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Declan Carlile

Tampa Bay Lightning Re-Assign Declan Carlile

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are shortening their available defense options as the team announced they’ve re-assigned defenseman Declan Carlile to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. It’s unknown at this point if Tampa Bay will recall Carlile tomorrow as a seventh defenseman option or if they’ll continue with six until the roster freezes tomorrow evening.

Carlile was originally recalled on December 14th when defensive peer J.J. Moser was placed on the team’s injured reserve with a lower-body injury. He made his season debut that evening while captain Victor Hedman sat out with a lower-body injury but returned to seventh defensemen duties when Hedman came back on the 17th.

The Hartland, MI native is in his fourth season with the Lightning organization after signing with the team as a collegiate free agent in 2021-22. He suited up in three seasons for Merrimack College of the NCAA scoring 13 goals and 56 points in 83 contests.

Carlile’s scoring has depreciated in the AHL but he’s still proved an effective option for the Crunch. He’s only scored 17 goals and 57 points in 161 AHL contests but has achieved a whopping +41 career rating. He wasn’t as solid defensively during his time in the NCAA’s difficult Hockey East conference but his timing has improved during his transition to the professional scene.

Tampa Bay and Syracuse only have two games during the upcoming roster freeze so it’s up to the organization if they want Carlile to have game reps. He should end up on the NHL roster after the freeze regardless, considering Moser is on a week-to-week basis.

Lightning Recall Declan Carlile, Victor Hedman Likely To Return

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The Lightning announced they’ve recalled defenseman Declan Carlile from AHL Syracuse. He was just sent down to the minors Sunday, along with Steven Santini. As the latter wasn’t recalled today, captain Victor Hedman will probably return tonight against the Blue Jackets after missing two games with a lower-body injury. Head coach Jon Cooper confirmed this to Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times.

Carlile, 24, will play if Hedman can’t go but sit in the press box if he can. The Michigan native is coming off his second career NHL appearance in Saturday’s win over the Kraken, scoring his first NHL goal while logging 11:10 of ice time. An undrafted free agent signing out of Merrimack College in 2022, Carlile is now an alternate captain with Syracuse and has three points with a +1 rating in 21 AHL appearances this season. The “stalwart rush defender,” as described by Elite Prospects, had a career-high 27 points in 61 games with Syracuse last season.

The 6’3″ left-shot defender is in the first season of a two-year, two-way extension he signed in June. He’ll remain waiver-exempt throughout 2024-25 but will require waivers next fall if the Lightning don’t list him on their opening night roster.

Not only did the Bolts manage to win their last two games without Hedman, they did so in rather dominant fashion with an 8-3 victory over Calgary and a 5-1 trouncing of Seattle. Dominant wins and close losses have been the norm for the Lightning this season – they have a division-best +30 goal differential but only a 16-10-2 record, placing them third in the Atlantic based on points percentage (.607).

In his first season as captain following the departure of Steven Stamkos, Hedman, a six-time All-Star, has 25 points and a +4 rating through 26 games. It’s safe to say the soon-to-be 34-year-old is up to his usual tricks, tying for sixth in the league in points by defensemen and ranking fourth in points per game with 0.96. Tampa has dominated possession with him on the ice at even strength, controlling 54.2% of shot attempts and 57.6% of expected goals.

The Bolts’ active roster count stands at 22 after recalling Carlile.

East Notes: Berggren, Stolarz, Carlile, Santini

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Red Wings forward Jonatan Berggren earned the first fine of his NHL career, the league’s Department of Player Safety announced this morning. He was fined $2,148, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for a cross-check against Maple Leafs forward Connor Dewar in last night’s 4-2 win.

Berggren landed a two-minute minor on the play, which occurred immediately after a stoppage in the second period. While engaging with Dewar in front of the Red Wings net after the whistle blew, he landed a cross-check that hit Dewar in the head/neck area.

It’s a minor blip in a tough year for Berggren, who’s still struggling to recapture his rookie-season form. He’s back on the NHL roster full-time after spending most of last season in the minors, but he’s scored just four goals and six points with a -6 rating through 30 contests. He’s averaging 12:27 per game with fringe power-play usage, averaging around a minute per game with the man-advantage unit.

