1. Shoutout Syracuse

How often in the hockey sphere do we talk about the importance of depth?

All. The. Time.

You need it in your NHL lineup, and you need it throughout your organizational depth chart. In recent weeks, the Lightning have exhibited both.

Just look at last weekend’s lineup against the Panthers, as the Lightning faced the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs without the previously mentioned cast as well as Nick Paul, Pontus Holmberg and rookie Dominic James.

In came reinforcements from the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (AHL), as five players from Saturday appeared in Syracuse’s 2025-26 opening night lineup.

Forward Boris Katchouk played his second game of the season for Tampa Bay after not playing an NHL game all last season. Lightning coach Jon Cooper called him arguably the team’s best player in last Wednesday’s game against the Rangers, and he was again effective as a center and penalty killer.

Scott Sabourin set up Jack Finley’s first career NHL goal in the 3-1 win over the Panthers only days after scoring on a laser beam of a snap shot in his Bolts debut Nov. 12.

Jakob Pelletier also got his first Lightning game since signing a three-year contract with the team this summer. He co-leads the Crunch in scoring this season.

Sabourin was reassigned to Syracuse on Wednesday, but he was part of a gigantic presence—both literally and metaphorically—over the past week.

Sabourin developed some quick chemistry with the hulking rookie duo of Finley and Curtis Douglas. All three of the big guys scored two points across their first two games together, which included Sabourin’s first NHL goal since 2020 and Finley’s NHL first.

The line combined to stand 19’ 7” tall, the third-biggest of any trio of NHL teammates this season. They played 7 minutes, 54 seconds together in their debut as a trio, while the only two taller NHL lines (of the New York Rangers) didn’t play even a minute together.

Sabourin challenged numerous Panthers players to a fight on Saturday, but none were willing to accept.

“I think it’s a big part of our game, getting in on the forecheck and making sure the other team knows we’re there,” Douglas said of the line, mentioning playing against Sabourin in the AHL. “He’s a hard player to play against as well, and I think he adds that toughness to our line. It’s hard to play against us when we’re out there, and it kind of opens up the ice for some other guys, which is great.”

Throw in the ascensions of previously recalled defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous and James, and suddenly the Lightning have plenty of NHL options in the fold.

And just when you thought Syracuse might get a break from helping with reinforcements, we saw the recalls and season debuts of defensemen Steven Santini and Declan Carlile on Tuesday against New Jersey.

Santini is Syracuse’s captain this season, while Carlile leads the AHL team’s blue line in scoring with 10 points in 15 games.

The Lightning are going to have decisions to make when they return to full health. With numerous players on injured reserve and Paul getting closer to his season debut after offseason surgery, those choices might be tougher than many anticipated.

“Awesome choices,” Cooper said after an October practice. “I’d rather have the tough choice than the easy one, where it’s just like, ‘Okay, it’s easy to pull this guy out because he hasn’t been doing very well.’ I’d rather have the hard decision of having to sit a kid that’s been playing unreal because everybody’s playing unreal.”

That’s a great problem to have, one assistant coach Dan Hinote on Monday credited to a focused training camp in September.

“We were winning (preseason) games, and guys were getting rewarded with statistics and also playing time. And I think now these guys that are coming up, they’re already familiar because we went through that. When you go through any kind of basic training or training camp, you build that camaraderie through adversity, and we had plenty of that built into our practices,” Hinote said.

“So the boys battled against each other. Iron sharpens iron, but also it builds a little bit of a bond between you. So when they come up, there’s some familiarity, there’s some joy, and then they’re able to play at their peak.”