With Syracuse opening up their training camp this week, and the need to figure out exactly who will make the final roster, the Tampa Bay Lightning reduced their training camp roster by 22 players. That leaves 32 players in camp with less than two weeks until opening night. There really weren’t any surprises on who was sent down.
The Lightning's roster cuts have been made. They now have 32 players left in camp. #GoBolts
— Raw Charge (@rawcharge.com) September 28, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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Expect all four players on waivers to clear. The Lightning weren’t the only team to start trimming the roster as 23 players around the league went on the waiver wire for the purpose of being assigned to the AHL.
With Ryan Fanti and Harrison Meneghin heading to Syracuse, it’s a good indication that Andrei Vasilevskiy is feeling okay. The Bolts have just three netminders in camp in Vasilevsky, Jonas Johansson, and Brandon Halverson. Expect Halverson to head to the Crunch at some point. He might hang around through the last preseason game if Coach Cooper doesn’t want Vasy playing in the final meaningless contest.
The real positional battles begin this week. While the veterans will start seeing a few more game reps, the next few outings (the Lightning have three pre-season games left) will see a heavy focus on the players fighting for the extra forward roles as well as the seventh defenseman spot.
Still in camp in defense are Declan Carlile, Max Crozier, and Roman Schmidt. Of the three, Schmidt is probably the biggest surprise, but he brings a physical presence that the other two really don’t. He hasn’t been shy at pushing opponents around during the games, although he might want to relax a bit in practice.
Aftermath of Brandon Hagel and Roman Schmidt exchanging a few blows. Hagel was not happy with Schmidt, gave him a slash and the two came together and Hagel got in a couple of blows before teammates were able to break it up #GoBolts #TBLightning
— Lightning Insider (@erikerlendsson.bsky.social) September 26, 2025 at 11:17 AM
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Schmidt has earned a longer look in camp, but chances are the final roster spot comes down to a battle between Declan Carlile and Max Crozier. Stat-wise, they’ve been pretty close through the pre-season. Crozier has a few more minutes on the ice, but Carlile has slightly better stats. Carlile would also have to clear waivers in order to be assigned to Syracuse. All things being equal, that could be a big factor.
Up front, there are a few more bodies banging around for the 12th and 13th forward spots. Nick Paul’s absence to start the season opens up that 12th spot while the 13th spot was always open to the top performer in camp. Nicholas Abruzzese, Dylan Duke, Jack Finley, Dominic James, Boris Katchouk, Jakob Pelletier, and Wojceich Stachowiak survived the initial cut-down and will have a few more days to show Coach Cooper and the staff that they belong on the opening night roster.
Dominic James came into camp a little later than the rest of the players and will benefit from a couple of more practices before being assigned to Syracuse to begin his professional career. The remaining six players have all given the coaching staff at least one reason to stay with the Lightning. Stachowiak, the European free agent signing, has been the breakout player of camp, putting up three points in his two games. He could pull a Waltteri Merela and be a surprise addition to the opening night roster.
Finley brings a little size to the bottom-six while Pelletier could be the jack-of-all-trades forward the Coach Cooper likes to have on his roster. Duke has played well, but hasn’t really stood out while Katchouk has the most NHL experience of the bunch. He, and Pelletier to a lesser extent, would be the two players most likely to be claimed on waivers. Chances are they pass through, but a team looking to fill out their bottom six might want to take a chance on one of them.
If we had to guess today the three players that stick around are Finley, Pelletier, and Carlile.
