Media Day 2025 | Julien BriseBois
feeling. Is everybody healthy and available for the start of camp? Uh Nick Paul has an upper body injury. He needed surgery last Friday. Expect he will be out until the first part of November. Um and Nico Hutin is out with a lower body injury. I would say he’s probably week to week at this point. He should be ready in time for the start of Syracuse’s season. I’m not sure exactly how much ahead of that he will be ready. And Conor Kirk. Oh, Conor Ker, thank you. Yeah, Connor Kurf is also out dayto- day right now. Was was Nick’s injury a training situation? No, it was something he’d been dealing with uh most of last season to be honest. Uh and then we used up tried every conservative uh method of getting him back to 100% over the course of the summer and everything we tried just wasn’t working. And as we got closer to the start of the season, uh decided this was probably best to be uh addressed uh through surgery, which we did last week, and that was the fastest way of getting him back to 100% at this point. Julian Oliver’s injury was a significant one last spring. How’s he feeling and doing with his rehab? Yeah, he he’s made a full recovery. Um, when I talked to him over the summer, he was doing great and had already started training and I saw him here in Tampa the last few days and he’s excited to be healthy and get a full season playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning and showcasing what he can do and I think he’s going to be a really uh productive player for us this season. John, as you look at the the roster you have constructed, obviously Nick’s injury now changes things maybe a little bit, but you didn’t make a lot of changes, right? And last year there was a lot of big changes coming into the season. this year there’s so like what’s the difference when you’re kind of constructing a roster from year to year? Uh well needs and opportunities to address those needs. Uh um and looking at the roster we had, you know, coming out of last season with the addition of Yanni Gourd, with the addition of uh Oliver Bjorkstran, with some of our young players pushing and looking like they are ready to help us win games at the NHL level, there just wasn’t a lot of opportunities to and and I knew there wouldn’t be a lot of opportunities going back to prior to the trade deadline. That’s why I thought it was really important for us to try to add two players if we could at that point because there weren’t going to be a lot of opportunities in the summer uh both via the trade market or uh free agency. So, we’re trying to get ahead of it and that’s, you know, why we we ended up getting uh Oliver and and Yanni with a thought being at the time that Yanni Oliver had another year of term and Yanni we we felt fairly confident considering the relationship with the player and our history with the player that we’d be able to work a deal and keep him longer term uh within the organization which we ended up being able to do uh in the offseason. So going into free agency, I actually didn’t think we would do anything as we got closer to July 1. Just nothing out there that made sense. And then Pontis Oberg um a little bit to our surprise didn’t get qualified by Toronto uh for salary cap management reasons. So he became a free agent and we thought he would add something to our group like we want to be really stingy defensively. He adds to that like he’s a really good defensive forward. Uh he’s still young enough, versatile enough, mostly plays center, but can play the wing, uh can kill penalties, and he’s young enough, as I was mentioning, that he still has, I think, some untapped potential, uh from a production standpoint, and he would take a little bit of pressure off of some of our younger guys having to step in right away at the start of the season and play a big role. If they can do that and they’re ready, great. But this way with having Pontis on board, I think we we are be it makes us an even better defensive team and it gives our young guys a little more time to work their way into the lineup. You have what 63 or 64 guys. 63 I think. Yeah. And and a fair number of like new names, invitees. Um I know you have to manage the entire organization which includes the American League etc. like how how many like how many spots are there like how many guys are gone now from the big club and a combination of Syracuse and is that one of the reasons why there’s a fair number of invitees? Well, I think the invitees are mostly players that are going to be playing either for Syracuse or Orlando. I think the only inviteee we have that’s not under contract either with us or with Syracuse is uh Maddox Libri who’s a young player is an 18-year-old player uh whom we liked and had on our draft list and wanted to get to know a little bit better uh and use this opportunity to get to know him a little bit better going into his uh age 18 season in juniors. Otherwise, everyone else is already within the organization somewhere. Um, in terms of roster spots, uh, I think one difference going into this season is we have a little bit, we have the luxury of having some cap space this year and the luxury of maybe carrying 23 players, uh, which is a possibility. We haven’t done that in the last few years, a because we just didn’t have the cap space to do it. Couldn’t afford to do it. Uh, but now we can. And maybe to start the year, that’s what we do. We give coaches more options, internal competition for ice time for, uh, spots in the lineup, uh, special team opportunities, and see who grabs those spots maybe at throughout the start of the season. And maybe at a later date, then we if those things get sorted out and we have a clear top 13 forward or top 12 forward that are getting all the minutes, maybe we’ll put someone down and try to acrew cap space at that time. But I think one of the differences I expect us to maybe carry more players going into the season. Now Nick Paul’s injury kind of threw a little bit of a wrench into that plan. We’ll see how camp goes. We’ll see how the guys are looking. But if we have if we have 14 healthy forwards