- Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev announced on Instagram that he has resumed skating as he works his way back from a leg injury sustained last month. After he underwent surgery, head coach Jon Cooper indicated that the blueliner was at least out for the rest of the regular season and likely a good chunk of the playoffs so Sergachev is still a long way from being able to return but the fact he’s back on the ice already is certainly an encouraging sign for Tampa Bay.
Lightning Rumors
Tanner Jeannot Remains Out, Could Return Next Week
- The Lightning will again be without Tanner Jeannot as they exercise caution in his return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out for most of the last two months, head coach Jon Cooper said (via Chris Krenn of the team’s official site). Indications pointed toward Jeannot returning from his absence earlier this week, but his return has now been delayed twice ahead of a rivalry matchup with the Panthers tonight. Cooper said they’re aiming for Jeannot to return at some point over their West Coast road trip, meaning there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for Tuesday’s matchup in Vegas, either. Jeannot attempted to return from the injury, which he sustained early in January, during a Feb. 13 contest against the Bruins but played less than six minutes before sustaining an aggravation. When in the lineup, the 26-year-old has been limited to six goals and 12 points in 42 games with a -11 rating.
Jeannot With Lightning On Five-Game Road Trip
- Lightning winger Tanner Jeannot is with the team as their road trip gets underway, notes Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has missed the last month with a lower-body injury. Jeannot has had a quiet year, notching six goals and six assists in 42 games although he does have 162 hits to his credit as well. He took part in the morning skate but isn’t expected to suit up against Florida tonight.
Lightning Recall Emil Lilleberg On Emergency Basis
The Lightning have added an extra blueliner to their roster heading into their five-game road trip as the team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg from AHL Syracuse.
It’s the second recall of the season for the 23-year-old who was originally drafted by Arizona in 2021 but signed with Tampa Bay after the Coyotes elected not to sign him. Lilleberg played in 23 games with the Lightning during his first stint with the big club, picking up three assists along with 24 blocks and 69 hits while logging nearly 16 minutes a night of ice time. With the Crunch, meanwhile, Lilleberg has two goals and 11 helpers in 33 contests so far.
CapFriendly notes (Twitter link) that this has been classified as an emergency loan, meaning that it won’t against Tampa Bay’s four post-deadline recalls. It also suggests that the availability of one of their blueliners is in question for tonight’s game against Florida. However, that designation also means that Lilleberg has to be returned to the minors once the emergency situations ends or be converted to a regular recall which would count against their recall limit.
Tanner Jeannot Won't Return Thursday
- Lightning winger Tanner Jeannot remains absent for tonight’s game against the Rangers, head coach Jon Cooper said (via Chris Krenn of the team’s official site). The 26-year-old has only played once since Jan. 6 as he deals with various injuries, and Cooper said Wednesday that he was likely to make his return to the lineup tonight. The team is being extremely cautious with his return, however, not wanting to risk another aggravation of the injury like his last attempted return. As such, he remains on injured reserve and won’t be activated ahead of tonight’s game.
Tampa Bay Lightning Injury Updates
Earlier this morning, beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Krenn reported that forward Tanner Jeannot and defenseman Erik Cernak were trending towards playing tomorrow for the Lightning. Outside of defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, the return of Jeannot and Cernak will give Tampa Bay a completed lineup as they look to hold onto their spot in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Not only will the Lightning be expecting continued health from Jeannot, but they will also be expecting an improvement in his play. Acquired at last year’s trade deadline from the Nashville Predators for a package including a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Jeannot has certainly not lived up to the lofty price that Tampa Bay had to pay.
Showing an ability to be a bruising forward with a legitimate capability to score goals during his time with the Predators, the Lightning have not received a similar version of that player. In now 62 games spent with Tampa Bay, Jeannot has only mustered a mediocre six goals and 12 points over his tenure.
Now confined to a fourth-line role in Florida, Jeannot will need to do much more than throw hits if the Lightning are planning on being successful in this year’s playoffs. There is an obvious need for physicality come playoff time, but depth scoring will become a tremendous necessity for Tampa Bay moving forward.
On the other side of the injury update, Cernak has been out since the team’s recent game against the Philadelphia Flyers with a lower-body injury. In 53 games for the Lightning this year, Cernak has scored one goal and nine points while averaging over 19 minutes of ice time a night.
One Of Martinsen Lilleberg Or Crozier Likely To Be Recalled Soon
- While the Lightning returned defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Maxwell Crozier to the minors yesterday, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times mentions (Twitter link) that one of the two could be recalled as extra depth for their upcoming four-game road trip. Martinsen Lilleberg has played in 23 games with Tampa Bay so far, logging nearly 16 minutes a night while Crozier has made 13 appearances, averaging just shy of 13 minutes per contest.
Lightning Acquire Matt Dumba
The Lightning are nearing a trade to acquire defenseman Matt Dumba from the Coyotes, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. There is no salary retention in the trade, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic, and the Lightning are receiving a 2025 seventh-round pick along with Dumba. Tampa Bay is sending a 2027 fifth-round pick to Arizona as compensation. The Arizona Coyotes have confirmed this trade package.
