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Maxwell Crozier

Atlantic Notes: Maple Leafs, McCue, Vasilevskiy, Crozier

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Last season, the tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll gave the Maple Leafs a strong game-to-game presence between the pipes.  However, they’ve yet to both dress in the same game so far this season.  In his latest column for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos argues that getting both healthy at the same time is crucial, though not just for the obvious reason of having two starting-level goaltenders at their disposal.  As a result of making several buyer moves in recent years, Toronto’s trade capital in terms of prospects has been diminished.  A return to health for Stolarz to join Woll could make it more palatable for them to move one of Dennis Hildeby or Artur Akhtyamov.  At a time when a lot of teams appear to be looking for extra goalie depth, having one of them as a movable trade chip could improve their fortunes on the trade front.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Still with the Maple Leafs, prospect Sam McCue is on the move in the OHL as Ottawa announced that they’ve acquired him from Brantford in exchange for a pair of draft picks. Toronto selected the 20-year-old in the seventh round in 2024 and he’s playing in his final major junior season.  McCue has 10 goals and six assists in 25 games so far this season and will probably need to pick up the offensive pace if he wants to secure an entry-level deal with the Leafs by the beginning of June.
  • Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is unavailable for tonight’s game which resulted in today’s recall of Brandon Halverson. However, the veteran’s absence will be a short one as Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times relays (Twitter link) that the expectation is that Vasilevskiy will be available to start their next game on Saturday.  The 31-year-old is having yet another strong season, posting a 2.31 GAA and a .916 SV% through his first 19 starts.
  • Also with the Lightning, they welcomed back defenseman Maxwell Crozier as Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider relayed (Twitter link) that the blueliner was activated off IR. The 25-year-old missed the last eight games due to an undisclosed injury.  Crozier has three assists in eight games with Tampa Bay so far this season.  With the activation, the Lightning are back to a full 23-player roster.

Tampa Bay Lightning Make Multiple Roster Moves

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There are hardly any teams currently dealing with as many injuries as the Tampa Bay Lightning. Needing additional depth for their contest tonight against the New Jersey Devils, the Lightning announced they’ve recalled defenseman Declan Carlile and Steven Santini from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.

Additionally, Tampa Bay has swapped two players around its injured reserve, albeit an expected one. Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reports that Tampa Bay has activated forward Dominic James from the injured reserve and placed defenseman Maxwell Crozier on it. 

After all the movement on the active roster, it leaves Tampa Bay with 13 forwards and eight defensemen available for tonight’s contest. It’s expected that one of Carlile or Santini will suit up tonight, though there’s no guarantee either defenseman will participate.

If Carlile plays, it’ll be his fifth career performance in the NHL. The former undrafted collegiate free agent is in his fifth season with the Lightning organization and has primarily played for the Crunch since the 2021-22 season.

For the first few years of his career, Carlile had been expected to put up between 20 and 30 points in the AHL with a relatively high +/-. However, this season, his offensive game has taken a significant jump, scoring two goals and 10 points in 15 games. He’s the highest-scoring defenseman on the team by a four-point margin and the fifth-highest scorer overall.

Meanwhile, Santini has far more NHL experience from his playing days, although it has been limited in recent years. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign, Santini has appeared in 10 NHL games. Before then, from 2016 to 2019, Santini had suited up in 113 regular-season contests for the New Jersey Devils. He’s spent the last two years in the Lightning organization, scoring six goals and 21 points in 71 games.

Lightning To Activate Maxwell Crozier From Injured Reserve

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The Lightning are activating Maxwell Crozier from injured reserve before tonight’s game against the Avalanche, head coach Jon Cooper told the team’s beat (including the team’s own Gabby Shirley). There’s an open roster spot, so no corresponding transaction will come.

A strong training camp from Crozier, plus an injured reserve placement for Nick Paul, created the space for him to start the year on the opening night roster for the first time. The 2019 fourth-round pick was a standout in AHL Syracuse last season. He was an alternate captain in just his second full professional season and he was the team’s top all-around defender, posting a 9-25–34 scoring line and a +16 rating in 52 outings. Over the prior two seasons, he’d also held his own with two assists, a -2 rating, and 27 hits in 18 NHL games in bottom-pairing deployment.

