{"id":587221,"date":"2026-05-30T15:45:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/587221\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T15:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:45:24","slug":"lightning-sign-benjamin-rautiainen-to-entry-level-contract-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/587221\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning Sign Benjamin Rautiainen To Entry-Level Contract \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tampa Bay Lightning have inked one of their draft selections from last summer. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/lightning\/news\/tampa-bay-lightning-sign-forward-benjamin-rautiainen-to-three-year-entry-level-contract\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">According to a team announcement<\/a>, the Lightning have signed forward <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/710221\/benjamin-rautiainen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Benjamin Rautiainen<\/a> to a three-year, entry-level contract. <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EddieInTheYard\/status\/2060440017474883758\" rel=\"nofollow\">According to Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>, the Lightning had to buy out the final year of Rautiainen\u2019s contract with Tappara to facilitate the deal.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, Rautiainen, 20, was drafted 108th overall by the Lightning in the 2025 NHL Draft. The Tampere, Finland native was playing for the Finnish Liiga\u2019s Tappara, scoring 10 goals and 33 points in 50 games with a +4 rating. Additionally, he registered two goals and four points in nine postseason contests.<\/p>\n<p>This season, Rautiainen turned heads. He was easily the most dominant force in Finland\u2019s professional ranks, scoring 25 goals and 77 points in 59 games with a +24 rating. The next closest scorer was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/blichjo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-29_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Joachim Blichfeld<\/a> (33 goals and 71 points in 52 games), who is seven years older than Rautiainen.<\/p>\n<p>Always looking for cheap depth, Rautiainen made Tampa Bay\u2019s decision relatively easy. Although it\u2019s typically unreasonable to expect a younger player to make the jump from Europe to the NHL, unless they\u2019re coming from the KHL, there\u2019s a non-zero chance Rautiainen cracks the Lightning\u2019s roster out of training camp, albeit as a 12th or 13th forward.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it wouldn\u2019t hurt Rautiainen to begin the 2026-27 season with the AHL\u2019s Syracuse Crunch. Rautiainen\u2019s ability to provide offense in multiple ways should blend well with his peers in Syracuse, who recently tied for eighth in AHL scoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning have inked one of their draft selections from last summer. According to a team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[751,5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167,405],"class_list":["post-587221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-benjamin-rautiainen","tag-hockey","tag-lightning","tag-nhl","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning","tag-transactions"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116664305180948965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}