The Tampa Bay Lightning made their first trade of the year, and while it might be considered a minor one, they bring some potential offense on the blue line into the system. Prior to their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team announced that they had acquired defender Ethan Samson from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Roman Schmidt.
The trade brings Schmidt’s tenure with the organization to a close. A rugged defender with size, the 22-year-old showed some potential over the last season, but an inability to stay healthy has slowed his progression a bit. Ranked 12th in the latest Top 25 Under 25, Schmidt has one assist in 13 appearances for the Crunch this season.
In exchange, the Lightning acquire Samson, the Flyers sixth-round pick in the 2021 draft. Also 22-years-old, Samson provides a little more offensive upside than Schmidt. He has 4 assists in 10 games this season, but is coming off a 24-point (12 goals, 12 assists) season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in 2024-25, his second full season in the AHL. He’s in the final season of an entry-level deal that carries a $846,667 cap hit at the NHL level, and will be a restricted free agent this summer.
An assistant captain during his junior hockey days with the Prince George Cougars, he put up 122 points (36 goals, 86 assists) in 211 games in the WHL. While he’s shown some offensive savvy in his young career, he is also responsible in his own zone. The right-shot defender uses his size (6’3″, 205 lbs) and high work rate to swarm puck carriers. He isn’t a great skater, but has some nice instincts when it comes to breaking the puck out of the zone.
A native of British Columbia, Samson did miss the first few weeks of the season after suffering an upper-body injury in training camp. He appears to be healthy and should help a Crunch defense that his had some turnover in recent weeks. The Lightning’s need for healthy bodied has cost them several of their top defenders of late. Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Max Crozier have been in Tampa the longest, but Steven Santini and Declan Carlile were away from the team for awhile as well.
They’ve signed a few players to PTOs (Roman Rodzinski and Vincent Sevigny), called up Dyllan Gill and Chris Harpur from Orlando, and signed veteran Jarred Tinordi to an AHL deal. Tinordi, a veteran of over 200 NHL games, is attempting to come back from off-season knee surgery.