It’s July, the hockey calendar is quiet, and that makes it a good time to check the horizon for Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning goalie has already stacked up plenty, but a few round-number milestones are sitting right in front of him.
The first one comes quickly: 600 games played. Vasilevskiy has already appeared in 598 regular-season games, with 588 starts, and he should get there early in the season.
If he does, he’ll become the 56th goalie in NHL history to reach that mark. And if he gets his usual workload of around 60 games, he’ll climb to roughly 45th all-time in games played.
The bigger number is 400 wins. Vasilevskiy has strung together at least 30 wins in nine straight seasons, and another 30-win year would push him over that threshold.
Only 15 other people in the world have done it. If he reaches it this season, he’d also top Sergei Bobrovsky’s record for doing it in 707 games.
There’s another workload milestone in play too: 19,000 shots against. Vasilevskiy is already 50th all-time with 17,590 shots faced.
Add another 1,450 stops this season - he faced 1,483 last year - and he’ll get there, which would move him up to 35th, just behind Mike Richter. Marty Brodeur’s 31,709 remains a long way off.
Then there’s the oddball one: penalty minutes. Vasilevskiy doesn’t own every Lightning record, even if it can feel that way.
He picked up 11 penalty minutes last season after winning the first fight of his career, and his career high is 14 from 2017-18. That makes Dynamite Dan Cloutier’s 29 PIM from the 1999-00 season a pretty steep target.
Hockey Stuff
Behind the scenes at NHL Broadcast Training Camp [ ESPN ]
The old days of simply putting a retired player in the booth are gone. Now there’s media training, and some of it takes place in New York, where the league gives former players a chance to experience life on the other side of the microphone.
Derek Lalonde joins Canadiens coaching staff [ Habs’ Eyes on the Prize ]
Derek Lalonde’s Atlantic Division tour keeps rolling. The former Lightning assistant has also coached in Toronto and Detroit, and now he’s with Montreal.
That makes him halfway through the division. He’ll also be the second “Newsy Lalonde” tied to the Canadiens.
The original, Edouard Cyrille Lalonde, played for Montreal from 1910 until 1922 and got the nickname “Newsy” because he worked for the Cornwall Freeholder newspaper as a youth.
Jack Campbell announces retirement [ Daily FaceOff ]
Campbell’s career included gold and bronze medals with Team USA’s U20 team at the World Juniors, plus ten NHL seasons. It wasn’t a perfect run, but it was a solid one.
2027 Mock Expansion Draft [ The Athletic ]
The Athletic took a swing at what an expansion roster might look like if the league adds a team in 2027. For Tampa Bay, the protection list would be interesting, and Ryan McDonagh might not be on it. He’d bring a steady presence to a young roster.
Re-ranking cities for NHL expansion in the next five years [ Bleacher Report ]
Expansion talk keeps coming up, and the idea feels less like a maybe and more like a when. Bleacher Report floated several cities, with Austin at the top of the list. New Orleans stands out as the most intriguing option.
Victor Hedman on projected All-Star roster []
The NHL’s All-Star Game is set to return next February on Long Island, with five teams - the US, Canada, Finland, Sweden, and “World” - playing 3-on-3. Each team will carry nine skaters and two goaltenders, and the league’s projected rosters currently have Victor Hedman on Team Sweden. No Lightning players made the first draft for the US or Finland.
In Other News...
Lightning Fans Will Circle One Early John Carlson Date Fast
The Lightnings newly released 2026-27 schedule gives fans plenty to mark down, starting with an Oct. 1 opener at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers and a full 84-game slate that will quickly show how this reshaped roster settles in. Among the most interesting additions is veteran defenseman John Carlson, whose arrival gives Tampa Bay another accomplished blue-line presence and another layer of intrigue to a season that already has an early, high-profile feel.
Carlson has already sounded upbeat about the move, saying the Tampa area offers him a good place to live and a stable environment for his family. On the ice, the Lightning know what theyre getting in a player with a long playoff track record and a Stanley Cup ring from 2018, which is why one early date on the calendar figures to draw attention fast as his first full season in Tampa gets underway. [Read more 🡒]
Lightning Fans Know Exactly Why This NHL Contract Stalemate Matters
A busy stretch of arbitration season has already pushed several young NHL players into new deals, with Cole Perfetti in Winnipeg and Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras in Philadelphia among the names getting settled before hearings. Around the league, teams are still juggling cap space, prospect camp timelines and extension talks, which is why the market keeps feeling like a moving target even after a handful of agreements come off the board.
For Tampa Bay, it is the kind of backdrop that always matters because every contract ripple can affect the broader Eastern Conference picture, from who gets squeezed by the cap to which teams can keep building around their core. The Lightning have spent the offseason trying to stay competitive while other clubs sort through their own roster business, and this latest wave of negotiations is another reminder that the summer is far from finished. [Read more 🡒]