Lightning Activate Ryan McDonagh From Injured Reserve
4:12 p.m.: While not a necessity to activate McDonagh, the Bolts still took his return as motivation to reassign defenseman Steven Santini to Syracuse, per a team announcement. The 30-year-old was recalled Monday in the wake of Lilleberg’s injury and skated 12 minutes against the Panthers that evening, posting zeroes across the board. Santini has now appeared in eight games for the Bolts this season between call-ups, recording one assist and a respectable 50.4% share of shot attempts at even strength.
1:05 p.m.: Two-time Stanley Cup champion Ryan McDonagh has been activated from injured reserve and will be in the Lightning’s lineup on Thursday evening versus the Kings, Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reports. Tampa had an open roster spot after reassigning Scott Sabourin to AHL Syracuse earlier in the week.
McDonagh, who has missed the past 18 games due to an undisclosed injury, had his no-contact designation removed during Monday’s practice as part of his ramp-up toward a return. Since he’s been a full participant for a few days, he shouldn’t have a meaningful minutes restriction as he slots back into the lineup.
The 36-year-old defenseman has been limited to 15 games this season. The activation ends the ever-durable rearguard’s most extended absence of his 16-year NHL career. After finishing 14th in Norris Trophy voting last season with a league-high +43 rating, he’s continued to play at a top-pairing level in 2025-26 while technically still serving behind Victor Hedman as the second-pairing lefty on Tampa’s depth chart. Averaging north of 20 minutes per game for the 15th straight year, he recorded six points and a +1 rating while serving as the Bolts’ top penalty killer.
He’s the second household name returning to Tampa’s lineup for tonight’s game. Starting netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was activated from IR earlier in the week after a seven-game absence.
McDonagh’s insertion into the lineup is crucial at a time when the Bolts still have three regular defenders – Hedman, Erik Černák, and Emil Martinsen Lilleberg – on IR. The pileup of injuries had finally seemed to have caught up with the Lightning, who are 2-5-1 in December and have slipped to third in the Atlantic Division, although they’re still first by points percentage (.591).
Hagel Listed As Day-To-Day, Could Play Thursday
- Lightning winger Brandon Hagel is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and hasn’t been ruled out of Thursday’s game against Los Angeles, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Hagel was injured on a hit from Seth Jones on Monday, resulting in him leaving the game. He has been a key contributor for Tampa Bay this season, notching 18 goals and 13 assists in 32 games.
Lightning Expected To Activate Andrei Vasilevskiy From IR
The Lightning announced today that they’ve reassigned goaltender Brandon Halverson and winger Scott Sabourin to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Halverson’s demotion means they’ll use one of the open roster spots to activate Andrei Vasilevskiy from injured reserve before Thursday’s game against the Kings.
What was initially expected to be a one-game absence for Vasilevskiy turned into seven games. He hasn’t dressed since losing to the Islanders on Dec. 2. Since then, backup Jonas Johansson has played every minute for the Bolts, aside from a six-second span against the Islanders over the weekend, where Halverson had to enter play due to an equipment issue.
Injuries to Vasilevskiy have forced Johansson to start 14 of Tampa’s 33 games, on pace to clear his previous career high of 24 starts by a wide margin. The 30-year-old Swede has given the Bolts some of the best hockey of his unremarkable career, recording a .897 SV% and 2.76 GAA while saving 4.1 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Still, Tampa will be thrilled to get its star back between the pipes, especially as it’s lost six of eight games in November. The five-time Vezina Trophy finalist has made a solid case for his sixth nomination early on this year, recording a .916 SV%, 2.31 GAA, and an 11-6-2 record in 19 starts. Among goalies with at least 18 appearances, Vasilevskiy’s 0.736 GSAx/60 ranks fifth behind Logan Thompson (1.047), Ilya Sorokin (1.003), Jeremy Swayman (0.790), and Spencer Knight (0.766).
Meanwhile, Halverson’s duties as the Bolts’ No. 3 see his recall end without him facing a shot. The 29-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and has a .901 SV%, 2.58 GAA, two shutouts, and a 9-4-0 record in 13 starts for Syracuse.