A 2018 second-round pick, Berggren signed a one-year, $825K deal in September after sitting as an RFA for most of the summer. He scored 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games with the Wings in his first NHL look in the 2022-23 campaign.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Maple Leafs moved Anthony Stolarz to injured reserve before tonight’s game against the Sabres, ending a cascade of roster moves over the past few days (per David Alter of The Hockey News). The Vezina Trophy candidate had already missed one game with a lower-body injury he sustained against the Ducks on Dec. 12. He’ll miss at least one more game following the Buffalo tilt but could be eligible to return for a rematch against the Sabres on Dec. 20. The 30-year-old has a sparkling .927 SV% and 2.15 GAA in 17 games this year with a 9-5-2 record. The Leafs’ active roster remains at a full 23 players.
  • The Lightning announced they’ve returned defensemen Declan Carlile and Steven Santini to AHL Syracuse. One or both could be back on the active roster ahead of their next game on Tuesday, depending on the health of captain Victor Hedman, who’s missed the Bolts’ last two games with a lower-body injury. Carlile, 24, scored his first NHL goal in last night’s win over the Kraken, his season debut after getting into his first NHL game last season. The 29-year-old Santini played 11:37 in Thursday’s win over the Flames, his first NHL game in nearly two years, but was a healthy scratch against Seattle.

Lightning Make Three Roster Moves

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The Lightning were busy on the roster move front as they get set to take on Seattle today.  The team announced that defenseman Declan Carlile has been recalled from AHL Syracuse.  He takes the place of J.J. Moser who has landed on injured reserve.  Meanwhile, forward Jack Finley has been activated from season-opening injured reserve and was assigned to the Crunch, per the AHL’s transactions log.

It’s Carlile’s first recall of the season.  The 24-year-old made his NHL debut last year, getting into one game with Tampa Bay and with a strong season in the minors, he received a two-year, two-way deal back in June.  In 2024-25, Carlile has played in 21 games with the Crunch and has been a bit quieter than normal offensively, recording just one goal and two assists.  By comparison, he had 27 points in 61 games with Syracuse last season and 24 points in 69 outings in 2022-23.

As for Moser, he was injured on Thursday against Calgary.  The 24-year-old is in his first season with Tampa Bay after being acquired from Utah at the draft as part of the Mikhail Sergachev deal.  Moser has fit in relatively well with his new team thus far, recording 10 points in 27 games along with 39 blocked shots in just under 20 minutes a night of playing time, ranking him third among Lightning blueliners.  As a result of the placement, he will miss at least the next three games and is eligible to return on December 22nd against Florida.

Finley, meanwhile, did not take part in training camp with the Lightning due to an undisclosed injury that has kept him out until now.  The 22-year-old was a second-round pick back in 2020, going 57th overall.  Finley had a solid sophomore professional season in 2023-24 with the Crunch, notching 13 goals and 19 assists in 52 games.  He’s in the final year of his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer.  Since Finley wasn’t on the NHL roster at all last season, there was no cap hit while he was on SOIR.

Lightning Sign Declan Carlile To Two-Year Extension

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3:15 p.m.: Carlile’s deal carries a $775K base salary in both seasons, which will serve as his cap hit. He’ll earn $100K in AHL salary with a $150K guarantee next season, increasing to a $250K AHL salary with a $350K guarantee in 2025-26.

The Lightning have signed defenseman Declan Carlile to a two-year, two-way extension, per a team announcement Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Carlile, 24, made his NHL debut this season on Jan. 4 against the Wild, posting a +1 rating, one hit and two blocks in 11:27 of ice time. It remains his only major-league appearance to date.

The Bolts picked up the undrafted blue liner as a free agent signing out of Merrimack College in 2022, and his entry-level contract was set to expire this summer. He’s spent nearly all of the past two seasons on assignment to AHL Syracuse, where he finished second in scoring among defensemen this season with 27 points (seven goals, 20 assists) in 61 contests. He also added a goal and four assists in eight playoff games as the Crunch were eliminated in the North Division Finals by the Cleveland Monsters.

He’ll now remain in the Tampa Bay organization through the 2025-26 season. He’ll be a restricted free agent upon expiry, but he’ll be eligible to reach unrestricted free agency early via Group VI status if he plays fewer than 80 career NHL games by the time the extension runs out.

In the likely event that Carlile doesn’t crack the Bolts’ opening night roster, they won’t need to place him on waivers to return him to Syracuse to begin next season. He has one season and 69 NHL games played remaining until he loses his waiver exemption, meaning they would need to waive him to begin 2025-26 if he’s cut from training camp.

Tampa Bay Lightning Make Several Roster Moves

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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.

Lightning Expected To Place Mikhail Sergachev On LTIR, Recall Sean Day, Declan Carlile

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3:00 PM: The Tampa Bay Lightning are expected to move Mikhail Sergachev to long-term injured reserve.