that we think deserve to be here to start the season and can help us win and no one’s kind of sorted out who the clear 12 are, then we might carry 14. And are there a fair number of spots then in Syracuse then too at you know first blush setting things up before camp even opens? Yeah, there’s going to be competition in Syracuse too. I think we have more quality AHL players than we have spots in the lineup in Syracuse going into the season which is a good thing to have. Last year at this point, we had so many injuries like offseason injuries, year- end injuries, players that needed surgery that like uh in the fall at some point in Syracuse, it was a real mass unit. Nine of our top 12 forwards were on IR in Syracuse. Like it was it was it was uh uh challenging for our uh athletic therapists and PT there in Syracuse. They did a fabulous job and the coaches did a great job keeping guys engaged and giving guys opportunities to grow. Uh right now Wood, we’re pretty healthy there. Um hoping and expecting both Nico Hutin and Connor Kurf to be ready for the start of the season at the AHL level. Um so there’ll be competition for ice time there too. Julian, one thing that was kind of a work in progress because you’d lost such a big part of it was was the power play with after losing Stephen, but you know it seemed like when you got Bork Strand right before he got hurt especially that you kind of fit into that that role. I mean do do you do you go in looking at at the power play right now and thinking that you know now that you will do you have him back healthy that that is that there is a little bit more stability to it? more of a it’s again it’s the coaches are going to have more options I think this year in terms of players available to them than in years past because in years past the cap being what it was and our situation being what it was we usually had like these are our 12 forwards these are our seven D sometimes there were maybe some decisions in terms of which D would play over the last couple years but the forwards were kind of set uh this year uh Coupe and his crew are going to have options including how they uh utilize our personnel on the power play I would tell you I’m not not concerned with the power play. We were top five last year. Like pretty good power play. We were in the and I think we were top five the entire year. We were first for a while. We ended up fifth. I think if you’re in the top 10 power player penalty kill whether you’re first or ninth 10th, there’s not a big difference in terms of winnings winning and losing hockey games. So, uh I really like the personnel we have. I’m not sure who’s going to be on the roster, but I think it’s going to be a really strong roster, really talented roster, and really deep roster. So, it’s exciting to see how it all comes together. And in terms of, you know, that fine line, you know, of when you guys had won cups, you know, you you beat some teams that were cup contenders that you had some really tough, you know, series against and you build that momentum. Obviously, the past couple years you’ve lost to the team that ended up winning the cup. You know, what what is that fine? I mean, what is that fine line as you build this roster? And do you think you’ve kind of address you have you closed that gap? I guess as small as it is. Yeah. You’re you’re you’re even if we’d won the cup last year, I’m sure Billy Zto in Florida, he’s still trying to improve his team. Like it’s a it’s a never- ending job. You’re always trying to get better because that’s how you increase your odds of winning regardless of where you are in the standings. So, it never ends. You’re always looking to be better. I think our metrics, we’ve talked about this at the end of last season, like goals against, goals, goals for power play, PK, goal differential, five on five play, we checked a lot of boxes. We still went out and tried to do even better, try to improve the roster at the deadline, try to improve the roster this off season. Um, so you’re always looking to improve your roster. I think a thing that’s exciting for us now is some of that growth might be internal, it might be organic. We have some young players that are going to be pushing to play a bigger role, I think. Uh, and it’ll be exciting to see if they are able to do that and how quickly they’ll be able to do that. One of the changes you did make was on the bench, right? Jeff gets the job in Chicago. I didn’t make that change. Jeff got a great opportunity for himself and uh, yeah, you bring in Dan um, you know, to kind of add to it. Like what what’s some of Dan’s strengths that makes him a good fit for this staff? Uh I think well he has a lot of experience both as a player and as a coach as play has worked for some really good organizations and coached some good players and good teams. Uh has an interesting background uh as a player started his college career at West Point. You don’t see that very often. Um so he he just has an interesting background and I find every time we’ve had coaching changes uh we went we brought in uh Derek Lone one year and then he got a great opportunity for himself. Then we brought Jeff Blashel in and now Jeff got a great opportunity for himself and uh Dan’s coming in. They bring us a fresh perspective. They’re the the blessing is we’ve had enough success to have stability and continuity in our staff. Uh the challenge with that is that we might have some blind spots because it’s the same people all the time. So when we get a fresh perspective coming in, I I I thought it was true when we got Newsie. I thought it was true when we got Jeff. and it’s proving to be true right now with Dan is they bring a fresh set of eyes to how we do things to our players, uh how we coach our players, how we see our players, how we utilize our players, even our operations. And there’s a lot of value in having that fresh set of eyes and that fresh perspective for for someone who’s been here for a long time like me or from or Coupe. Your first look at Sam O’Reilly up close during prospect camp. Just quick impressions on uh he he uh he’s exactly what we