Sabourin, 33, has been yo-yoed between Tampa and Syracuse multiple times this season. However, he’d played in four straight for the Lightning after being recalled last week. The career enforcer has been a surprisingly effective fourth-line piece when called upon this year, recording a goal and two assists in seven games with 13 hits. Averaging 9:17 of ice time per game, he’s also posted strong 5-on-5 possession metrics with a 55.9 CF% and a team-high 71.3 xGF%.
As a result, his demotion could be to help stretch out his waiver-exempt status. Syracuse plays tomorrow night against Bridgeport, so the Lightning would be eligible to recall him again before their next game Thursday.
Latest On Ryan McDonagh
The Tampa Bay Lightning have had to manage this season with a large portion of key defensemen injured, but it appears one important veteran is closing in on a return to the ice. Lightning team reporter Benjamin Pierce relayed word from Lightning practice this morning that Ryan McDonagh skated today in a regular jersey, a key milestone in his recovery from his undisclosed injury. McDonagh remains on IR, where he has been since early November.
McDonagh, 36, played in 15 games this season before his injury, scoring six points. The 1,025-game veteran has missed Tampa Bay’s last 17 games due to his injury, an absence that has forced the Lightning to rely on less accomplished defensemen such as Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Emil Lilleberg. D’Astous especially has acquitted himself well, but expect McDonagh to resume his regular top-four role once he’s healthy. In 15 games this season, McDonagh averaged just over 20 minutes of ice time per game and leads the team in short-handed time on ice per game.
Lightning Recall Steven Santini, Place Emil Lilleberg On IR
10:30 a.m.: As alluded to earlier, the Lightning have placed Lilleberg on the team’s IR, according to Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. Lightning insider Erik Erlendsson passed along a note from head coach Jon Cooper indicating that Tampa Bay is expecting Lilleberg to miss the next few weeks and hopes for him to return before the Olympic break.
9:34 a.m.: According to a team announcement, the Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled defenseman Steven Santini from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. The Lightning already have 23 players on their active roster, so another roster move will have to be made before tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers.
It’s the second recall of the year for Santini. He was initially recalled one month ago and stayed with the team until the first week of December. During that stretch, Santini registered one assist in seven games while averaging 12:01 of ice time per night.
At the time, Tampa Bay was dealing with multiple injuries to its defensive core, and not much has changed since then. Defenseman Erik Černák and Ryan McDonagh remain on the Lightning’s injured reserve, while captain Victor Hedman recently underwent elbow surgery and will be out until February.
As for the specific reasoning behind Santini’s recall, there’s some loose reporting that Emil Martinsen Lilleberg is dealing with a lingering injury from the Lightning’s shootout loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday. Lilleberg missed the third period for that game, finishing with zero points in 13:30 of action.
Meanwhile, the corresponding roster move, if it’s not moving Lilleberg to the injured reserve, will likely come from demoting one of Tampa Bay’s 15 forwards on the active roster. Scott Sabourin, who was recalled less than a week ago, is the most likely candidate. The 33-year-old veteran has scored one goal and three points in six games for the Lightning this season.
Lightning Notes: Finley, Vasilevskiy, McDonagh, James
The Lightning announced that they have assigned forward Jack Finley to AHL Syracuse on a conditioning stint. The stint can last for up to two weeks but he will remain on Tampa Bay’s active roster while on assignment.
The 23-year-old has played in 11 games for the Lightning this season but has only suited up twice over the past nine contests. He has a goal and an assist in those outings along with 18 hits but is only averaging 8:49 of playing time per game. Waiver-eligible for the first time this season, this assignment allows him to get a few games in with the Crunch where he can have a more prominent role in the lineup.
More from Tampa Bay:
- There could be some good news on the horizon on the injury front as Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times provided updates on several players. First, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy won’t return on Saturday but could be an option to start on Monday against Florida. He has missed a little more than a week with an undisclosed injury. The hope was that he wouldn’t be out for long but he ultimately landed on IR to allow for Brandon Halverson’s recall. Vasilevskiy has had a very strong start to the season with a 2.31 GAA and a .916 SV% in 19 starts so far.
