Lightning Place Curtis Douglas On Waivers

The Lightning have placed forward Curtis Douglas on waivers, according to a report from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The move will allow him to report to AHL Syracuse temporarily tomorrow if he clears, making him eligible to suit up for them in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

He can be immediately recalled back to the Lightning’s roster after doing so without having first played an AHL game, thanks to a specific deadline day exemption in the new CBA’s rule that players must play at least one minor-league game after reassignment before being eligible for a recall.

Douglas, 26 tomorrow, was selected off waivers from the Mammoth at the end of training camp last fall. He’s served as a fringe fourth-line option for the Lightning’s forward group throughout the year, spending more time in the press box than in the lineup.

While a natural center, he’s played exclusively at left wing. He’s appeared in 29 games this season, recording two points and a +1 rating.

It’s not Douglas’ offense that the Bolts insert him into the lineup for, though. The gargantuan 6’9″, 242-lb enforcer has shown some offensive upside in the minors but has exclusively been a pot-stirrer for Tampa, recording a team-high 92 penalty minutes despite not providing a ton of straight-up physicality at 1.10 hits per game.

Douglas’ possession impacts have been quite strong, ranking near the middle of the Bolts’ forward pack with a 52.7% Corsi For rate but leading them with a 60.4% share of expected goals. A lot of that has to do with his deployment. Tampa doesn’t give its fourth line a ton of defensive zone assignments like most other teams, instead preferring to use them in sheltered O-zone forecheck usage. No Bolts forward has started a greater share of shifts in the offensive zone at 5-on-5 than Douglas at 75.5%.

Still, Douglas averaging just 5:58 of ice time per game signals he isn’t a piece that head coach Jon Cooper ideally wants in his playoff lineup. With today’s news that Dominic James will miss at least the first round of the playoffs and likely well into the second round as well, it won’t be surprising to see the Lightning use their limited deadline cap space on a bottom-six forward to keep Douglas primarily in a press-box role.