Mitchell Chaffee has had an interesting last year or so. In November of 2022 he was playing for the Iowa Wild, riding a four-game goal streak when he suffered a knee injury that ended his season. Coming off of a season where he had made his NHL debut and put up 39 points in 49 games, it had to be a disappointment to see the upward trajectory interrupted. Following his rehab, he was a free agent and the Lightning took a chance on signing the college scoring dynamo who had put up 47 goals in three seasons at UMass-Amherst.
Assigned to Syracuse to begin the season, he quickly found his bearing with the Crunch putting up 9 goals and 10 assists in his first 21 games to earn a December call-up to the Lightning. He appeared in one game for about 7 minutes before being re-assigned to the Crunch where he’s added another 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists) in 12 games. “I’m happy we got to bring him back up. He kind of got a bit of a raw deal, came up for one game and didn’t play that much. He didn’t deserve that so it was great to get him in,” said Coach Cooper after the game.
With Austin Watson out for a few weeks, the Bolts turned to Chaffee again and immediately planted him into the line-up on a line with Luke Glendening and Waltteri Merelä. He wasn’t going to be held off the scoresheet this time. At the 15:18 mark of the second period, he capped off a three-goal run for the Lightning with his fist career NHL goal.
His first goal wasn’t a blazing slapshot from the circle or a dazzling deke on three defenders and a helpless goalie, rather it was a simple play. Chaffee went to the front of the net and took advantage of good fortune.
Emil Lilleberg started the play by rimming the puck around the boards behind Connor Ingram’s net. Max Crozier wisely stepped down low to receive it along the half boards and turned toward the net. Both Glendening and Chaffee had drifted towards the net. Chaffee takes a small hit from Nick Bjugstad and uses the momentum to slide right in front of the net.
With the attention of Bjugstad and his two teammates directed towards Crozier and Glendening, Chaffee is wide-open and able to knock down the pass from Crozier that had redirected off of the outside of the goalpost. While the bounce was fortunate, it was his positioning that led to Crozier, who was likely looking for a rebound off of Ingram’s pads, to direct the puck towards the net.
It wasn’t a slam dunk goal either. Chaffee’s first touch was a little strong and he had to reach and flip a bouncing puck up and over the goaltender for the goal. “The biggest thing was trying to elevate the puck and get it upstairs,” he told reporters after the game.
There was a nice sense of hockey acumen to get to the soft spot, and then a goalscorer’s touch to put it into the back of the net. For good measure, he assisted on Glendening’s goal in the third period which came as a result of the trio creating a turnover off of a strong forecheck.
We don’t know how much longer Chaffee will be with the Bolts on this recall. He’ll probably be in the line-up against the Devils on Saturday, but then sent back down to Syracuse while the Bolts are on a break. The health of Watson and Tanner Jeannot will likely dictate if he gets recalled again.
If nothing else, he’s shown that he has the ability to play in the NHL. Whether he re-signs with the Bolts this summer or if he signs somewhere else, this won’t be the last goal he scores at the NHL level.