- Meanwhile, defenseman Ryan McDonagh did some individual skating drills as he works his way back from a leg injury that has kept him out for more than a month. Following practice, head coach Jon Cooper upgraded him to day-to-day. The 36-year-old, who recently signed a three-year extension, has been his usual steady self when in the lineup, averaging over 20 minutes a night. With Victor Hedman out long-term again, McDonagh nearing a return will be crucial for a back end that has been beaten up this season.
- Lastly, rookie center Dominic James was a full participant in practice and could be an option to return on Saturday against the Islanders. If not, he should be back for Monday’s contest versus Florida. The 23-year-old signed with Tampa Bay this past offseason after declining to sign with Chicago, who drafted him back in 2022. After a good start in the minors, James was recalled less than two weeks into the season and has been up ever since. He has five points in 18 games so far and has missed the last three games with an undisclosed injury.
Victor Hedman To Undergo Elbow Surgery, Out Six Weeks
Lightning captain Victor Hedman will undergo elbow surgery next Monday, head coach Jon Cooper told reporters (including Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times). He’ll miss around six weeks and is expected to return in time to play for Sweden at the Olympics in February.
The procedure will ideally put an end to the lingering effects Hedman has been dealing with for the past month-plus. The 34-year-old initially sustained the previously undisclosed injury on Nov. 8 against the Capitals. He missed nearly a month while trying non-surgical remedies and returned to action on Dec. 6 against the Islanders. He played just three games, never topping the 18-minute mark in ice time, before landing back on injured reserve before yesterday’s 8-4 drubbing of the Devils.
The silver lining is that the Bolts have already gotten used to playing without their top defender, and the results have been awe-inspiring. They’ve gone 10-6-0 since Hedman first left the lineup, and they’ve also been without their second pairing of Erik Černák and Ryan McDonagh for most of that time. Their possession metrics back up their record, controlling 53.2% of shot attempts at 5-on-5.
Hedman, a seven-time All-Star and a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, has been increasingly sheltered at even strength in the past few seasons. That trend continued before his injury, starting a career-high 61.7% of his 5-on-5 shifts in the offensive zone. Despite that, he produced his worst possession metrics in three years and didn’t score a goal on 25 shots through 18 appearances, although he does still rank second among Lightning defensemen with 12 assists, behind Darren Raddysh‘s 16.
Until the Olympic break, the Lightning will look to ride the wave their patchwork top-four has given them. Their temporary top pair of Raddysh and J.J. Moser has controlled a remarkable 62.8% of expected goals at 5-on-5, while 27-year-old rookie Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Emil Martinsen Lilleberg have also gelled quite well in second-pairing duties.
Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.
Tampa Bay Lightning Place Victor Hedman On IR, Recall Declan Carlile
The Tampa Bay Lightning announced today that defenseman Victor Hedman has been placed on injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the club has recalled blueliner Declan Carlile from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Hedman’s placement on IR comes as the latest in a long line of defensive injuries the club has had to contend with so far in 2025-26. Tampa has been forced to utilize a large portion of its defensive depth chart stretching down into Syracuse, and as a result, multiple Crunch blueliners, including Carlile, have received NHL games this season.
Carlile played in his first NHL game of the year on Nov. 18 and was with the Lightning playing games up until earlier this month. His most recent NHL game for the club came on Dec. 4.
Despite a defensive group that has been ravaged by injuries, the Lightning have been extremely successful this season. Relying on a patchwork group of defenders hasn’t slowed them down one bit and the team won seven of the nine NHL games Carlile has played in this season.
A 25-year-old undrafted blueliner, Carlile is a scouting and development success story for the Lightning organization. They plucked him out of the NCAA’s Merrimack College after his third season playing NCAA hockey, and he grew into a reliable top-four AHL defenseman during his time in Syracuse. Carlile got into his first NHL game in 2023-24 and has steadily climbed up the Lightning’s organizational ranks to become a higher-priority call-up option as the years have gone on.
