The NCAA Frozen Four tournament and several major junior hockey leagues have all entered the postseason, and the Tampa Bay Lightning have a handful of players on teams that will be seeing some of this playoff action. For an organization that has taken pride in its recent playoff success, having prospects appear in these games helps their development.
Most pundits feel that the Lightning’s prospect pool lacks high-end impact players and the depth that could help fill the lineup over the next few years. This makes it even more critical that the prospects they have to get as much experience and development as necessary to overcome these issues, and participating in games of this nature will help them down the road.
Gabriel Szturc
The 20-year-old became one of the organization’s newest prospects when the team signed him on March 2 to a three-year NHL contract covering the 2024-25 through 2026-27 seasons. Gabriel Szturc is currently the captain of the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League and had scored 83 points in 62 games this season before the Rockets playoff series against the Wenatchee Wild. He is in his third season with the Rockets and has accumulated 67 goals and 187 points in 176 career games with the squad, plus an additional two goals and three points in nine playoff contests.
Szturc is not a stranger to the big stage, having competed for Czechia at the IIHF World Junior Championship the past two seasons. In 2023, he helped lead Czechia to a silver medal after notching five goals and eight points in seven contests, ranking second on his team for goals and tied for second in scoring.
Isaac Howard
The Lightning’s first-round pick in 2022 helped his Michigan State Spartans defeat the Michigan Wolverines 5-4 in the Big Ten championship at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing on Saturday, March 23. Before the postseason, Isaac Howard had scored 34 points in 33 games to help lead the Spartans as the fourth seed heading into the NCAA tournament on Friday (March 29) against the Western Michigan Broncos.
Howard came off a very successful performance at the most recent World Juniors, helping to lead Team USA to a gold medal. He skated on a line with top Chicago Blackhawks prospect Frank Nazar, which helped him become one of the tournament’s leading goal scorers. He had two assists in the Spartans’ overtime victory over the Broncos in the first round (March 29).
Roman Schmidt
Roman Schmidt got a change of scenery this season when the Kingston Frontenacs acquired him from the Kitchener Rangers in exchange for a pair of draft picks back in December. Their third-round selection in 2021 had a brief stint with their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, Syracuse Crunch, playing in one regular season game for the Crunch on Nov. 1 against the Rochester Americans. After getting four points in 14 games for Kitchener, he did manage 28 points in 33 games for Kingston. The Frontencacs face the North Bay Battalion in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs that starts this weekend.
Dylan Duke
The 21-year-old has increased his production every season as a member of the Michigan Wolverines. Last season, Dylan Duke had 18 goals and 32 points, numbers he has already surpassed this season with postseason games still looming. He has been especially proficient on the power play, finishing in the top ten of the NCAA in power-play goals. He helped lead the Wolverines to a tournament invitation and a first-round game against North Dakota. Duke had two goals to lead the Wolverines past North Dakota in that contest (March 29).
A Pair in the QMJHL Playoffs
Ethan Gauthier was the 37th overall draft pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2023 NHL Draft. He has 36 goals and 71 points this season, third in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). His Drummondville Voltigeurs will face St. John in the first round of the playoffs. In December 2023, the Lightning signed him to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Related: 2024 NHL Draft Guide
One of the most recent prospect signings, Milo Roelens, has posted 74 points in 65 games to help Acadie-Bathurst Titan to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Lightning signed him to a three-year NHL contract on March 1. The 21-year-old is completing his fifth season in the QMJHL, having previously played for Sherbrooke (2020-21 to 2022-23) and Gatineau (2019-20 to 2020-21).
NCAA Prospects
Defenseman Eamon Powell had three assists to lead the Boston College Eagles to a 6-1 first-round victory over Michigan Tech in the first round. The native of Marcellus, NY, had 31 assists and five goals for the Eagles heading into the tournament. Jack Harvey, drafted in the seventh round in 2023, had a goal for Boston University to help lead the Terriers to a 6-3 first-round victory over RIT. McKade Webster is the captain of the Denver University squad, which posted a first-round win over UMass-Amherst. The 2019 seventh-round pick has 31 points in 40 games for the Pioneers. Connor Kurth picked up an assist to help the Minnesota Golden Gophers advance. Kurth was a sixth-round selection in 2022.
The Lightning’s player development staff knows that laying the groundwork for prospect improvement is essential to get as many of their prospects ready for the NHL. One of the key elements that organizations like the Lightning hope happens at lower levels is that their prospects get the chance to play high-stakes games, and the team has to be very pleased to see that many in their system are getting a chance to do that this season.
