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Gage Goncalves

Waiver Wire: 10/6/24

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Today is the major day for the waiver wire as most teams in the NHL are preparing the 23-man rosters for the 2024-25 NHL season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that all players on waivers from yesterday have cleared. The following list is each player placed on waivers this afternoon as reported by PuckPedia.

Boston Bruins

F Patrick Brown
G Brandon Bussi
G Jiri Patera
D Billy Sweezey
F Jeffrey Viel

Buffalo Sabres

D Kale Clague
G James Reimer
F Lukas Rousek

Calgary Flames

G Devin Cooley
F Jakob Pelletier
F Cole Schwindt

Carolina Hurricanes

F Josiah Slavin
D Ty Smith
F Ryan Suzuki

Chicago Blackhawks 

D Isaak Phillips

Detroit Red Wings

F Sheldon Dries
D Justin Holl
D William Lagesson
D Brogan Rafferty
F Joe Snively

Edmonton Oilers

D Josh Brown
F Drake Caggiula
F Raphael Lavoie
G Olivier Rodrigue

Los Angeles Kings

G Pheonix Copley
F Samuel Fagemo
F Jack Studnicka

Nashville Predators

D Marc Del Gaizo

New Jersey Devils

F Shane Bowers
D Nick DeSimone
F Nolan Foote
D Colton White

New York Islanders

D Samuel Bolduc
F Pierre Engvall
F Hudson Fasching
F Liam Foudy
G Marcus Hogberg
D Grant Hutton
F Fredrik Karlstrom
G Jakub Skarek

New York Rangers

D Matthew Robertson

Ottawa Senators

F Adam Gaudette
F Jan Jenik

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Sebastian Aho
F Bokondji Imama

St. Louis Blues

D Corey Schueneman
D Tyler Tucker

Tampa Bay Lightning

F Gage Goncalves
D Steven Santini
F Jesse Ylonen

Toronto Maple Leafs

G Matt Murray
D Marshall Rifai

Utah Hockey Club

G Matt Villalta

Vancouver Canucks

D Erik Brannstrom

Vegas Golden Knights

F Zach Aston-Reese
F Tanner Laczynski
F Jonas Rondbjerg

Washington Capitals

G Hunter Shepard

Winnipeg Jets

F Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Lightning Sign Gage Goncalves To Two-Way Extension

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The Lightning have re-upped forward Gage Goncalves on a two-way deal for 2024-25, the team announced. The deal carries a $775K cap hit and pays him a $100K minors salary with $125K guaranteed, per PuckPedia.

Goncalves, 23, is coming off an All-Star campaign in the minors. The 2020 second-round pick now looks like he’s one of the better playmakers in the Tampa Bay system, notching 45 assists and 58 points in 69 games this year to lead the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch in scoring. He added a goal and five assists in seven playoff games to end his season.

He has a pair of NHL games under his belt, both coming during a brief mid-January call-up this season. The 6’0″ center was shifted to the wing and was used sparingly by head coach Jon Cooper, though, averaging 9:58 per contest. He didn’t manage a shot on goal but did have two hits. The Lightning controlled 52.2% of shot attempts in Goncalves’ brief time on ice at even strength.

Goncalves will more likely than not start next season in Syracuse, but he’ll be a name to watch as training camp progresses in the fall. Even if he doesn’t make the team, he’s on an upward trajectory and should be considered for more NHL recalls in 2024-25.

The British Columbia native was slated for restricted free agency this summer. He wasn’t arbitration-eligible this time around, but he will be when his extension expires in 2025.

Lightning Recall Three Players From AHL

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled a trio of players from the AHL. Defenseman Philippe Myers and Maxwell Crozier were both assigned to the Syracuse Crunch just two days ago, making their transactions effectively paper moves. However, forward Waltteri Merelä was the third recall and has been in the AHL since mid-November.

Tampa Bay had a four-day gap between games and opted to return Myers, Crozier, and forward Gage Goncalves to the AHL where they were able to dress for Syracuse in a 5-4 win over the Utica Comets yesterday. With Tampa Bay back in action on Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild, the Lightning have opted to recall the two defensemen and a different forward in Merelä.