8:30 AM: The Lightning recalled defensemen Sean Day and Declan Carlile from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch on Thursday, a team release states. Today’s transaction comes after the Lightning were forced to play their last game, a 4-2 loss to the Jets on Tuesday, with 13 forwards and five defensemen due to an injury to Erik Černák and no salary cap space available for a corresponding recall.

Thus, the Lightning must have made a corresponding transaction to fit Day and Carlile on the active roster. It’s possible the team has transferred defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from standard injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, which would rule him out of the team’s next five games with a lower-body injury. He’s already missed six games and 15 days with the injury, which he sustained in the first period of a December 19 game against the Blues.

Day and Carlile now come up to the Lightning roster to provide reinforcements to a badly bruised blue line without two of its three best players in Černák and Sergachev. This isn’t new territory for Day, 25, who was recalled three times last month to serve as injury insurance but did not appear in a game. The one-time OHL exceptional status nod is in his fourth season with the Lightning organization and has made 17 appearances with Syracuse this year, recording eight assists and a +8 rating. He has not made an NHL appearance since logging a pair of games with the Lightning in the 2021-22 season.

For the 23-year-old Carlile, though, this is a career-first. Signed by the Lightning as an undrafted free agent after completing his junior season at Merrimack College in 2022, the Michigan-born defender earns his first in-season recall in the final year of his two-year, entry-level deal. It’s an important step en route to him potentially earning a qualifying offer at the end of this season and remaining in the Lightning organization.

The 2020 Hockey East All-Rookie Team nominee does his best work in transition, posting solid zone entry denial metrics at the collegiate and AHL levels. He was a monster two-way minutes-muncher for Syracuse last season, recording 24 points in 69 games throughout his first full pro season while posting a team-high +28 rating. His numbers this season (three goals, six assists, nine points, +8 rating in 31 games) aren’t quite as strong, but there’s still reason to believe NHL upside exists in Carlile’s game.

One of Day or Carlile will likely draw into the lineup in a third-pairing role alongside recent call-up Philippe Myers tonight when the Lightning visit the Wild. Day and Carlile are both left-shot defensemen.

Florida Panthers Sign Zachary Uens

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The Florida Panthers have convinced another college draft pick to turn pro, signing Zachary Uens to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will start in 2022-23 and ends his college career after three years at Merrimack–just like teammate Declan Carlile who signed with the rival Tampa Bay Lightning earlier today. Panthers general manager Bill Zito released a statement on his newest prospect:

Zachary is a dynamic and skilled defenseman who excels at moving the puck. He showcased his competitiveness during his three seasons at Merrimack and we’re looking forward to his continued growth and development taking place within the Panthers organization.

Uens, 20, was the 105th overall pick in 2020, after originally going undrafted in 2019. The young defenseman put up 19 points in 34 games for Merrimack this season, becoming–just like Carlile–a nominee for the Hobey Baker. While he’s not expected to make the Top-Ten Finalists list that will be revealed later today, Uens has taken the next step in his hockey career by joining the Panthers organization.

He’ll likely now head to the Charlotte Checkers on an amateur tryout, where his career at the professional level will continue. Whether he can continue to develop is the question now, as there are still quite a few steps before he’ll be contributing to the Panthers’ blueline. Still, he’s joining a franchise that has proven over the last few years to have an eye for spotting overlooked talent, and perhaps he’ll be the next one to make a big splash after running mostly under the radar to this point.

Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Declan Carlile

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have brought in another undrafted talent, this time on defense. PuckPedia reports that Declan Carlile has signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, one that will kick in for the 2022-23 season. The contract carries a cap hit of $855K, and ends Carlile’s collegiate career after three seasons at Merrimack. Carlile will report to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL on an amateur tryout for the rest of this season.

Carlile, 21, had an interesting junior career before heading to college, one that took him through the OJHL and USHL, playing for various teams. The 6’2″ defenseman turned in an impressive freshman campaign with Merrimack in 2019-20 but like many others, had a year to forget with the COVID-restricted 2020-21 season. He was back to full strength this year and scored seven goals and 24 points in 35 games, earning a Second All-Star Team bid in Hockey East.

Though he would eventually go undrafted, it’s not like Carlile was a completely under-the-radar prospect. He ranked 176th among North American skaters in 2018 and did get drafted into the OHL by the Oshawa Generals, though decided on the NCAA route instead. Now an effective player at both ends of the rink, he’ll jump into a Lightning organization that is known for polishing the rough edges of a prospect and squeezing NHL minutes out of unexpected places. With a contract in hand, he’ll be the next project for the Tampa Bay development staff.

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