Not only did Crozier make the opening night roster, he was in the lineup for the Bolts’ first four games. The 25-year-old righty looked like a potential depth breakout piece, rattling off three assists and a +2 rating in limited minutes before he left the fourth game early against the Capitals with an undisclosed injury on Oct. 14. He was labeled week-to-week but started skating again last week.

He was deployed alongside Emil Martinsen Lilleberg to start. The duo didn’t fare particularly well defensively under the hood, only controlling 44.8% of expected goals and posting the third-highest xGA/60 out of the nine pairings the Lightning have used for over 10 minutes this season, per MoneyPuck. That might lead to Crozier getting different looks now that he’s healthy again.

Lightning Place Maxwell Crozier On IR, Recall Scott Sabourin

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed rookie defenseman Maxwell Crozier on injured reserve per Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. The move is retroactive to Tuesday, which will force Crozier out of the lineup for at least two days. Tampa Bay then used the vacant roster spot to recall Scott Sabourin from the minor leagues.

Crozier is bearing through an undisclosed injury after leaving the team’s Tuesday matchup against the Washington Capitals in the first period. He only played 4:27 in total ice time. The injury was a hit of bad luck after the top Bolts rookie scored three points in his last two games. He was the productive motor of Tampa Bay’s bottom pair, next to third-year-pro Emil Martinsen Lilleberg.

Crozier broke camp with the Lightning after posting 34 points and 75 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games last season. He entered this season with 18 games of NHL experience under his belt, though only two assists to go with it. That production set a low bar that Crozier has well cleared to start the season, making his injury timeline worth following closely.

Tampa Bay will use Crozier’s IR placement to award Sabourin for a strong start in the AHL. He scored a point in each of the Syracuse Crunch’s two games to start the season. It’s a quick start, after Sabourin posted 25 points and 111 penalty minutes with the San Jose Barracuda last season. He has played in 25 NHL games over the course of his career – stretched across stints with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and San Jose Sharks. He’s scored 15 points in those appearances. Now, Sabourin could suit up for a fourth club, and offer Tamp a hotter stick than rookie Curtis Douglas, who is without a point through three games so far.

East Notes: Tuch, Crozier, Othmann

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There was a heavy expectation heading into the 2025-26 season that the Buffalo Sabres would get an extension done with forward Alex Tuch. Before the campaign, there was no agreed-upon extension, and Tuch’s future is more uncertain following a disappointing start by the Sabres. In a recent interview with David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Brian Bartlett, Tuch’s agent, admitted that extension talks had begun to stall.

Bartlett acknowledged that the Sabres wanted to keep Tuch after this season, and Tuch expressed interest in staying as well. However, Bartlett shared further, ” I think we’ve all kind of decided that it’s best to just try to get some wins here. Alex is a leader on that team, both play-wise and kind of, you know, in the room. So he wants to focus on that, not have it a distraction, so we’ve wanted to just kind of let everyone know, like, we’re just gonna put this on the backburner for a little bit – doesn’t mean that we’re closing the door to signing, doesn’t mean anything, just means that, you know, for the time period, he’s gotta try to help the Buffalo Sabres win games.”

Despite earning a win last night, the Sabres haven’t gotten off on the right foot to stave off the 15th year of their playoff drought. If Tuch wants to play on a legitimate contender, few would condemn him for seeking an opportunity outside of Buffalo. Still, there’s plenty of time to correct the disappointing start, and Tuch may feel more inclined to revisit talks if the Sabres can collect more wins.

Additional notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without defenseman Maxwell Crozier for the next few games. After leaving the team’s recent game against the Washington Capitals in the first period, Benjamin Pierce, the team’s manager of media relations, passed along a note from head coach Jon Cooper confirming that he would miss the next few games and potentially the next few weeks. Regardless, the Lightning have a readily available in-house candidate to replace Crozier in Darren Raddysh, who’s scored one goal and three points in two games this year.
  • Earlier, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman asserted that the New York Rangers were listening to offers for forward prospect Brennan Othmann. Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic provided additional context in a new article, indicating that the writing was on the wall during training camp. Mercogliano confirmed that Othmann hasn’t made a formal trade request, but agrees that a fresh start would be best. He noted that the Rangers were wholly underwhelmed by Othmann’s four preseason performances and sent him down nearly one week before the beginning of the season.

