Could the Lightning go shopping in the college free-agent pool again?
That’s become one of Tampa Bay’s more useful lanes for adding young talent. The Lightning lean on trades with their higher picks rather than stocking up through the draft, so they have to keep finding value in other places.
Sometimes that means European free agents. Sometimes it means undrafted college or junior players.
And sometimes it means taking a shot on a college player whose draft rights have expired, which worked out pretty well last summer with Dominic James.
With the August 15 deadline now in the rearview mirror, a handful of players are officially free from the teams that drafted them. The original list had 20 names, but some have already signed AHL contracts and Mason Langenbrunner has announced his retirement from hockey. Even so, there are still a few names that could make sense for Tampa Bay.
Cruz Lucius is the one that jumps out first. The 22-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he told them earlier this year he wouldn’t be signing.
After two seasons at Wisconsin, the right-shot winger moved to Arizona State. Injuries kept him to 19 games in his first year there, but he came back strong last season and finished fourth in NCAA scoring with 46 points - 15 goals and 31 assists - for the Sun Devils.
He looks like a player who should draw plenty of interest, and a two-way deal seems likely somewhere. Tampa Bay should be in that mix.
The organization doesn’t have many right-shot forwards in the system, and Lucius has enough offensive ability to at least earn a hard look. He’s a playmaker with real skill, but there are still limits to his game.
He already looks like a player who can help at the AHL level, and the next step will come down to whether he can sharpen his skating and clean up his decisions a bit. At times, his creativity pushes him into trying plays that won’t fly at higher levels.
Sutter Muzzatti is another name worth watching. The former Notre Dame forward is a big body at 6-foot-6, and he put up 13 goals and 19 assists in 37 games.
He skates well enough for a player his size and doesn’t shy away from a post-whistle scrum. A two-way deal would make sense, and there’s a neat little twist here too: the fifth-round pick Nashville used to draft him originally belonged to Tampa Bay and was part of the Tanner Jeannot deal.
The most intriguing fit for the Lightning may be Samu Salminen, a former third-round pick of the New Jersey Devils. The Finnish forward finished his college career as an alternate captain on Denver’s NCAA championship team.
In his second season with the Pioneers, he posted 29 points in 43 games and was one of their best face-off men. By early March, when he was named NCHC Player of the Week, he led Denver with 308 face-off wins and had won 52.8% of his draws.
That part matters for Tampa Bay. The Lightning could use more skill in the face-off circle in their system, and Salminen checks a lot of the boxes they tend to value in prospects.
He plays responsibly in his own end, thinks the game well and brings a bit of deception offensively. He’s not the fastest skater, but that has never stopped the Bolts before.
There’s also some familiarity there, since he spent the last two seasons as teammates with Hagen Burrows*.
If Tampa Bay does make a move, it probably won’t be with the expectation of landing another Dominic James-sized surprise. But James wasn’t expected to be that either. Even if a player doesn’t reach the NHL right away, adding solid talent to the organization still matters.
*It looks like Burrows won’t be teammates with Jack Pridham this year. The fourth-round pick is transferring to the University of Notre Dame next season.
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