been, they’ve gotten guys ready for Tampa. Every year, it feels like the Lightning have someone come out of nowhere to produce in the NHL. As the guy in charge of their AHL team, BriseBois deserves credit for this.

Not Losing A Step

BriseBois has been Yzerman’s right-hand man since arriving. He trusts him a lot and it’s easy to see why. BriseBois has a brilliant mind and a unique amount of experience. The Lightning shouldn’t lose much by going from Yzerman to him. They’ve got an impressive front office. Someone will likely be brought in to give BriseBois an additional assistant general manager.

Whenever a team had a GM opening, you usually heard his name mentioned as a candidate. The Lightning made it a point to keep BriseBois around and that probably wasn’t very easy to do. This further proves how much faith they have in him. It also proves how highly teams around the league think of BriseBois.

Questions

That said, BriseBois will have to prove a few things. First of all, Yzerman’s strength was signing players to reasonable contracts. Florida’s lack of a personal income tax clearly played a role in this. But how much of it was Pat Verbeek? The Lightning are going to have some tough contracts to sign in the next few years and Yzerman likely won’t be around to help out.

Also, can BriseBois balance contending with the Lightning and maintaining their organizational depth? That’s a very delicate balance. The Lightning should probably go all-in, but how much more all-in can they get?

BriseBois has been set up for success by Yzerman. The Lighting are in very good shape and are perennial contenders. It will be up to BriseBois to get the hardest part done – take them from perennial contenders to Stanley Cup champions.