In the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, Tampa Bay defeated the Western Conference champion Calgary Flames in seven games, becoming the southernmost team to win the Stanley Cup. It was Tampa Bay's first-ever appearance in the final.

In 1992, the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning acquired center Brian Bradley in the 1992 NHL Expansion Draft. He would become the team's first star, scoring the team's first preseason goal against the Minnesota North Stars and setting personal highs in goals, assists and points before the All-Star Break. At the end of Tampa Bay's inaugural season, Bradley led the team with a career high 42 goals and 86 points.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, nicknamed the "Big Cat", was the NHL's wins leader in 2018 (39) and again in 2019 (44) when he set a franchise record and won the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender.

In 1998, Wendel Clark signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he earned a spot on the North American All-Star team, and went on to record 3 hat tricks and score 28 goals in 65 games. Despite his success in Tampa Bay, he was dealt at the trade deadline to the Detroit Red Wings, where he finished the 1998-99 season.

6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) goaltender Ben Bishop, nicknamed "Big Ben", has the highest single-season save percentage (.926) in Tampa Bay Lightning history.

The Lightning turned heads in the 1992 pre-season when Olympic silver medalist Manon Rheaume became the first woman to play in an NHL game, which also made her the first woman to play in any of the major professional North American sports leagues. She played for the Lightning against the St. Louis Blues, and stopped seven of nine shots.

An undrafted player, Martin St. Louis was a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup championship team in 2004. In 2013, at age 37, he won his second Art Ross Trophy, becoming the oldest player to lead the NHL in scoring. The Lightning retired his #26 jersey on January 13, 2017, and he was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, his first year of eligibility.

Nikolai "The Bulin Wall" Khabibulin was nearly impossible to score on during his prime. In 2004, he backstopped the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup. Fittingly, the artwork on his mask was based on the classic Pink Floyd album The Wall.

Doug Crossman's best game with the Bolts came at Nassau Coliseum against the New York Islanders on November 7, 1992. The Lightning rode in and took a 6-5 overtime victory from the Isles, with Crossman figuring in all six Lightning goals, scoring three of them himself.

John Tortorella coached the Bolts from 2001 to 2008, led them to a 2004 Stanley Cup championship, and finished with a regular season record of 239-222. Tortorella--who also made head-coaching stops in New York, Vancouver, and Columbus--is the first American-born NHL coach to reach 500 wins, and has twice won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach.