Lightning Rumors & News

Bleacher Report "A quick look at this season's NHL stats reveals a number of players under the age of 25 sit among the league's top stars. Several, such as Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid and Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews, established themselves as superstars..." May 09

The Score "The NHL will relax its COVID-19 protocols for playoff teams once 85% of a club's traveling party has been fully vaccinated for two weeks, reports Sportsnet's Chris Johnston. The easements will reportedly allow players to gather socially outside of team facilities, eat and..." May 08

Bleacher Report "When the 2020 NHL free-agent market opened on Oct. 9, we graded the biggest unrestricted free agent signings. As the 2020-21 regular season draws to a close, it's time to revisit our assessments of those deals. Some of the notable signings included defenseman Alex..." May 08

The Score "Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said Friday that his goal is to be ready for the postseason opener. "Everything seems to be trending in that direction," he said, according to NHL.com's Caley Chelios. Stamkos has been out of the..." May 07

The Athletic "Pierre Racicot and Stephane Provost began a ritual on May 11, 1999, when Provost’s youngest daughter, Ashley, was born. Racicot showed up at the Weston, Fla., hospital with a cooler of beer and the best friends and on-ice partners shared lots of laughs, talked excitedly about..." May 07

The Score "Toward the end of a five-on-four power play Monday, Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo curled behind his own net, gathered the puck, and skated out of the zone unbothered. With no opposing players applying pressure, Pietrangelo gently left the puck for a trailing teammate, Alex..." May 06

Bleacher Report "It's an unalienable truth about the postseason: You can't win it if you're not in it. So, for the 16 teams who entered Monday night's games in position to earn entry to the Stanley Cup playoffs, that's the priority. Finish the season strong, clinch your playoff..." May 04

The Athletic "It started as a joke. Frustrated with the on-again, off-again nature of the Ontario Hockey League, and watching a full season pass by, Andrew Perrott, a defenseman with the Owen Sound Attack, joked with his good friends Ryan Humphrey and Ryan Beck. “What if we just ran..." May 04

The Athletic "In the “Star War” film series, stormtroopers are the fictional space marines of the Galactic Empire. They became notorious over the years for their subpar blaster aim, which constantly allowed the heroes of the stories to escape them unharmed. It’s gotten to the point that..." May 04

Pro Hockey Rumors "There has been no shortage of goalie moves out of Tampa lately. After signing young keepers Hugo Alnefelt and Amir Miftakhov to entry-level contracts on Saturday and Sunday respectively, the team has yet another name to their 2021-22 stable...." May 03

NHL.com "The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed goaltender Amir Miftakhov to a three-year, entry-level contract starting with the 2021-22 season, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced. Miftakhov, 6-foot, 172 pounds, played in seven games with Ak Bars Kazan of the..." May 02

NHL.com "The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed goaltender Hugo Alnefelt to a three-year entry level contract beginning with the 2021-22 season, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today. Alnefelt, 19, has appeared in 22 games with HV71 of the SHL in Sweden, posting a..." May 01

The Score "With the 2020-21 regular season heading into crunch time, there are still plenty of key affairs to be determined down the stretch. Teams are jockeying for the final playoff positions, players are battling for individual hardware, and a few of the league's stars look to leave their..." May 01

Bleacher Report "The 2021 NHL draft is scheduled for July 23-24 and will be held virtually for the second straight year. The order of the draft for teams that fail to qualify for the playoffs will be determined via lottery on June 2. Starting this year, the drawings for the lottery were..." May 01

Bleacher Report "The 2020-21 NHL regular season is scheduled to end on May 19. As playoff-bound clubs look ahead at possible first-round opponents and bubble teams jockey for the final postseason berths, those at the bottom of the standings will soon have plenty of time to make their plans..." April 30

Sound Of Hockey "It’s easy and probably overly simplistic to suggest that the Seattle Kraken go all out in signing unrestricted free agents (UFA) at July’s Expansion Draft. If Seattle were to agree to terms with one of those players in the team’s 48-hour exclusive negotiating window, that guy..." April 30