Merelä earned his recall after a two-month stretch with the Crunch. He has dressed in 23 games with Syracuse and has six goals and 10 assists during that time. He has been on a heater as of late with four goals and three assists in his last five games. During an NHL stretch earlier in the season, the 25-year-old was held pointless in 14 games but did provide some physicality in Tampa Bay’s bottom six with 18 hits during his recall.

Merelä is in his first season in North America, after playing in his native Finland during the first five years of his professional hockey career. It will be interesting to see what types of adjustments he has made since going to the AHL and if it can translate to the NHL game. Merelä has also had a few more months of living in North America which may also help his comfort level in this NHL recall.

Lightning Reassign Three To AHL

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The Lightning have reassigned right defensemen Maxwell Crozier, Philippe Myers and left winger Gage Goncalves to AHL Syracuse, vice president and GM Julien BriseBois said today.

With Tampa Bay now in a four-day break until their next game, they’ve opted to send the three recent call-ups to the minors to make them eligible to play in Syracuse’s game tomorrow against Utica. They’ve combined for only seven NHL games this season.

Crozier, 23, was called up from Syracuse on Friday after top-four blueliner Erik Černák was listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury for the second time this month. He made his NHL debut in yesterday’s 5-1 drubbing of the Ducks, recording one blocked shot in 13 minutes of ice time alongside another recent Syracuse call-up, Emil Martinsen Lilleberg. Crozier, a fourth-round pick of the Lightning in 2019, remains waiver-exempt.

This move ends the third recall for Myers, 26, since he was waived and assigned to Syracuse early in October before the season began. He can be on the Lightning roster for nine more days before he’ll need waivers again to return to the minors. A pending UFA with a $1.4MM cap hit this season, Myers was a healthy scratch in three straight and hadn’t played since January 6 against the Bruins. He has a -2 rating and six shots on goal in four games with the Bolts this year, averaging 13:08 per game.

Goncalves also returns to Syracuse, ending his first in-season recall. The 22-year-old played in his first two NHL games after he was summoned from the minors on Thursday, recording a lone shot attempt and six PIMs while averaging 9:58 per game. His unit with Tyler Motte and Conor Sheary was pristine defensively in an extremely small sample size, failing to allow a single expected goal against in just over 13 minutes together, per MoneyPuck. The team’s 2020 second-round pick now looks to build on his team-leading 23 assists and 30 points in 33 games with Syracuse.

Whether all of these three are recalled back to Tampa later this week depends on the health of Černák and winger Tanner Jeannot, who is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury but is eligible to come off injured reserve ahead of their next game, which takes place on January 18 against the Wild. The transactions bring the Lightning’s roster size down to 20, including the injured Černák.

Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Gage Goncalves

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled forward Gage Goncalves from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

Set to turn 23 in just a few days, this recall puts Goncalves in a position to potentially make his NHL debut in the middle of his third full season in Syracuse. Goncalves has been a true developmental success story for a Lightning organization that has seen its crop of impactful forward prospects thin in recent years.

A late second-round pick at the 2020 draft, Goncalves spent the year after he was drafted playing in the WHL. He moved to pro hockey in 2021-22, scoring 17 goals and 32 points for the Crunch in a top-nine role. He moved into the top-six full-time last season and scored 13 goals and 54 points, as well as five points in five postseason games.

So far this season, Goncalves has become the centerpiece offensive player for the Crunch and the team’s first-line center. He’s already up to seven goals and 30 points in 33 games, and he recently was named to his first AHL All-Star game.

At the moment, it’s not immediately clear where Goncalves would slot into the Lightning lineup. The natural center is going to have a tough time displacing one of the team’s entrenched pivots (Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul, and Luke Glendening appear to have their roles locked down) but perhaps he can get his start on the wing in place of a less established winger such as former Crunch teammate Alex Barré-Boulet.

But seeing as forward Tanner Jeannot is out indefinitely due to injury, the Lightning before Goncalves’ recall had just 12 healthy forwards on their active roster. If nothing else, Goncalves’ recall gives the club a spare forward in time for tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils.

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