Raw Charge
The static cling that brings Tampa Bay Lightning fans together.
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2026 NHL Draft: Three potential forwards for the Tampa Bay Lightning
We’ve tackled the defense already. Now it’s time to look for offense. In the seven drafts where Julien BriseBois has been the final voice, the Tampa Bay Lightning have picked a forward with their top selection. The two times he went with defense was Jan Golicic in the fourth round of the 2024 draft and Roman Schmidt in the third round of the 2021 draft. So, when he’s had a pick in the top two rounds, he’s gone on the offensive. Will history repeat itself this year? In all likelihood, yes....
Lightning Morning News: Tuesday was Trade Day in the NHL
As the clock ticks down to the draft and free agency, teams are starting to make some moves. The dust had barely settled on the Brady-Tkachuk-to-Florida deal when the league office was inundated with several trade calls. You are going to need a scoresheet to keep track of who is drafting when on Friday. Speaking of the draft, we pondered a few possibilities for the Tampa Bay Lightning when it’s finally their time to draft. [ Raw Charge ] While we were working on that, the rest of the...
2026 NHL Draft: Three potential defensive picks for the Tampa Bay Lightning
It’s the end of June and that means one thing, and one thing only. The busiest two-week stretch of the NHL season is here. First up is the draft. Then it’s the deadline for qualifying offers to restricted free agents. And finally, Hockey Christmas in July – Free Agency! We plan to cover it all starting with the draft. Thanks to last week’s trade , the Tampa Bay Lightning now hold seven picks in the 2026 NHL Draft. They are as follows: Round 2 – 58th overall Round 3 – 90th overal...
Lightning Morning News: Patrice Bergeron headlines 2026 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees
The phone calls have been made and the 2026 Hockey Hall of Fame class has been announced. Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Keith Tkachuk, and Cindy Curley were inducted as players while Brian Burke was honored in the Builder Category. The Induction Ceremony is set for November 9. It’s always a fun weekend in Toronto with the honored members descending upon the city for various activities. With the announcement of this year’s class, we can also talk about the snubs. So far, Patr...
How about if we just traded everybody?
What’s the point, right? Why run it back with the same line-up only to get the same result? It’s done. The window is closed. Time to start fresh. At various points throughout the season we’ve all had these thoughts, right? So, since the Darren Raddysh drama has reached a conclusion, and we’re still a few days away from the draft, we here at Raw Charge decided to have some fun. We could all use a little more fun, right? Yes, other teams are actually making deals right now. The Bolts w...
Lightning Morning News: Division rival makes a big move while a potential free agent target stays put
The week before the NHL Draft has kicked off with a flurry of activity. After the Tampa Bay Lightning started things on Friday by pulling off a sign-and-trade with Toronto, their down-state rival ended the weekend with a blockbuster deal of their own. It started innocently enough as they sent Mackie Samoskevich to Seattle for the 25th pick in the first round (originally the Lightning’s) and a second-round pick in 2027. Armed with two first-round picks, it was almost certain that the Panth...
Tampa Bay Lightning trade Darren Raddysh to division rival
If, as Tom Petty once sang, the waiting is indeed the hardest part, then things are about to get a lot easier in the Darren Raddysh saga. The 30-year-old defenseman will not make it to July 1st and free agency. Nor will he be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning next season. The Lightning have announced that they have traded Raddysh to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for a fifth-round selection in the 2026 NHL draft. Thus ends one of the big question marks for the Lightning and the NHL t...
Looking back at the Lightning’s 2025 Draft
Believe it or not, the 2026 NHL Draft is right around the corner. Soon, all of the top prospects will be gathered in Buffalo, hoping to hear their names called on night one of the draft. There will be hugs and hats. Fans will put too much expectations on their shoulders, and in the end, if even a handful of them have a productive NHL career, it will be considered a successful draft. The Lightning are not drafting on night one. To be fair, that’s par for the course as 2026 will be the four...
