The Lightning made a roster move early this morning, announcing that they’ve assigned center Conor Geekie back to AHL Syracuse. With the cap savings from that assignment, they now have enough money to activate forward Nick Paul off LTIR; head coach Jon Cooper confirmed to reporters, including team reporter Benjamin Pierce (Twitter link), that Paul will be activated before tonight’s game against Carolina.
Paul has missed the last 11 games with a lower-body injury sustained at the beginning of February against Boston. The 30-year-old has been a strong secondary scorer since joining Tampa Bay back in 22 but his playing time and numbers have taken a dip this season. Limited to just 34 games due to multiple injuries, Paul has notched just six goals and six assists so far in 2025-26 although he’s winning a career-high 54.4% of his faceoffs. He’ll likely slot in on either the third or fourth line; the latter if he simply slides into Geekie’s spot in the lineup.
As for Geekie, this stint with the big club ends at five games, bringing his season total to 11 after he broke camp with the Lightning back in the fall. He’s still looking for his first NHL goal of the campaign and has been limited to just two assists so far after notching 14 points in 52 games in Tampa Bay last season. The team has prioritized giving the 21-year-old big minutes in the minors with the Crunch over playing in a depth role which certainly makes sense from a development standpoint. Geekie has fared quite well in that situation, tallying 51 points in 47 games with Syracuse. He’ll return there and help the Crunch as they continue to battle for the top spot in the AHL’s North Division.
With Paul’s pending activation, Tampa Bay is down to two players on LTIR, rookie center Dominic James and freshman defenseman Maxwell Crozier.
It’s good to have Nick Paul back and Erik Cernak as well. Paul has had a rough season with injuries unfortunately, hopefully, that’s now behind him and can play the rest of the season and go strong into the playoffs. He’s an important depth piece on the ice and brings a lot off the ice for the team.
For the first time this season, Tampa will have all their starters playing which is unreal that it’s taken this long. But hopefully, it’s a sign of good things to come.