For the first time in their organization’s history, the Tampa Bay Lightning have a prospect named as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. On Thursday, the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation named the three finalists for the 2025 award. Among those names was Lightning prospect Isaac Howard. The Michigan State forward continues his path being named the first Hobey Baker Award winner in Lightning history*.
His competition for the award is former Boston College Eagle, and current Washington Capital, Ryan Leonard as well as University of Denver defenseman Zeev Buium. Howard’s 26 goals are tied for third in the country and he currently ranks fifth which was good enough to get him named Big10 player of the year.
While he’s seen a few of his teammates turn pro already this spring, Howard hasn’t committed to the Lightning just yet. There is an outside chance that he joins goaltender Trey Augustine and chooses to return to the Spartans for his senior year. There is some speculation that he is also negotiating with the Lightning to follow the same path that Leonard did and sign his entry-level contract and join the team this season instead of playing in the AHL on a try-out contract.
Of course, there are some salary cap concerns with that. The Lightning don’t currently have the cap space to sign him without sending a player down. As talented as Howard is, the Lightning probably aren’t enthused about trying to integrate a rookie into the line-up as they fight for the top of the division.
There is another solution, though. As Cam Robinson at Elite Prospects explains,
“Howard could sign the ATO and play in Syracuse. Once the NHL regular season concludes, he could sign his ELC and join the Lightning for the playoffs. Since there are no salary cap limitations during the playoffs, this would alleviate Tampa Bay’s concerns. Although he would not receive a salary during the postseason, he would still benefit from a year being counted against his contract and would receive his signing bonus.”
At this point, there isn’t a rush to get Howard to sign a deal either way, however, as Robinson also points out, the Lightning probably don’t want him to head back to Michigan State next fall as it will take him closer to possible free agency next summer. Expect some sort of resolution to this at some point with Howard signing a contract and then trying to make the team out of camp next fall.
Lightning News
From UberEats driver to NHL goalie: Inside the unlikeliest start in hockey history [The Athletic]
Brandon Halverson is a shining example of the lengths players go to in order to keep the dream alive. For many former prospects the dream ends before they get a chance to make it the NHL, but not so for Halverson.
Crunch sign defenseman to ATO [Syracuse Crunch]
While the Isaac Howard saga continues to go on, the Syracuse Crunch added a college free agent to their roster as they signed Ohio State defenseman Aiden Hansen-Bukata to an amateur try-out contract. The 25-year-old led Ohio State blueliners in scoring with 31 points last season and has 109 points in 170 career NCAA games.
Erik Cernak appears on The Block Party [Tampa Bay Lightning]
Drago chats with the boys about hockey and stuff.
Hockey News
Anthony Duclair takes leave of absence [ESPN]
We’re not going to lie, a lot of Islanders played poorly against the Lightning, so it was odd that Patrick Roy called out Anthony Duclair, “He was god-awful. He had a bad game. That’s why I didn’t play him a lot. He is lucky to be in the lineup. Sorry if I lose it on him right now, but that’s just how I feel.”
Roy and Duclair had a conversation about the comments and the 29-year-old apparently asked for some time off and reflect about the situation. So the team granted him that time.
Bettman and Gretzky join the watch party for The Gr8 Chase [NHL.com]
With Alex Ovechkin only three goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record, it looks like the Great One and the Commish are on a road trip until it happens. The duo were in Carolina to see Ovechkin score on the power play, and will likely attend the rest of the Washington games until that goal happens.
The Summer of offer sheets [The Athletic]
Allan Walsh, never one to shy away from a bold statement, thinks that offer sheets are coming this summer. St. Louis opened Pandora’s Box last summer, and with a bump in the salary cap coming, more teams could be looking to poach young talent. Don’t expect the Lightning to be one of the team’s poaching as they just don’t have the assets required to sign a player to an offer sheet. They do have their 2026 second round pick, which is the likely compensation required to sign someone to a deal between $2.290 million and $4.58 million. Could someone come after their RFA’s? Gage Goncalves might draw some interest, but not to the point where the Lightning aren’t in a position to match or accept the compensation.
*Matt Gilroy, Matt Carle, and Brian Holzinger are former winners that have played for the Lightning, but weren’t drafted by the team.