Lightning Morning News: The trades…they’ve begun
It didn’t take long for the general managers around the league to start reshaping their rosters. The Carolina Hurricanes have yet to recover from their Las Vegas-sized hangovers and a couple of trades have been pushed through already. The first deal involved a divisional rival and the second contained a couple of familiar names. Trade #1 – Toronto sends goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit to the Philadelphia Flyers for goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, ...
Lightning Morning News: Dates to know in the off-season
We’re in the offseason, folks. There is no more competitive hockey until this fall. While you’re catching up on your laundry and reintroducing yourselves to family members, not all is lost in the world of the NHL. There are still some things coming down the pipe, so here are a few dates to keep an eye on as the summer heats up. The Buyout Window Opens – 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final until 5:00 PM EST, June 30th. This is the first buyout window, and there is a chance that some ...
The Raw Charge Awards Show – Tampa Bay Lightning Edition
Folks, at long last the 2025-26 NHL season is finally over. Congratulations to Amir Miftakhov and the Carolina Hurricanes for winning the second Stanley Cup in franchise history. Long live the Southeast Division! With things wrapped up nicely in a bow, we can start looking forward to next season, where the Tampa Bay Lightning are +1000 to win the 2026-27 Stanley Cup. Only Carolina (+650) and Colorado (+700) are heavier favorites. Well, let’s not quite move forward yet. We still need to ha...
Lightning Morning News: Hey now, you’re an all-star, and so are you
Way back on Friday the NHL announced their First and Second All-Star teams. For a couple members of the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was another chance to see their name in bold print. Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy joined Jason Robertson, Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, and Zach Werenski on the First All-Star team. Of the six Second Team All-Stars, four of them received the honor for the first time. Cole Caufield, Nathan MacKinnon, David Pastrnak, Rasmus Dahlin, Evan Bouchard, and Logan T...
Nikita Kucherov wins second Hart Trophy
The individual awards keep rolling in for the Tampa Bay Lightning. After Jon Cooper nabbed his first Jack Adams and Andrei Vasilevskiy was awarded his second Vezina Trophy, Nikita Kucherov became the Lightning’s first multi-Hart Trophy winner as he bested Connor McDavid by ten points in the overall voting. Really wonder who gave McDavid those two fifth-place votes. Depending on how their ballot looked, that might have been the difference. In the end, Kucherov nabbed enough votes to...
2026 NHL Free Agent Check-in: Alex Tuch
Another day, and another potential unrestricted free agent is taken off of the board. In this case it’s Michael McCarron choosing Jucy Lucy burgers over free agency as he stays in Minnesota for six years at $3.33 million a year (the Yanni Gourde special!). With the big, bottom-six forward off of the market, things are getting bleak for anyone hoping to improve their offense on the free-agent market. One name is still out there, though, and unlike Dylan Larkin, could fill a need that the Tampa ...
Let’s talk about Dylan Larkin and the Tampa Bay Lightning
So. Dylan Larkin reportedly wants out of Detroit. Good to see the Yzerplan is going swimmingly in the Motor City so far. So, what does this have to do with the Tampa Bay Lightning? Well, probably not much to be honest. In fact, we wouldn’t be writing this except for a few things. One, there isn’t much happening at Channelside Drive these days. Two, the Lightning are a team in contention, and that seems to be what Larkin is looking for. Three, a couple of rather prominent journalists haven’t ru...
Lightning Morning News: Connor McDavid wins Ted Lindsay Award
For the fifth time in his career, Connor McDavid was named the most outstanding player in the league by the NHLPA. Unfortunately, for McDavid the award was handed to him on the golf course instead of the ice. It’s the fifth time he’s won the award, matching Wayne Gretzky on top of the list, and at 29, there is a good chance that he’ll pass the Great One at some point in his career. McDavid dragged the Edmonton Oilers to the playoffs on his back as led the league with 138 points (48 goals,...
The individual awards keep rolling in as Andrei Vasilevskiy nabs the Vezina Trophy
The ultimate team trophy may have eluded the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, but they are racking up the individual accolades. First, it was Jon Cooper finally nabbing a Jack Adams, now it’s Andrei Vasilevskiy returning back to the top of goaltender mountain as the NHL general managers voted him the “goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position” aka the Vezina Trophy winner. It is his second Vezina, having won the award following the 2018-19 season, and the sixth time he’s been a f...