The Athletic "Two years ago, the NHL paid $18.49 million to settle a concussion lawsuit brought by more than 100 former players.  Compared to a previous NFL concussion settlement of more than $1 billion, the consensus was the NHL won. The NHL paid handsomely, however, for the legal counsel..." April 30

The Athletic "The iPad is no longer an alien object on an NHL bench. Since the tablets first started appearing on NHL benches in the spring of the 2016-17 season, they’ve become a common fixture. An assistant coach with his eyes fixed on the screen during a timeout, a player checking..." April 29

Bleacher Report "The Toronto Maple Leafs are headed to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. Toronto clinched its postseason spot Wednesday with a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Here is a look at how Toronto stacks up to the rest of the league in the..." April 29

JFresh "“Victor Hedman is the best defenceman in the NHL” might be one of the most uncontroversial statements in hockey right now. In a fan poll I ran last weekend ranking blueliners, he finished first by far and got 55% of the first place votes. This attitude has extended to the..." April 29

The Score "The NHL All-Star Game will return during the 2021-22 season, TSN's Frank Seravalli reported on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading." Last year's festivities were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no guarantee the All-Star Game would take place..." April 28

The Athletic "NBC has an important legacy with the NHL. When the league missed the entire 2004-05 season due to a work stoppage and the NHL’s overall value and marketability crashed to an all-time low, NBC had just returned as a national television partner. In 2008, the NHL introduced an NBC..." April 28

Sportsnet "Veteran head coach Gerard Gallant is getting back behind a bench, this time on the international stage. Hockey Canada announced Wednesday that Gallant will lead the coaching staff for the upcoming men’s world hockey championships in Riga, Latvia. Mike Kelly and Andre Tourigny..." April 28

The Athletic "About a week after the Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup in September, owner Jeff Vinik and his wife, Penny, went out on a date night in downtown Tampa. The couple sat outside, in masks, in the courtyard at Armature Works near the waterfront and had some wine. It was over a glass of..." April 28

The Score "The 2021 NHL Draft lottery will take place on June 2, TSN's Frank Seravalli reported on Tuesday's edition of "Insider Trading." The league recently announced several changes to the lottery system, with some taking effect immediately. The lottery will be reduced from..." April 27

Bleacher Report "The NHL is looking to avoid travel restrictions during the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but its negotiations with the Canadian government could extend through the opening rounds of the playoffs until June, according to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN. "It's going to..." April 27

Sportsnet "Ron Francis is going to be the GM who makes the most impact this off-season. A little less than three months from now, the Seattle Kraken GM will be choosing one player off each NHL roster, except the exempt Vegas Golden Knights. Every expansion rule remains the same as it was for..." April 27

Bleacher Report "Pity the poor Buffalo Sabres. The Western New York-based franchise marked 50 years since its NHL arrival with one of the most woeful stretches in league history, going from mid-February to late March without a victory and essentially clinching that another Stanley Cup..." April 27

The Score "Turner Sports has picked up the remainder of the NHL's media rights as part of a seven-year deal worth $225 million per season, report The Athletic's Sean Shapiro and Richard Deitsch. NBC - which has aired NHL games for the past 16 years - has reportedly moved on from..." April 26

Bleacher Report "Drafting and developing core talent is among the keys to building and maintaining a successful NHL franchise. Hiring a skilled coach to shape the roster and addressing roster weaknesses via trades or free agency are also crucial factors. In today's salary-cap world, however,..." April 26

The Athletic "The season began with six NHL head coaches entering the final year of their respective deals. As the end of the regular season approaches, five of them are still in that position. Only Jeremy Colliton in Chicago has been extended in that group. So where are we with the five remaining..." April 26

Bleacher Report "Welcome to the homestretch. OK, a spate of coronavirus-prompted rescheduled games have stretched the NHL's remaining schedule to 25 days, but it feels like we're reaching a frenzied final push for playoff berths and beyond. And with a series of important games comes..." April 24

