The Tampa Bay Lightning have claimed a towering forward off the waiver wire. According to an announcement from his now-former team, the Utah Mammoth, Curtis Douglas is headed to Florida.
It’s readily apparent that the Lightning had one thing in mind by claiming Douglas. The former 106th overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft stands at 6’9″, 243lbs, being one of the biggest forwards in the AHL.
Despite being drafted by the Dallas Stars, Douglas’ professional career began with the Ottawa Senators’ AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, on an amateur tryout agreement to end the 2020-21 campaign. After scoring one goal and four points in 11 games, he signed a two-year, $1.675MM entry-level deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs the following offseason.
Since then, the only other time he’s been mentioned in the news before today is when the Maple Leafs traded him to the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes toward the beginning of the 2022-23 season for defenseman Conor Timmins.
Including his brief stint with the baby Senators, Douglas has played in parts of five AHL seasons with the Toronto Marlies and Tucson Roadrunners, scoring 37 goals and 97 points in 261 games. In an oddly impressive statistic, Douglas has accrued 508 PIMs over that stretch, averaging out to two minor penalties a game, or one major penalty every three games.
Curtis Douglas is a towering 6’9,” 243 pound player who plays a physical game as he had 117 PIM in the AHL. He’s a bottom-six guy, I’m suspecting he’s going to start out in the AHL and Tampa will figure if he can be a potential call-up if and when needed. It’s an interesting pickup.
Tampa can’t sign anymore players as it stands as they’ve currently maxed out their 50 league contract limitation with the Douglas pickup.
Tampa would have to waive him again to put him in the AHL, and Utah would probably claim him back in that case
Doesn’t he have clear waivers to go to the American hockey league?
Yes, he would have to clear waivers but he got claimed in waivers. I’m not sure but since he was claimed on waivers by the team they can place him directly where they want him without going through the waiver wire again. Now, if they bring him up and they need to send him down then yes, he would have to go through waivers again.
@FeeltheThunder – Douglas has to be on Tampa’s opening night roster. They can’t send him to AHL Syracuse without waiving him again. Only if Utah re-claims him on waivers can he be sent directly to the minors without needing to go through them again.
Okay, thanks Josh for the clarification.
Big body just in time for the Nov 15 Panthers rematch, obviously.