Revisiting some pre-season predictions
With the Stanley Cup Final underway, we feel it’s a pretty good time to check in on our pre-season predictions. Longtime readers of Raw Charge also know this as the annual “Things Justin G. was wildly incorrect about” column as well. We’ll admit it, prognostication isn’t the sharpest tool we wield (that would be grammatical mistakes), but it is always a fun thing to do. Looking back at how those guesses have aged is also wildly entertaining. So, take a gander at the original post (especia...
Jon Cooper wins Jack Adams Award
After a decade of close calls in his career, including two previous finalist nominations, Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper can finally fill the empty spot on his mantle that was reserved for a Jack Adams award. On Wednesday, the league announced that the NHL Broadcasters’ Association had voted him the coach “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success”. To say it was a trying season behind the bench is an understatement. Injuries forced the Lightning to use 30 dif...
Darren Raddysh finishes eleventh in Norris Trophy voting
Darren Raddysh wasn’t just one of the best defenders on the Tampa Bay Lightning, he ended up, at least in the eyes of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, as one of the best defensemen in the NHL. On Tuesday, the league announced that Zach Werenski won the award, his first, and released the final vote tallies. Raddysh finished with 14 total votes broken down by 0 first-place votes, 0 second-place votes, 1 third-place vote, 2 fourth-place votes, and 3 fifth-place votes. That tied him wi...
Lightning add prospect in trade with Chicago
Stop us if you’ve heard this before. The Chicago Blackhawks are up against a deadline to sign one of their prospects and somehow that prospect ends up with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Last year it was Dominic James, and this year it is Jack Pridham. Chicago’s third-round selection (92 overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft was set to have his contract rights expire if he didn’t sign his entry-level contract or commit to a college program by 5:00 PM EST on June 1. Had he done neither, the 20-year-old woul...
Lightning Morning News: Bolts prospect procures first medal for his country
Noah Steen has had a magnificent World Championship tournament. He entered the bronze medal game against Canada with six goals. His tournament-leading seventh goal gave Norway something they have never had in the history of their hockey program – a medal in an IIHF major series tournament. Noah Steen scores in OT to beat Canada and win bronze (via IIHF) [image or embed] — CJ Fogler ( @cjzero.bsky.social ) May 31, 2026 at 2:05 PM The Lightning brass will probably be just as happ...
Tampa Bay Lightning sign promising prospect to entry-level contract
The Tampa Bay Lightning accelerated the timeline of one of their more intriguing prospects. On Friday, they announced that they signed Benjamin Rautiainen to a three-year entry-level contract. The 20-year-old is now set to start next season in North America with either the Syracuse Crunch or the Tampa Bay Lightning. While this wasn’t entirely unexpected, the Lightning did have to buy out the final season of his contract with Tappara in order to facilitate the deal. With the signing, Rauti...
Lightning Morning News: Rumor of Leafs being open to trading the first overall pick bring back memories of Tampa Bay trading theirs
So, the Toronto Maple Leafs may be open to trading the first overall pick if the right deal comes along. Could the Lightning come up with a deal that would pry the pick (and presumably Gavin McKenna) out of their cold Canadian fingers? Probably, but it would involve blowing up the roster, something that Julien BriseBois doesn’t seem quite ready to do just yet. However, just the speculation of dealing a first overall pick, something that hasn’t been done for quite awhile, brought back memo...
Lightning Morning News: Could Colton Sissons fill a role with the Lightning?
There isn’t going to much change in the Tampa Bay Lightning roster over this summer. At least that’s what Julien BriseBois is leading everyone to believe. For the most part, it’s not a bad idea. The Lightning have been one of the better teams in the league over the last two seasons in a lot of categories that tend to lead to post-season success. Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite worked out for them when it counts, but the only way up is to keep improving. One area that they can use a boost...
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