Projected Lineups for Lightning vs Blue Jackets–10/18/25

The Tampa Bay Lightning take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Nationwide Arena today. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

LIGHTNING (1-2-2) at BLUE JACKETS (1-3-0)

7 p.m. ET; The Spot, FDSNOH

Lightning projected lineup

Brandon Hagel — Brayden Point — Gage Goncalves
Jake Guentzel — Anthony Cirelli — Conor Geekie
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Yanni Gourde — Pontus Holmberg
Mitchell Chaffee — Jack Finley — Curtis Douglas

Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg — Darren Raddysh

Jonas Johansson
Andrei Vasilevskiy

Scratched: Steven Santini, Scott Sabourin

Injured: Zemgus Girgensons (upper body), Max Crozier (undisclosed), Nikita Kucherov (illness)

Status report

The teams each held an optional morning skate Saturday. … Kucherov is questionable after the forward did not play in a 2-1 overtime loss at the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. … Johansson is expected to start after Vasilevskiy made 29 saves at Detroit.

Latest for THW:

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Dmitri Voronkov — Sean Monahan — Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner — Adam Fantilli — Kent Johnson
Cole Sillinger — Charlie Coyle — Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese — Isac Lundestrom — Yegor Chinakhov

Zach Werenski — Denton Mateychuk
Ivan Provorov — Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen — Dante Fabbro

Jet Greaves
Elvis Merzlikins

Scratched: None

Injured: Erik Gudbranson (upper body), Miles Wood (upper body)

Status report

Based on practice Friday, Mateychuk will pair with Werenski with Fabbro moving to the third pair alongside Christiansen. … Voronkov and Johnson swapped lines, as did Jenner and Sillinger.