Lightning Sign Maxwell Crozier To Three-Year Contract

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Maxwell Crozier to a three-year, $2.325MM contract. The deal carries a league-minimum, $775K cap hit. It will be a two-way contract in the first year, then convert to a one-way deal for the final two years. Crozier was set to become a restricted-free agent this summer. With a new deal in place, Tampa Bay now has four remaining players headed for free agency.

Crozier spent the majority of his season with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. His reputation for always being involved grew louder over the course of the year as he earned career-highs across the board. He recorded nine goals, 25 assists, and 34 points in 52 games. He also added 75 penalty minutes and a plus-16. All five marks beat out his rookie totals from last year, when he managed 21 points, 43 penalty minutes, and a plus-one in 49 games.

Tampa Bay recalled Crozier for the first 13 games of his NHL career throughout the 2023-24 regular season. His performances were modest – headlined by two assists, seven penalty minutes, and a minus-two. The Lightning must have seen a pro-ready through that stat line, and turned to Crozier for three games of a fill-in role during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He earned an additional five NHL appearances this year, but managed no changes to his stat line.

Crozier was originally drafted 120th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. He spent four seasons at Providence College after his draft selection, and totaled 71 points in 119 collegiate games. He’s also managed 58 points, 124 penalty minutes, and a plus-18 through 110 games in the AHL. Crozier is a tall, rangy defender who engages opponents with his stick or body checks; and makes smart passes once he pokes the puck loose. The Lightning will give him a chance to earn a full-time NHL-role over the next three seasons, on a deal that comes at little-to-no risk.

Lightning Assign Two To AHL

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Following their elimination at the hands of the Panthers on Wednesday, the Lightning have extended the seasons for two of their younger players for at least one more day.  The team announced that defenseman Maxwell Crozier and center Conor Geekie have been assigned to AHL Syracuse.

Crozier’s stint with the big club was short-lived as he was only recalled yesterday to serve as extra depth for the final game of the series.  He only played in five regular season games with Tampa Bay this year after suiting up 13 times (plus three playoff contests) last season for them.  The 25-year-old had 34 points in 52 games with the Crunch this season and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer.

As for Geekie, the 20-year-old was a key part of the return for Mikhail Sergachev in the trade with Utah back at the draft.  The 11th overall pick in 2022, Geekie spent most of the year with Tampa Bay but in a fairly limited role as he logged just over 12 minutes a night of ice time while chipping in with eight goals and six assists.  That earned him a midseason assignment to the Crunch where he was much more impactful offensively, tallying 11 goals and nine helpers in 24 games.  Geekie was brought back up late in the year and got into four postseason contests where he had one assist in nearly identical ice time compared to the regular season.

Both players are in uniform tonight for the Crunch against Rochester.  It’s a must-win game for Syracuse as they’re down two games to none in their best-of-five second-round series.

Lightning Recall Maxwell Crozier

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The Lightning announced they’ve recalled defenseman Maxwell Crozier from AHL Syracuse ahead of tonight’s must-win Game 5 against the Panthers.

While a single-player recall is eye-popping this time of year, especially after captain Victor Hedman briefly left Monday’s Game 4 loss for repairs, Tampa doesn’t anticipate having any injuries that require inserting Crozier into the lineup. Head coach Jon Cooper said Hedman’s (and banged-up center Anthony Cirelli’s) health “is status quo,” and they’re both in tonight as they try to avoid losing to Florida in five games in the first round in back-to-back years (via the team’s Benjamin Pierce).

Instead, Crozier’s inclusion on the roster comes as simple insurance with Syracuse on the brink of elimination in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Tampa has dressed seven defensemen for the majority of the series, leaving them without any press box options.

