It didn’t take long for Lightning center Dominic James to burst onto the NHL scene and show that he could be an impact player.
This time a year ago, he had just completed his final college season at Minnesota-Duluth. Now, he’s a major part of the Lightning’s future, the latest example of how the organization continues to develop young talent without having much draft capital.
James was one of the Lightning’s best players in their first-round playoff series against Montreal, making his NHL postseason debut while coming off an ankle injury that had sidelined him for seven weeks.
“I thought he did great in this series, especially coming off that injury, not really having any time to kind of get reps before,” Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said. “He was out for multiple weeks, and his first game back is Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He did really, really well, and only got better as the series went on.”
James, 23, now goes into the offseason with confidence that he can play at the NHL level while also knowing that there’s still a lot of room to grow. As a rookie, he was able to play in a variety of roles, and by the end of the year he not only carved a niche for himself in the lineup, he showed he could fit into a top-six role.
“In the NHL, there’s a lot of strong players, and I’ve got to get stronger,” the 6-foot, 190-pound James said. “And you can say that every summer, but it feels like it means more of the summer, coming back to the NHL and getting that first taste. The National Hockey League was great for me. And I think it’s going to be one of the biggest summers of my life.”
James was able to show he can utilize his speed in different ways, from forcing pressure on the forecheck to carrying the puck in space. The more he played, the more he was able to use his speed to find scoring opportunities in big moments.
Not even BriseBois anticipated James, who was signed as a free agent two days into training camp after his draft rights with the Blackhawks expired, would have made such a quick impact.
“My expectations are usually low for everyone coming in,” BriseBois said. “That way, I’m not disappointed. It’s a great surprise when they overshoot my expectations. We saw Dominic James as an NHL prospect, someone that certainly had the wheels and had the compete, played with pace.
“And then how quickly would he adjust to the pro game? How quickly would he adjust the physicality of the pro game, the 82 games, the grind? But he adjusted great. He came in and was a breath of fresh air, I think, for the locker room, for our environment. We missed it when he was out of the lineup.”
James was promoted to the Lightning after just four games at AHL Syracuse, compiling three goals and five points with the Crunch. At the time, the Lightning needed a spark, having lost five of their first six games. The infusion of new blood with James and defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous did just that.
Lightning center Dominic James moves the puck into the offensive zone during overtime of Game 2 of the first-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens on April 21 in Tampa. “I thought he did great in this series,” Lightning GM Julien BriseBois said. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times)
James had seven goals and 15 points in 43 games before his regular season was cut short by an ankle injury Feb. 28 against Buffalo. He was really starting to find his NHL game, having scored in back-to-back games for the first time and recording points in three of his previous four.
“As a young guy to come in and play for the Lightning, there’s so many guys to learn from and so many experiences, starting from the first game of preseason,” James said. “There’s the whole battle of Florida, and to kind of be thrown in the fire that way, it was unreal. And with the Stadium Series, the experiences this year, they were second to none. I couldn’t be more thankful for all the guys and the staff, for sure.”
When James went to the ice awkwardly after getting entangled with Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring, it looked like his season might be over. But James was focused on returning in time for the playoffs, and he came back ahead of schedule, drawing in for Game 1 against the Canadiens.
On James’ first playoff shift, he reinjured his ankle in a collision with Montreal defenseman Arber Xhekaj. But he returned to the game, and coach Jon Cooper said that the scare might have been the best thing for James, because he got better as the game went on.
James would score two big goals in the series, a tying goal in the second period of Game 5 and the Lightning’s only goal in Game 7, on the power play. He also had the primary assist on Tampa Bay’s most important goal, finding Gage Goncalves at the back post for the overtime winner in Game 6 in Montreal.
“Those are huge games to grow from, and I’ll be a better man because of it,” James said. “If we didn’t make the playoffs, I wouldn’t get that experience of seven straight games of war, basically. It was great to get under my belt, great to make an impact in any way that I could have in the series. And it just makes you never want to feel that way again, and it pushes you for the summer.”
Lightning center Dominic James celebrates after scoring in Game 7 of the first-round playoff series against the Canadiens. He had two goals and three points in the seven-game series. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times)