The roster shake-up in Syracuse continues as a report surfaced on Tuesday that the Tampa Bay Lightning had put forward Lukas Svejkovsky on waivers for the purposes of terminating his contract. The 22-year-old was acquired in a trade this summer that send Bennett MacArthur to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.
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By mutually agreeing to terminate his contract, the Lightning will not be responsible for the remainder of his contract and Svejkovsky is free to sign with another organization. The former fourth-round pick was making $80,000 on his AHL salary, but had been paid a $92,500 signing bonus at the beginning of the summer.
The trade that brought him to the organization was one that saw two prospects swapped in the hopes that a change of scenery would benefit both players. MacArthur was a free-agent signing by the Lightning in 2022. Last season he spent most of the season on loan to the Allen Americans where he had 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists). Svejkovsky was drafted by the Penguins in the fourth round of the 2020 draft and had a decent rookie season with the Baby Penguins, putting up 15 points (3 goals, 12 assists) in 47 games during the 2022-23 season. However, he spent most of last season with Wheeling of the ECHL, where he had 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) in 30 games.
Svejkovsky appeared in four games for the Crunch this season, recording one goal. However, with Logan Brown and Gage Goncalves returning to the line-up, he was a healthy scratch over the weekend as Syracuse battled his former organization, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. According to the AHL Transactions page, Svejkovsky had been assigned to the Orlando Solar Bears on Monday.
We’re entering the pure speculation portion of this post, but it is possible that Svejkovsky informed the team that he did not want to report to Orlando, and rather than suspend him or make a big deal out of it, Julien BriseBois and Crunch general manager Stacy Roest decided to end the organization’s relationship with him. It is odd that they would be so quick to waive him out of the organization, considering the lack of young prospects that they have in the system.
The move continues the overhaul of the Crunch’s forward group with the return of Goncalves and Brown as well as the addition of Gabriel Fortier and possibly Conor Sheary, two players who had been placed on waivers by the Lightning in recent days. Gemel Smith was also released from his PTO yesterday.
