The Tampa Bay Lightning accelerated the timeline of one of their more intriguing prospects. On Friday, they announced that they signed Benjamin Rautiainen to a three-year entry-level contract. The 20-year-old is now set to start next season in North America with either the Syracuse Crunch or the Tampa Bay Lightning. While this wasn’t entirely unexpected, the Lightning did have to buy out the final season of his contract with Tappara in order to facilitate the deal.
With the signing, Rauti...
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So, the Toronto Maple Leafs may be open to trading the first overall pick if the right deal comes along. Could the Lightning come up with a deal that would pry the pick (and presumably Gavin McKenna) out of their cold Canadian fingers? Probably, but it would involve blowing up the roster, something that Julien BriseBois doesn’t seem quite ready to do just yet.
However, just the speculation of dealing a first overall pick, something that hasn’t been done for quite awhile, brought back memo...
There isn’t going to much change in the Tampa Bay Lightning roster over this summer. At least that’s what Julien BriseBois is leading everyone to believe. For the most part, it’s not a bad idea. The Lightning have been one of the better teams in the league over the last two seasons in a lot of categories that tend to lead to post-season success. Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite worked out for them when it counts, but the only way up is to keep improving.
One area that they can use a boost...
Well, kids, we’re back. Thanks to some travel issues, it wasn’t quite the middle of nowhere experience we had hoped for, but we were still able to disconnect, enjoy a different city, eat too much food, and watch too much television. Now, that the brain has been refreshed a little, it’s time to get back into the swing of things.
It doesn’t appear we missed much when it comes to the Lightning. They signed Scott Sabourin to a one-year, two-way contract , which is nice. PuckPedia lists the te...
Folks, it’s that time of year where your friendly neighborhood managing editor disappears into the woods for a few days to recharge the ol’ mental battery. So the site will go dark until Monday.
We’re heading deep into a national park for some hiking and hammocking. No cell service. No social media. Limited news. So congrats to whichever team wins games in the Conference Finals this weekend.
That being said, if anything major happens you might see a basic information post that I bang...
Jakob Pelletier only appeared in five NHL games this season, his lowest since he made his debut in 2022-23. While that probably wasn’t what he was hoping for when he inked his three-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning last summer, he didn’t let it affect his game. Instead, he put up a career season with the Syracuse Crunch, leading the AHL in points.
In turn, he was named the Fortune Tires “Expect More” AHL Player of the Year. In 63 games, Pelletier put up 28 goals and 49 assists. Five...
Well, there will be no arbitration hearings this summer for the Tampa Bay Lightning (unless, of course, Julien BriseBois pulls off some sort of trade). The Bolts headed into the off-season with one restricted free agent that had arbitration rights, and on Tuesday, they agreed to a contract with that player. Max Groshev is now under contract for another two seasons as he agrees to a two-year, two-way deal with the Lightning.
Groshev was selected in the third round of the 2020 draft and has...
The Tampa Bay Lightning want to sign Darren Raddysh. After all, it’s always easier to predict the future with known commodities. Unfortunately, teams don’t always get what they want, especially in free agency. There are a lot of factors out of their control that can determine where the Bald Eagle decides to nest next season. So, if he does take flight in free agency, can the Lightning bring someone else in to help fill the hole? Maybe.
In fact, there could be a player that is pretty much ...
The Montreal Canadiens sure aren’t doing anything the easy way this spring. For the second series in a row, they blew a chance to clinch a round on home ice in Game 6 as they blew a 3-1 lead on their way to an 8-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Now they’ll have to head into Buffalo tonight and try to win another Game 7 on the road if they want to advance to the Eastern Conference Final.
Meanwhile, Carolina is more than happy to watch the two teams beat each other up as they set a...
Manon Rheaume is a name that is forever etched in Tampa Bay Lightning history. On September 23, 1992 (back when the Tampa Tribune was just 25 cents) she appeared in a pre-season game for the Lightning against the St. Louis Blues, stopping seven of nine shots in one period of play. Her debut marked the first time a woman participated in one of the four major North American sports leagues.
Rheaume would appear in two games for the Atlanta Knights that season, posting a 0-1-1 record with a 6...
A couple of days ago, we brought up the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning had a decision to make on a couple of their prospects. The draft rights to Kaden Pitre and Jan Golicic are set to expire on June 1st. If they aren’t signed to an entry-level deal by then, they are considered unrestricted free agents. Unless! Unless they decide to head to college. Under a new agreement, prospects who have played in Canadian junior hockey are eligible to play for U.S. collegiate programs. The benefit for t...
Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois is doing his best to lower the expectations of fans when it comes to a big free-agent splash. Honestly, based on the talent available, there is no reason for anyone’s expectations to be above mildly intrigued by this class. If all the Lightning do is re-sign Darren Raddysh, an argument can be made that they nabbed one of the top players available.
That’s not fun, though, right? The Lightning have some cash, well, cap space, and some nee...
The Tampa Bay Lightning probably weren’t going to go after Charlie Coyle, the 34-year-old forward who finished the season with Columbus. Now, it looks like no one is going to get the chance. The Columbus Blue Jackets are re-signing Coyle to a six-year deal that carries a $6 million AAV. The new contract will keep him in red, white, and blue until 2032. Welcome to the new salary cap.
