01/08/24: The Lightning have now reassigned Thompson back to the Crunch. The 21-year-old made his NHL debut in Tampa’s 7-3 loss against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Skating as the Lightning’s seventh defenseman, Thompson received 11:39 time-on-ice in which he managed one shot on goal, two hits, and had a 32.59% expected goals share when on the ice according to Natural Stat Trick.
01/05/24: The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Jack Thompson have been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, while Sean Day and Declan Carlile have been sent down.
Day and Carlile were recalled yesterday, in the aftermath of Mikhail Sergachev’s placement on long-term injured reserve. As has been a trend for Day, his recall allowed him to serve as a healthy-scratched spare blueliner, but he did not dress for the Lightning’s game. Day has been up and down from the Lightning roster frequently over the last few weeks, and the last game he’s actually played in was on December 20th.
Carlile, 23, actually did get to play and made his NHL debut last night. He skated in almost 11-and-a-half minutes of ice time in yesterday’s game, and while he didn’t end up scoring his first NHL point he did manage two blocked shots, a hit, and a plus-one rating.
Replacing Carlile on the roster (and potentially on Tampa Bay’s third pairing) is 21-year-old Thompson, a right-shot 2020 third-round pick. Thompson is in the midst of his sophomore pro campaign and has had a strong start to the year in Syracuse, scoring 20 points in 31 games. He could make his NHL debut for Tampa tomorrow in Boston.
Although he’s a left-shot blueliner and Carlile’s spot in the lineup was on the right side, there’s a chance that Martinsen Lilleberg makes his NHL debut tomorrow instead of Thompson. The 22-year-old Norwegian defenseman was a 2021 fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes who spent the last two years of his career with IK Oskarshamn in the SHL.
The Lightning signed him this offseason and he’s now playing his first career season in North America. He has 12 points in 31 games alongside 45 penalty minutes for the Crunch.