Saturday: It turned out to be a one-and-done recall for Ylönen as a day after being recalled, the Lightning announced that he has been sent back to Syracuse.
Friday: Ahead of their return to regular season hockey on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning are bringing a depth forward to the NHL level. The Lightning announced they’d recalled forward Jesse Ylönen from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, and he could debut with the team against the Seattle Kraken.
Still, there’s a decent chance Ylönen won’t debut either. Tampa Bay is likely without forwards Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Brandon Hagel, and Anthony Cirelli due to the 4 Nations Face-Off championship contest yesterday so Ylönen may serve as a practice player for a day or two.
Ylönen signed a one-year, $775K contract with the Lightning last offseason after spending the first four years of his North American career in the Montreal Canadiens organization. The Scottsdale, AZ native scored 12 goals and 29 points in 112 games in Montreal including another 34 goals and 85 points in 120 games with their affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
Due to the depth and health of their forward core, Tampa Bay hasn’t had much use for Ylönen at the NHL level this season. This has allowed him plenty of playing time with the Crunch, scoring eight goals and 25 points in 47 games. That offensive production is good for third in scoring on the team putting Ylönen 11 points shy of his career-high output in a lone AHL campaign.
Tampa’s bottom six forward depth is there biggest weakness.
Jesse Ylönen getting a shot on the main roster isn’t a surprise as he’s been doing well in the AHL. Ylönen isn’t replacing anyone despite what the article states as he’s just playing in the bottom six spot that Cam Atkinson has been playing in the past several games before the break.
Ylönen being recalled then sent back within 24 hours seems peculiar but I wonder if Tampa is nearing a trade as sending Ylönen down would open more trade deadline cap space.