thought. nononsense professional gamer, really smart hockey player. He’s the type of guy that the more you watch him play, the more you’re going to like him because he’s so smart. He does so many things out there that are winning winning hockey type actions. Uh so really excited to have him in the organization and I look forward to seeing what he’ll do during this camp here. Still a young player, I realistically u realistically I think he still has some development that needs to take place. physically, experience-wise in order to help us win in Tampa in the short term, but uh really like his upside, really like what he can bring to the table. Julie, when you I’m sorry. Go ahead. You brought in number of players over the last few years, whether it’s Pegle, Moser, Gensel, even Paul. You also have a lot of players with long track records, history of accomplishment in this league that many are moving into their bigs. Where do you see the window of opportunity on this team right now with that mix? Well, I think the only two guys that would qualify for mid-30s are Mcdana and Henman probably, right? Yeah. Cooch is playing his 31 season, I think, this year turned 32. Um, I think the guys we have right now, they’re all going to be really good players for a long time. I think the only two that would qualify for being mid-30s players are are Henman Mcdana and those two are um elite hockey players uh elite athletes and they are the exception to the rule. They’re guys that are going to still be able to perform at a high level going into their late 30s, maybe even early 40s. Julian, obviously one of the big topic of conversation is the contract with Mcdana played all 82 games last year. How do you kind of balance like what he’s done, what he can do, and knowing, all right, we got to have that conversation at some point. Is that something you do during the season? Maybe you table it till after. Uh it we’re going to table everything till after. At least that’s the plan right now. And that’s what that’s my expectation. That’s what’s going to happen. Obviously, we have uh Mack that needs a contract at the end of the season. Um we have a few others Bjorkstrand, JJ Moser, Emil Lillberg, uh Mitch Chaffy, Darren Radish. I think those are the guys that were in Tampa last year. and who need contracts in this season. And it’s not a judgment on them. We’re not doing cont like in a salary cap world, you’re not doing contracts in a vacuum. It’s always how all do all the pieces fit together to build the best puzzle um and assemble the nicest best picture, best roster possible. Uh and how you allocate those dollars important. We have time right now. We’re going to use that time. I think that’s the wisest course of action for us. When we traded for uh Ryan Mcdana, I told him the plan was to not only have him finish his career, his contract here, but sign another contract after that. My expectation is that’s what’s going to happen. Just like when we traded for Yanni Gourd, I told him at the time like this is not I’m not bringing you in as a rental. My expectation is that we’re going to work together on getting a contract done. Yanni worked with us and we got a contract done. Now he gets to stay here and we get to keep having his services help us win games in Tampa. That’s what I’m hoping and expecting will happen after the season with Ryan Mcdana. He’s led the league in plus minus last year. He went to the USA camp, has a shot at making the Olympic team. Like he’s still an elite elite defender in this league and a phenomenal leader. So even if his play slips eventually and father time is undefeated, he will still help us win with how with all the intangibles he brings to the table because not only are we a better team because of his individual play, but because of how he makes everyone around him better. So um super important player to us, super important leader to us, and I fully expect that to be the case going forward beyond this season as well. Um, last season Florida had a couple players that went into the season, key players for them, uh, that were going to be unrestricted free agents. They played out the year. They won a cup. They end up resigning in Florida. I’m hoping that’d be a great way for us to do a contract with MAC after the season after winning another championship. Julian, how’s the institution of the now playoff salary cap factor into any decisions you may have to make moving forward that weren’t there before? I think it’s going to impact how teams operate at the deadline. Uh our use of LTI or long-term injury exemption is now reduced as well. Like uh if you have a player that’s going to come back, even over the course of the season, you can’t fully replace the value of that player’s cap hit. So that’s lucky for us right now, we’re healthy, so it doesn’t affect us, but it’s affecting other teams around the league. And at the deadline, uh there are two changes. They uh one is you can you can’t have a double retention anymore. So we did that last year when we got Yanni Gourd. Uh you know Detroit ate 25% of his contract. Seattle ate 50% of his contract. We got Yanni Gord for 25%. Uh now unless the players unless a player that’s already had some retention is uh has been with his the team is trading him for 75 days there can’t be a second retention. So not at most really at the deadline you’re getting a player at 50% off not 75% off. We had done the 75% off uh scenario with David Savard in 2021 as well. So that option is now off the table for teams not just us but all teams. Uh and the other factor is if you acrew cap space uh which for most years we weren’t in a position to do but we were last year and and we should be this year. Uh whoever you bring in you have to be able to fit them under the new playoff salary cap as well. So recruiting cap space becomes less valuable um because whoever’s coming in come playoff time, you need to kick out pretty much the same amount of money. So you’re not adding to an existing roster that’s probably a playoff roster. If you’re adding at the deadline, you’re now substituting. So it makes it a little less appealing. So it’ll be