Draft complete. The Tampa Bay Lightning made two trades just before and during the draft to bring our total selections in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft to five. Tampa acquired the 37th pick, a second rounder, for restricted free agent Ross Colton leading up to the draft. During day two of the draft, the brass decided to move up a whole year by trading next years fourth rounder received in the Brandon Hagel deal from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Nashville Predators for their fourth round selection today.
Draft selection round two
The first day of selections featured none by the Lightning. Those picks did influence who was available for us with the fifth pick in the second round, though. Tampa was able to snag six foot right wing Ethan Gauthier out of the QMJHL’s Sherbrooke Phoenix. He was expected to be selected at the end of the first round. He’s had impressive stats and was picked first overall in the QMJHL draft in 2021. Meet him now!
Draft selection round four
There were no selections by the Lightning in the third round either, but round four is where we moved up to take Mr. Hockey, as decided by the USHS-MN. A yearly award given to the best player in the state. The five-foot nine Jayson Shaugabay was selected 115th and had nearly 100 points in just 31 games. Here’s an introduction!
Draft selection round six
There were no selections made by Tampa in the fifth round either! They went on to take their first and only defenseman of the draft. At 179th overall, six-foot five righty Warren Clark was taken out of the MJHL.
Draft selections round seven
The Lightning had two picks to make in the final round of selections and they took two centers. At 193rd Tampa selected 20 year-old Jack Harvey. The five-foot 10 forward just went more than a point-per-game in his third full season with the Chicago Steel of the USHL. He scored 40 goals and 74 points in 62 games. See him here!
Their second selection was six-foot one Ethan Hay out of the OHL’s Flint Firebirds, at pick 211. Here is a quick highlight!
Other Lightning tales
The second day of the draft also featured another intriguing trade made by our Bolts. The rights to Corey Perry were sent to Chicago for a seventh round pick in next years draft. That means that the Hawks will exclusively have two days to negotiate a new deal with the veteran winger. The Lightning also announced the development camp schedule and roster ahead of the NHL Entry Draft. It will begin this Sunday, July 2nd, at Brandon’s TGH Ice Plex. The event featuring Tampa’s prospects and invitees will conclude with the 3v3 tournament Tuesday, July 4th and Wednesday, July 5th. It is yet to be seen if any of the 2023 draft selections will be added to the roster.
The full roster currently features 2022 first round pick Isaac Howard, 2020 second round picks Jack Finley and Gage Goncalves, 2019 third round pick Hugo Alnefelt, 2020 third round picks Jack Thompson and Maxim Groshev, 2021 third round pick Roman Schmidt, 2022 third round pick Lucas Edmonds, 2019 fourth round pick Maxwell Crozier, 2020 fourth round pick Eamon Powell, 2021 fourth round pick Dylan Duke, 2020 fifth round pick Jaydon Dureau, 2022 fifth round pick Nick Malik, 2020 sixth round pick Nicholas Capone, 2021 sixth round pick Alex Gagne, 2022 sixth round pick Connor Kurth, 2019 seventh round pick McKade Webster, 2021 seventh round picks Cooper Flinton and Niko Huutanen, 2022 seventh round pick Klavs Veinbergs, invitee Tristan Allard, invitee Dillan Bentley, invitee Emil Lilleberg (NHL deal with Bolts), invitee Bennett MacArthur (NHL deal with Bolts), invitee Waltteri Merela, invitee Ilya Usov (NHL deal with Bolts), invitee Daniel Walker (Syracuse Crunch), invitee Declan Carlile (NHL deal with Bolts), Invitee Tyler Duke (Dylan Duke’s younger brother), Invitee Scott Walford, and invitee Ludvig Perrson.
I covered some players that impressed me at last years tournament here, here, and here. In my article on the forwards, none of it went how I hoped exactly. Maxim Cajkovic rarely saw action in Syracuse, but did well with the Orlando Solar Bears. Him being excluded from this development camp roster when several other Crunch players will be in attendance says all I need to know about his chances within the organization. Ilya Usov didn’t quite meet my expectations either. I didn’t really think he’d really get called up over more experienced players, but he didn’t hit the 35 point plateau either. He did however stay in the lineup. Dylan Duke had a good year in the NCAA though.
In my other two articles I covered four of the defenders of the tournament. Man, I hit the nail on the head on just about everything I said about each defender. Nick Perbix and Darren Raddysh exceeded my expectations, but I thought they’d see NHL this year. Declan Carlile also exceeded my expectations playing on the second line mostly instead of the third. Jack Thompson did the same and scored 3 points more than I predicted which is pretty good if you ask me. My only real miss was with Roman Schmidt. He did stay in the OHL another season like I thought, but he didn’t light it up like I thought he would. He played a few less games and had a few less points than last season. I’m not sure why that was, but I remain confident in my assessment of his skill.
For more of this type of content, stay tuned for this years 3v3 tournament recap and for more news on the Lightning, follow us on TheScrumSports.com and Youtube.