The 25-year-old got just five games of NHL action this season, averaging 16:41 per game with six blocks and 11 hits across a January call-up. In the slim chance he’s needed, it wouldn’t be his first Stanley Cup rodeo. The Calgary native drew into three of the Lightning’s five contests against the Panthers last year, posting a minus-one rating in bottom-pairing minutes.

A pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights, Crozier finished second among Syracuse defensemen in scoring and fourth overall on the team this season with a 9-25–34 line in 52 games. His +16 rating led the team. A 2019 fourth-round pick, he’s posted good numbers from the get-go in Syracuse after turning pro out of Providence College in 2023 and has likely worked his way into consideration for an opening night roster spot in Tampa next fall if he re-signs.

Paper Transactions: 1/22/25

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According to a team announcement, the Colorado Avalanche have recalled forwards Ivan Ivan and Jere Innala to the NHL roster. The transaction marks the 10th time this year Ivan has been promoted to the Avalanche and the fifth time for Innala.

Even though he’s been formally reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, nine times, Ivan has only suited up in two AHL contests this season. Most of his playing time has come with the Avalanche, where he’s scored five goals and eight points in 39 games, averaging 10:09 of ice time per game. Ivan hasn’t been without value for the Avalanche this season, sitting 13th out of all 25 forwards used by Colorado this season in CorsiFor% (51.6%) while starting 67.3% of his shifts in the defensive zone.

The same can’t be said for Innala. He’s been a physical presence in Colorado’s bottom six this season over 14 games but has yet to tally his first NHL point. He ranks 23rd of all forwards used in CorsiFor% with a 45.1% mark. Innala will likely have a full-time role in the AHL carved out by the end of the season should the Avalanche add to their forward depth at the trade deadline.

Additional paper transactions:

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning have again reassigned defenseman Maxwell Crozier to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Crozier has been filling in for the injured Erik Černák, managing a +1 rating in the last three games while averaging 17:06 of ice time per game. Remarkably, thanks to a consistently healthy roster, Crozier is only the eighth defenseman to play more than two games for the Lightning this season.
  • Finishing off the list of paper transactions are the Dallas Stars, who have reassigned forward Matěj Blümel to their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. It is the fifth time Blümel has been reassigned to AHL Texas in a season where he’s scored one goal in seven NHL contests. Since he’ll be 25 and won’t hit 80 career games by the end of the season, Blümel will become a ’Group 6’ unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.

Paper Transactions: 1/20/25

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Instead of recalling the recently reassigned Guillaume Brisebois, the Vancouver Canucks have gone in another direction. The Canucks announced they’ve recalled Mark Friedman from their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.

Vancouver is no longer dealing with any injuries to their defensive core indicating there were ulterior motives for Friedman’s call-up. It may be that the Canucks preferred a right-handed shot defenseman or one with more NHL experience to serve as their eighth defenseman.

The likely reason is that Brisebois would require waivers for another reassignment should he have spent eight more days on Vancouver’s roster whereas Friedman is still 13 days away. Friedman has been better in the AHL this year compared to Brisebois scoring six points in 20 games compared to the latter’s one point in 21 games.

Other paper transactions from around the league:

  • On just about every off day for the Dallas Stars this year, the organization has made a roster move and today was no different. Dallas announced they’ve reassigned forwards Matěj Blümel and Justin Hryckowian to their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. Both forwards have frequently been taxi players for the Stars this season with the former scoring one goal and six games and the latter scoring one goal in five games. One or both of them are expected back on the roster tomorrow when Dallas squares off against the Carolina Hurricanes.
  • As it turns out, defenseman Erik Černák isn’t expected back in the lineup tonight for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In his absence, the team has opted to recall defenseman Maxwell Crozier who recently filled in for Černák in Tampa Bay’s last game. Crozier skated in 14:25 of the Lightning’s recent win against the Detroit Red Wings but was reassigned yesterday for cap-related motivations.
  • Since forward Valeri Nichushkin has yet to return to the Colorado Avalanche lineup, the team had to recall another forward before today’s game against the Minnesota Wild. The team announced they had recalled forward Jere Innala, who had recently been reassigned on Saturday. He hardly played in today’s contest, going scoreless over 4:12 albeit landing one hit.

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