USA Today "The Tampa Bay Lightning won their second Stanley Cup in a bubble environment last fall in Canada and delayed their banner ceremony until fans could return to Amalie Arena. Friday night, the team received the final commemoration of its championship run with the..." April 24

Bleacher Report "The 2021 NHL free-agent market is scheduled to begin at noon ET on July 28. With the 2021 trade deadline now history and the playoffs fast approaching, this is a good opportunity to evaluate the best unrestricted free agents who could be available in this summer's..." April 23

ESPN "At this point, the international soccer Super League might go down as one of the biggest public relations fiascos in the history of sports. When fans, politicians, the media and FIFA all find themselves on the same side of an issue, something has gone terribly..." April 23

Pro Hockey Rumors "The trade deadline may have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any more trades over the courses of the remainder of the league year. The NHL Expansion Draft is right around the corner, with protection lists due on July 17, ahead of the draft on July 21. By that..." April 23

The Score "The NHL and the players' association want a decision from the International Olympic Committee regarding the league's participation in the 2022 winter games by the end of next month, TSN's Frank Seravalli said on Thursday's edition of "Insider..." April 23

Sportsnet "Chandler Romeo is convinced he’s a different hockey player than he was 12 months ago. He just wishes he’d had the chance to prove it. Romeo was one of the many young hockey players who, after riding a wave of highs and lows all year, were crushed by news earlier this week..." April 23

The Athletic "When the Blue Jackets were getting ready for their annual Halloween party a couple years ago, captain Nick Foligno said there was one question brewing among the boys.  “What are the Savards going to do this year?” David Savard and his wife,..." April 22

ESPN "Nicolas Deslauriers rose from the ice, blood trickling down his face from a cut on the bridge of his nose. He had thrown a flurry of right hands at San Jose Sharks forward Kurtis Gabriel before Gabriel threw him to the ice. It was the kind of spirited tussle..." April 22

The Score "The NHL hopes to begin the 2021-22 campaign on Oct. 12, the league said Wednesday during virtual general manager meetings, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun. That would be about a week later than the start of a normal season. The date is contingent on no further delays this..." April 21

Pro Hockey Rumors "The NHL schedule maker has completed another shift, moving things around to try and fit in 56 games for all 31 teams. The Colorado Avalanche were the team that precipitated changes this time thanks to their recent COVID situation, but other teams in the West Division will also be..." April 21

Bardown "Getting named the cover athlete of a sport's main video game is one of the higher honours a player can receive. Forget Wheatie boxes, it's all about getting endorsed by EA these days! Sure, some athletes may have their hesitations about Madden, but Chel's a different story. No..." April 21

Yahoo! Sports "Shortly after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in connection to the killing of George Floyd, the NHL decided to publicly opine on the verdict. In one terse statement, the NHL revealed..." April 21

The Athletic "As it stands, the Seattle Kraken are on track to make their final payment to the NHL by the end of April. Finishing that last bit of business will make them a full-fledged league member that can officially make deals. It just so happens that one of those transactions could be a side..." April 21

The Athletic "Sometime within the next two weeks, Alexey Morozov is finally going to be able to award the Gagarin Cup. Morozov was named the president of the Kontinental Hockey League on Feb. 14, 2020, after the prior president Dmitry Chernyshenko was appointed the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian..." April 21

Bleacher Report "Many of the best defensemen in the NHL this season are in their late-20s or early-30s. It usually takes young blueliners several seasons to fully develop their skills at the big league level. Notable examples include last season's finalists for the James Norris..." April 20

NHL.com ""While we hope the end of the trial offers a chance for healing, we remain committed to actively engaging in the movement for equality and we invite our fans to join us in supporting systemic change." " April 20

The Athletic "After months of trying to get on the ice for a shortened 2020-21 season, the Ontario Hockey League officially canceled its season on Tuesday. “We have worked tirelessly with the Province and the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the past year on different scenarios and..." April 20

ESPN "Patrick Marleau played his 1,768th game Monday night, breaking Gordie Howe's NHL career record. Which naturally led to questions about whether anyone would ever break Marleau's still-increasing games benchmark. "The modern game, the speed, the physicality ......" April 20