Dumba sat out of Arizona’s Thursday night game for trade-related reasons, alongside fellow veteran and long-time teammate Jason Zucker. Both players were
dealt ahead of the Deadline, with Arizona reeling in a sixth and seventh round pick for the pair. Dumba was in his first season with the Coyotes, signing a one-year, $3.9MM contract with the team this summer. It was the first move of his 10-year career, with Dumba spending the last nine seasons in a prominent role with the Minnesota Wild. He quickly proved to be an effective offensive-defenseman, with 11 goals and 34 points in the 2016-17 season cementing his spot in Minnesota’s lineup. The Wild sent Alex Tuch to the Vegas Golden Knights in order to guarantee they wouldn’t select Dumba in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, and Dumba awarded them appropriately, recording a career-high 14 goals and 50 points in the subsequent 2017-18 season. He was continuing his high-scoring into the 2018-19 year, with 22 points in 33 games, but lost his season to an upper-body injury in December, kicking off a nagging injury bug that’s since followed Dumba’s career. He’s only played in 70 or more games once since the 2017-18 season – coming last year, when he scored 14 points in 79 games.
Dumba’s string of injuries also represented a severe dip in scoring, with the defenseman failing to score more than seven goals in any of the last six seasons. He should have ample opportunity to fix that in Tampa, with the Lightning’s defense in shambles after losing Mikhail Sergachev to injury. Tampa has been forced to ice Darren Raddysh and Nicklaus Perbix in top-pairing roles and while each player has managed modest scoring – with 21 and 20 points respectively – they ceratinly don’t bring the pedigree that Dumba’s amassed across his 656 career games. The newest Lightning defenseman could quickly earn a top-pairing role next to Victor Hedman, unless Tampa opts to play him down the lineup, with the hopes of making their blue-line depth more cohesive.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Lightning Acquire Anthony Duclair From Sharks
The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired forward Anthony Duclair and a 2025 seventh-round pick from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenseman Jack Thompson and a 2024 third-round draft pick.
This news comes late Thursday night after the Sharks announced that Duclair would sit out of the team’s matchup against the New York Islanders for trade-related reasons. Duclair has been in trade rumors for a while now, even hiring Paul Theofanous as his agent in preparation for a move, per The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, after previously representing himself in contract negotiations. Theofanous represents a handful of other NHL veterans, including Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Kirill Kaprizov.
Duclair has fallen victim to a very low-scoring Sharks roster, scoring at his lowest point-per-game pace since his 2018-19 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets – excluding last year, when Duclair missed all but 20 games after suffering a torn Achille’s tendon. But Duclair has found ways to be productive despite his decreased scoring, still leading San Jose in goals with 16 and ranking fifth on the team in points with 27.
Duclair established himself as a strong goal-scorer as soon as he entered the league, netting 20 goals and 44 points as a rookie in the 2015-16 season. He’s since topped the 20-goal mark two other times, including when he scored a career-high 31 goals and 58 points in 74 games during the 2021-22 season. Duclair hasn’t seen much of the postseason in his 10-year career in the league, though he did manage 11 points in 20 playoff games with the Florida Panthers last season. He’ll need to quickly adjust to summertime hockey, with Tampa vying for one of the two Eastern Conference Wild Cards.
In exchange for their best goal-scorer, San Jose receives 21-year-old defenseman Jack Thompson, a third-round draft pick in the 2020 NHL Draft who received his NHL debut earlier in the year but failed to score a point. Thompson has otherwise spent his season in the AHL, leading Syracuse Crunch defensemen in scoring with 32 points in 46 games. He’s developed a strong ability to work with his forwards, boasting strong puck-handling that allows him to control breakouts and contribute from the offensive blue-line. While his decisions could afford to be a little quicker, Thompson’s strong passing and off-puck movements help him boost his team’s offense from the back-end. He will look to continue adding strength and poise on the defensive side of the puck as he now fights to climb San Jose’s depth chart. Thompson’s right-handedness gives him a slight advantage on some of his new teammates, though, as San Jose is currently carrying just three righties on their NHL lineup
Tampa Bay Is Hanifin's Preferred Destination
On yesterday evening’s rendition of ’Saturday Headlines’ on Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman spoke at length about several rumblings across the league leading up to the trade deadline. One of the major discoveries presented by Friedman is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are the preferred landing spot for Calgary Flames’ defenseman Noah Hanifin and that he would be willing to discuss an extension.
The news comes shortly after a report suggested that the Florida Panthers were making a concerted push for Hanifin, which could simply be some rivalry gamesmanship on their part. At any rate, this report confirms that the Lightning are making a strong effort to fill in the void left by the injury to Mikhail Sergachev, and are not ready to cede the Atlantic Division to other up-and-coming teams in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
An extension in Tampa Bay would be the most difficult part of any hypothetical transaction to acquire Hanifin, due to the Lightning only having around $10.85MM available to them in cap space this offseason, even with the salary cap set to rise to $87.7MM. If Tampa Bay is amicable to signing Hanifin at a deal they believe gives them solid value, General Manager Julien BriseBois may have to make a difficult choice between Hanifin, and pending unrestricted free agent forward Steven Stamkos this summer.