Coyle was ranked 7th in The Athletic’s Big Free Agency Board and is solid, middle-of-the-lineup center. He ...
Much like his Tampa Bay Lightning Opening Night teammates, Mitchell Chaffee’s season ended in disappointment. Unlike most of them, Chaffee’s year ended in Syracuse instead of Tampa. A season that started with the chance of a bigger role in the NHL ended 1,200 miles away when the Crunch fell to the Cleveland Monsters in their first-round match-up. As an unrestricted free agent, the 28-year-old will have to decide if his future remains in Tampa, or if there is another franchise that will give hi...
Julien BriseBois’ could have one of the easiest summers of his tenure as Lightning general manager. Sure, he needs to find some depth scoring, make the team a little younger without sacrificing talent, and figure out what to do with Darren Raddysh and Nikita Kucherov, but at least he doesn’t have a lot of RFA’s to deal with. One additional task on his summer to-do list is decide if the Lightning are going to offer entry-level contracts to two of their recent draft picks.
The draft rights ...
Yesterday, we talked about Declan Carlile making the U.S. squad that is heading to the IIHF Men’s Ice Hockey World Championship, and today it’s J.J. Moser’s turn. The Lightning’s best defenseman this year will keep his season going as he will join Team Switzerland for the international tournament that will be played in Zurich and Fribourg. Team Canada also announced their roster , but there will be no Lightning players joining them (as of right now). So, for now, it’s just Moser and Carlile he...
On Friday, the NHL released the names of the three finalists for the Hart Trophy, given to the player that scores the most points that the PHWA deems the “most valuable to his team”. The three finalists are Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, and the greatest player in Tampa Bay Lightning franchise history – Nikita Kucherov. Those names aren’t exactly shocking, and quite frankly seem to be among the finalists year after year. There was some talk that Macklin Celebrini might...
Just over a week from now, international hockey ramps back up as the IIHF Men’s World Championship gets under way in Switzerland. Sixteen countries will compete for the gold, silver, and bronze in the yearly tournament that runs concurrent with the Stanley Cup playoffs. The timing of the tournament prevents it from being a true best-on-best competition, but it usually features a nice blend of NHL players whose teams have exited the postseason, prospects, and top European players.
With the...
With league revenues continuing to operate at a healthy clip, the NHL let their franchises know what their cap for next season is going to look like. As has been speculated for some time, the 2026-27 upper limit will be at $104 million, an increase of $8.5 million over the current ceiling. That also means that the salary cap floor is going up from $70.6 million to $76.9 million.
The @NHL and @NHLPA announced that the Team Payroll Range established for the 2026-27 League Year, pursuant t...
After just a handful shifts in Vancouver on March 19th, Victor Hedman left the eventual 6-2 Tampa Bay Lightning win. He would not return to the line-up for the rest of the season. On Tuesday, he spoke to the assembled media about his absence,
“Obviously, after the first period in Vancouver was kind of the final straw. It’s a thing that’s been going on for a long time, and try to work through it, and find ways to get around it, but I wasn’t able to do that. So, that’s where the decision ca...
Well, it’s been an interesting past few days for the Toronto Maple Leafs. First, they hired a new GM , and the reaction has been, well, mixed. Along with John Chayka they added Mats Sundin as a Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations. Chayka has been out of the league since 2020 after he abruptly stepped down from his role as the Arizona Coyotes general manager. Oh, yeah, and he was suspended by the league for a year as well. As for Sundin, this will be the franchise icon’s first job in hockey manag...
Hello and good morning everyone. It’s Justin, your faithful managing editor of Raw Charge. For the fourth year in a row, we’ve come to this point a little too early in the spring. With the Lightning getting bounced from the first round of the playoffs yet again, we all face an off-season that starts in May instead of June. Which is a bummer. That means I have to come up with a few extra weeks of interesting posts to keep y’all interested and reading.
It was a good season for the website a...
It’s now been roughly three hours since the final horn of the 2025-26 Tampa Bay Lightning season sounded. To this very moment, we’re not exactly sure how the Lightning lost this game. Yes, we grasp the concept that they scored fewer goals than the Canadiens. Still, it was such a well-played game, especially defensively, that we’re still kind of waiting for them to somehow find the equalizer.
The Lightning limited the Montreal Canadiens to nine shots on goal. There was a stretch of roughly...
Game Seven: Montreal Canadiens (3-3) at Tampa Bay Lightning (3-3)
Time: 6:00 PM EST
Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, FL (Lightning are 4-1 in Game 7 Home Games)
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, TNT, truTV, HBOMax, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning
Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize
There is a story, perhaps anecdotal, that occasionally circulates around the internets about George Lucas’ directorial style while shooting the original Sta...
Are you ready?
We said, Arrrrrrrreeeeeee you reeeeeeaddddddddyyyyyy?
Game 7 is here! Well, almost here. We still have to wait 24 hours for the Lightning and Canadiens to engage in their winner-take-all battle. A few years ago, the Lightning engaged in a Game 7 against the New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference Finals. Prior to that game we ranked their previous Game 7s based on a completely arbitrary, poorly-thought-out system. Really, it is what we do best.
Since the publ...