Larry Lowballing on Stephenson.

Who replaces them after their 9 games?

Not hating just genuinely curious

Tampa declines

TB doesn't consider that

Considering TB is playing a lot of their rookies right now and is probably trying to gauge the pipeline, Thompson is probably in TB's long-term plans.

Gotta decline here.

Gush and then bords w/ Stephenson sliding to 3c

Don’t think he is fit for a bottom pairing role and aren’t you set on your right side for a long time?

Far from true, at least with the right side being set. The plan for Thompson is to probably slot him into a top 4 role next to Hedman or Sergachev, pushing out most likely Raddysh to be a 7th D-man and Perbix playing 3RD. Our right side is by far the weakest with Cernak's injury issues, and Raddysh and Perbix both being inconsistent at times, though Perbix is the more defensively responsible of the two as of late.
Thompson would be a home grown product and one that at the age of 22 (next season) has the chance to develop from a young age into an effective top-4 guy, something we definitely need going forward with Hedman getting older.