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London Knights celebrate after Sam O’Reilly scores the overtime winner at the 2025 Memorial Cup (Photo by Vincent Ethier/CHL)

Getting to Know New Lightning Prospect Sam O’Reilly

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Harrison Smajovits | Last updated Jul 16, 2025 12:15 PM ET

Isaac Howard is now in the rearview mirror, and the Tampa Bay Lightning can put their focus on forward Sam O’Reilly. The Memorial Cup champion and 2024 first-round pick now brings excitement and possibilities that Howard initially brought to the table.

According to the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo Encina, the 19-year-old prospect is expected to be “a strong two-way third-line NHL center who can also play the PK.” He stands at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds.

After taking a few days to look over his track record and consider his potential ceiling with the Lightning, it’s time to help fans get to know him a little better.

Lightning Acquire a Winner

O’Reilly first began putting himself on the map with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) during the 2023-24 season. After going scoreless on the statsheet in five games during the previous season, he had 20 goals and 36 assists for 56 points in 68 games. That effort was the third-best among rookies in the OHL, and he was named to the league’s Second All-Rookie Team. The Knights went on to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup, the OHL’s championship, for the sixth time in team history. The 32nd-overall pick in that year’s draft had five goals and seven assists for 12 points in the 16 games of that playoff run. He also had a goal and three assists in the Memorial Cup that postseason. The Knights made it all the way to the Memorial Cup Final, losing to the Saginaw Spirit 4-3.

He signed his entry-level contract with the Edmonton Oilers in October 2024 and went back to London for another season.

O’Reilly set new career highs in scoring the following season with 28 goals and 43 assists for 71 points in 62 games. He had 15 more points overall in six fewer games. He took it a step further that season, and so did the Knights. They took down the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 in the Memorial Cup Final to capture their third championship in team history.

In the winning effort, O’Reilly had seven goals and 22 points in 17 playoff games with five points in five games during the Memorial Cup. A standout moment was his overtime goal during the round robin to beat the Moncton Wildcats 3-2.

The Lightning have acquired a player who has shown progression and comes up in the clutch in big games for his team.

The Lightning Player He Most Closely Resembles (and What That Means)

A common comparison O’Reilly is getting is to Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli. He’s heard it plenty, and based on recent comments, he’s embraced the comparison.

“A guy that people tell me I kind of play around the same style as him is a guy like Cirelli,” O’Reilly said to the Tampa Bay Times. “Sometimes my coaches will say that, too. So, he’s a really good guy to be compared to, for sure.

“But I mean, there’s still a lot of work to put into that. So, but yeah, he’s a good guy to take notes from: his game, he plays the right way, and it works out for him” (from ‘Could new Lightning prospect Sam O’Reilly be the next Anthony Cirelli?,’ Tampa Bay Times, July 11, 2025).

Both are two-way forwards of similar height and weight. Cirelli also won the Memorial Cup and scored an overtime winner. He buried the puck 88 seconds into overtime in the Final to lift the Oshawa Generals over the Kelowna Rockets, 2-1.

Encina wrote that if this comparison comes to fruition in any way, this trade panned out for the Lightning.

“If O’Reilly, 19, can become anywhere close to the player Cirelli is, the Lightning will be able to consider the trade a win, no matter how many times Howard drops to one knee and runs his glove over his helmet in an Oilers uniform to celebrate a goal.”

However, there is one important distinction between the two: O’Reilly shoots right while Cirelli shoots left. The Lightning have very few players who shoot right on the roster to begin with, let alone two-way players who shoot right. If they had kept Howard around and found a way to sign him, this problem would have only gotten even starker. This trade switched things up in a couple of ways, making O’Reilly’s addition even more intriguing.

Adding a two-way player who shoots right adds more possibilities for the Lightning when devising their playbook. I’m not a coach. I’m not going to sit here and try to draw up convoluted plays. However, it doesn’t take a coach to know that diversifying the lineup in this fashion, in turn, can diversify what the offense can do. Having O’Reilly and Cirelli as different options allows for changing things up without sacrificing the defense that both bring to the ice.

Lightning fans will get their first looks at O’Reilly ahead of the regular season. He didn’t get to participate in development camp because he was traded after he could jump in. However, director of player development J.P. Cote is working with him to prepare for more work this summer and for training camp. We should expect to see him get some action in preseason games and perhaps at some point, if the Lightning think he’s ready, he could get a crack at time in the NHL.