interesting to see how uh this all translate, not just for us, but throughout the league uh around trade deadline. I think that’s where it’s going to we’re going to see it. The other thing we’re going to see, I think, is um the use of maybe a third goalie to back up in the playoffs. Uh if you need the extra cap space and your third goalie has a lower cap number than your number two goalie, it’s a way to create some cap space. Julian, not to get too much in the weeds on this, but if you can give us a simple answer, that’d be great. So, in the playoffs, that cap number is related to the 18 and two that you’re correct addressing. So, like where are they coming up with that number exactly? because it’s less than the 23 that you would have during the regular season. Uh well, you would have to ask the league and the PA. They came up with the number, but essentially they’re using uh the salary cap number that you have throughout the season to keep a 23 healthy player roster and they’re now saying that’s your that’s your cap for your 20man lineup in the playoffs. So, you do have three fewer players. So, there’s a bit of a cushion there. What do you expect from a guy like Connor Gi last year? Made a really strong impression early on, sent him down. When he came back, it looked like it really benefited him. How important is he to kind of fill in that gap for Nick Paul at least until November? And you expect him in the middle on the wing? Like where do you expect him as far as his contribution? I I would say where he fits in the lineup is a coupe decision. Uh the good part for us is Connor can play various positions and can fill different roles for us already. Uh what am I expecting from him personally? I’m expecting him to take a step. I know he’s put in the work this summer. Uh I spent a lot of time working with our our development people. Uh was very diligent about it. Uh on the ice, off the ice, and it he’s one of the players I’m excited to see how how big of a step he’s taken during this off season. Julian, just for for fans out there, what are some other younger players, newer players that you brought in that you’re most excited for to see them in training camp? I’m excited to see all of them. We just we just had our uh prospect showcase and honestly when you go into an event like that to put into perspective these players don’t really have a history playing together. There’s no there’s no chemistry going in. Uh we get two practices and then we start playing games. So there’s no time really to implement any type of structure or system. Uh so my expectation for events like that from an execution standpoint, my my expectations are fairly low because it’s it’d be unfair to expect more. Uh because you need to build that chemistry through reps and these young players don’t get those reps. So what am I looking for in an event like that? I’m looking to see who’s not going to be intimidated by the moment, who’s going to be assertive, who’s going to step up and compete. And to a man, our guys all did that this weekend. Even though we had the youngest roster of the four teams uh playing in Wesley Chapel, um our guys didn’t play like they were the youngest guys out there. They were competitive. They were physical. They were assertive. They were trying to make plays. If they made a mistake, they bounce right back. Uh I was really impressed with uh with the mindset of uh of that young group of players that’s coming in. Uh kudos to our scouting staff. Like I I usually leave them very few picks in the first three rounds. no first round picks. So, they have to find players uh later on in the draft. Um, and they seem to have done that. Kudos to our coaching staff who were able to bring them together, get them organized, get them in the right frame of mind to compete over the weekend. Um, if I’m going to name two, I’m going to name two just because I think they’re a really good example of of the quality work our scouts do. Uh, Harry Menigan and Caleb Hail, both goalenders there. I thought they played phenomenally well. They look really good at our summer development camp as well. Now we got seen playing games and you look at those are both seven round picks. Uh one won the playoff MVP and won the Memorial Cup last year. Um they were playing the Memorial Cup. The other one is, you know, vying for maybe a spot on uh Team USA’s World 20 team at the World Championships as a seven round pick. Uh those are really good finds. They’re, I would say, really good value propositions considering where they were drafted. Their talent is way above that of a seven round pick. So, kudos to our our scouting staff led by John Roso, our goalie scout, uh, Jared Weman, those look like two really promising young players. And then and then also with Coupe entering I think his 13th full season as as head coach. Just what have you seen from him now versus the younger Coupe and how have you seen him just develop and grow throughout the years? Uh that’d be a long answer. The the the thing with Coupe is he came in even when we hired him uh and the reason we hired him was because of his leadership skills and they haven’t gone anywhere. He’s still a fabulous leader. He’s still uh very charismatic. Uh really really smart, works hard. Uh still hungry for more. Uh I’ve been fortunate also I’ve been fortunate to work with him in at the minor league level and work with him here both as an assistant GM for a while now as as the GM, but now we all we also have this new relationship with team Canada where I’m assistant GM and he’s the head coach. Uh and get to see him work with those players. Um he’s an impressive head coach. We’re very fortunate to have him. Um, and he’s part of the reason why I’m optimistic about this season. I think we have a lot of talent on the uh we’re going to have a lot of talent on the ice and behind the bench. Thank you. Your right side.
GM Julien BriseBois takes the podium during our 2025 Media Day.
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2 comments
So looking forward to the new season and another run at bringing the cup home to Tampa.
Sad to see Nick Perbix go .