By Michael Wax
We're just under a month away from Lightning hockey! The preseason is scheduled to start Sep. 24, while the regular season is slated to kick off Oct. 11, both against the Carolina Hurricanes. The regular-season lineup has seemed to be, at least in the minds of the fanbase, set for the better part of a month, and it looks a little something like this:
Guentzel-Point-Kucherov
Hagel-Cirelli-Sheary
Eyssimont-Paul-Chaffee
Girgensons-Glendening-Atkinson
However, it is customary for the Lightning to have at least one spare forward, and players like Sheary/Atkinson/Gledening probably won't play every game. Here are five possible candidates to take that last forward spot:
Jesse Ylonen
One of the low-key signings of the offseason, Ylonen was one of four made right after Steven Stamkos left the Bolts for the Nashville Predators.
The 24-year-old Finn has been in and out of the NHL since the 2020-21 season, playing 111 games over four seasons with the Montréal Canadiens and 120 games with the Laval Rocket of the AHL.
Ylonen doesn’t have a fantastic scoring prowess at the NHL level, although he did put up six goals and 16 points in just 37 games with Montreal in the 2022-23 season. The Lightning’s bottom six struggled immensely to score last season, apart from Nick Paul setting career highs while primarily being used on the power play.
Ylonen is already signed to a one-year, two-way deal, so it’s just a matter of how he performs in the preseason. He’s sometimes shown the skill (⬇️), and it’s just a matter of putting it all together.
Logan Brown
If this name sounds familiar to you, it should be. Logan Brown was signed to a one-year, two-way contract last year by the Lightning before suffering a season ending injury in training camp. While he did start to skate for the Syracuse Crunch back in the spring, he was never able to make it to a full recovery. With a full off-season behind him, he now returns to the Lightning organization on a professional tryout contract.
It’s not unheard of for the Lightning to be signing players from PTOs to standard contracts after a decent performance in the preseason. Even last year, Austin Watson earned his spot on the Lightning roster despite coming into training camp on a PTO. Should Logan Brown impress with his play in the preseason, the Lightning could very well offer him a contract to be there 13th forward heading into the season.
The interesting situation around Brown is that because he is on a PTO, the Lightning could also sign him another two-way contract like they did last season. The Syracuse crunch are in desperate need of some veteran leadership, and while Brown is only 26 years old, he’s got the experience at both the AHL and NHL levels to be considered a leader.
Conor Geekie
If I was a betting man, this would be the guy.
Geekie was THE main piece acquired by the lightning in their trade of Mikhail Sergachev to Utah during day two of the draft. He’s big (6’4”), skilled (11th overall pick), and is missing all sorts of teeth, the recipe for a fantastic hockey player. He has certainly got the skills to become one of the lightnings premier players in the next few years, and could surprise a lot of people by making the roster out of camp this season.
Geekie was certainly one of the better players during the lightnings 2024 rookie showcase in Nashville, registering point in each game and putting up two goals. He shown on the 3G line with Max Groshev and Ethan Gauthier, always finding his way to the front of the net in order to generate the best chances. By all accounts, this is a guy who intends on making the opening night roster this year.
"Not everyone gets the opportunity to even be here and try and make the squad," Geekie said following the showcase Monday. "I'm just gonna try and make the decision as hard as possible and play my game."
He’s easily the best prospect the Lightning have in their system, and at just 21 years old, is already well on his way to making his debut for the lightning sometime this season. It’s just a matter of time until we figure out if he’ll make it from day one.
Gage Goncalves
A two-game tryout last year was all that Goncalves got, but you thought that he would’ve played over half the season the way the fan base talks about this player.
Goncalves among the swath of call up by the Lightning during the dead months of the season, where everyone seemed to be getting injured and the Bolts were trying everything for injury replacements. While players like Emil Lilleberg and Mitchell Chaffee stuck, Goncalves only got his two games. Boy did he make an impact:
Goncalves was also the Lightning representative at the 2024 AHL All-Star game, compiling his second straight 50+ point season. Still just 23 years old, the 2020 2nd round pick certainly has the skills and the tenacity to fight for a roster spot in training camp and the preseason.
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