Carlile’s development into a reliable call-up option is coming at a great time for the player. The two-year contract extension Carlile signed in June 2024 is set to expire at the end of this season, and the blueliner has set himself up to potentially receive a hefty AHL guarantee on his next deal. Carlile is currently owed a $350K guarantee for 2025-26, and if he can continue earning call-ups and NHL games, he could make a legitimate push to earn a one-way deal as a free agent this upcoming summer.
As for Hedman, he’s set to be sidelined once again in what has been an injury-plagued 2025-26 season. Hedman missed 12 games with an undisclosed injury, and it is unclear at this time whether Hedman’s IR placement today is related to the injury he was dealing with for most of November.
With that said, it’s hardly a good sign that Hedman, now 34 years old, is dealing with persistent injury issues given how healthy and crucial to the Lightning’s success he’s been throughout his Hall of Fame career.
Lightning’s Victor Hedman Leaves Due To Injury
The Tampa Bay Lightning announced during the second intermission that star defenseman Victor Hedman will not return versus Montreal due to injury. The Swede left after 06:14 of ice time, which was all in the first period. Further details have not been provided at this time on possible severity.
The hits keep coming for Tampa Bay, already having a defense corps ravaged by injury, to go with Andrei Vasilevskiy landing on IR yesterday. Hedman himself just came back after missing a large chunk of November with an undisclosed ailment, and naturally, it is unclear if today’s injury is related. Regardless, losing their captain when Ryan McDonagh and Erik Černák remain sidelined is a serious blow. Despite facing such adversity, the longtime contenders have mostly continued their winning ways, currently second in the Atlantic Division. J.J. Moser has stepped up and risen to the occasion in his second season as a Bolt, emerging as a highly reliable top four defender, a savvy pickup helping the team extend its contention window.
Hedman himself, now 34, has been remarkably durable throughout his career. The towering defender is already well above 1,100 career games, not to mention another 170 playoff appearances, leading the team in heavy minutes throughout runs over the past decade. Despite all of it, when healthy, the 2009 draftee remains elite, having 12 points in 17 games this season.
As is symbolic of their season so far, Tampa Bay handled business over the Canadiens tonight even being short on the back-end. However, Hedman’s status will be a huge question, along with how long the team can sustain success with so many key players shaken up for the time being. Tonight’s win ended a four game skid, but things won’t get any easier without Vasilevskiy or Hedman.
Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Scott Sabourin
The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled forward Scott Sabourin from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. The move comes in advance of the club’s game tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.
This is far from Sabourin’s first recall to the Lightning’s NHL roster. Earlier in the season, Sabourin was recalled on multiple occasions so that he would be able to serve the four-game suspension he was assessed for his actions in the preseason. Sabourin was suspended for a hit on Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Most had assumed Sabourin’s recalls were going to be limited to suspension-serving, as the veteran had played in just four NHL games over the last three seasons.
But on Nov. 12, the Lightning recalled Sabourin and he ended up playing that night’s game against the New York Rangers. He played in nearly 12 minutes of ice time, which was the most he’d received in an NHL regular-season game since the 2019-20 campaign. Sabourin instantly rewarded the Lightning’s faith in him, scoring his first goal of the season (and first since 2019-20) early in that night’s game.
Sabourin added an assist in the Lightning’s following game on Nov. 15 against the Panthers before he was sent back to Syracuse on Nov. 19. A bruising physical forward, Sabourin hasn’t been much of a scorer at the AHL (or NHL) level for most of his career. But what’s continued to get him both hefty AHL contracts (his one-year, two-way deal carries a $350K guarantee) and NHL recalls has been the imposing physical presence he’s been able to provide.
The Lightning were shut out by the Maple Leafs last night in Toronto, and have had to travel to Montreal and will need to play tonight’s game as the second half of a back-to-back. By adding Sabourin, the Lightning have added fresher legs to their roster and a forward capable of going toe-to-toe with some of Montreal’s heavyweights, such as Arber Xhekaj and Josh Anderson.
While it’s unclear at the moment whether Sabourin will dress for the game, his recall does at least provide head coach Jon Cooper with another player to choose from when selecting a lineup.