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Isaac Howard, Michigan State University (MSU Athletic Communications)

Lightning Prospects Report: Howard, Kurth, Harvey & More

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Jim Bay | Last updated Mar 25, 2025 8:35 AM ET

Welcome to the latest installment of the future Lightning prospect series. In this column, we take a look at the Tampa Bay Lightning prospects who are standing out and enjoying success, whether they’re playing in college, the Canadian juniors, the American Hockey League (AHL), Europe, Russia, or anywhere around the world.

This edition will focus on the Lightning prospects who are playing on teams selected to participate in the NCAA Hockey Tournament. The 16 teams selected to play for the national championship have been placed in their regionals, and the puck will drop on Thursday (March 27) and Friday (March 28), two of the more exciting days on the hockey calendar.

The single-elimination tournament will be played in four different regions, with a first round followed by a regional final. The winner of each region will advance to the 2025 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four in St. Louis, which starts on April 10 and finishes on April 12 with the national championship game.

The Lightning has five prospects on five teams participating in the tournament, with one of those being named a finalist for a prestigious award.

Isaac Howard – Michigan State

In addition to Michigan State heading to the tournament, Isaac Howard was recently announced as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the annual honor given to the top player in NCAA Division I college hockey. Before the Big Ten Conference Tournament, he scored 24 goals and 23 assists for 47 points in 35 games for the Spartans. He heads into the tournament with 51 points in 36 games. He stamped his case for winning the award by having an outstanding performance in the tournament, highlighted by a four-point effort in the title game, netting the game-winning goal with just minutes to spare in the second overtime to lead the Spartans over Ohio State.

MSU is a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season and will play in the Toledo regional. The Spartans are the overall No. 2 seed behind No. 1 Boston College and ahead of No. 3 Maine and No. 4 Western Michigan. The Spartans begin NCAA Tournament play on Thursday (March 27) and will face ECAC tournament champion Cornell. The Spartans are making their second consecutive and 29th NCAA Tournament appearances, ranking seventh all-time among Division I schools.

Jack Harvey – Boston University

The Terriers will be looking to make their third straight trip to the Frozen Four in their 40th NCAA Tournament appearance. They earned a No. 2 seed in the Toledo Regional and will face the third-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes. Jack Harvey has 24 points in 36 games for BU, which has been to the Frozen Four 24 times and has won five national titles, the last in 2009. The Terriers lost in overtime to Denver in the national semifinals last season, the second straight year they lost in the national semis.

Connor Kurth – Minnesota

Minnesota heads to its 42nd all-time NCAA Tournament appearance, the most of any college hockey program, extending a five-year streak at the postseason event. The Gophers enter the tournament behind a 25-10-4 mark this season and a record seventh Big Ten Conference regular season championship in the league’s 12-year history. Connor Kurth, a sixth-round pick of the Lightning in 2022, was recently named to the all-Big Ten Honorable Mention team.

NCAAM

Connor Kurth move to 2nd on the Gophers team with this goal from just outside the paint. Kurth from Elk River has 38 points and helped the Gophers win 4-2 over Notre Dame securing a rubber match game 3 Sunday. pic.twitter.com/874tTqGs4E
— YHH (@YouthHockeyHub) March 9, 2025

Kurth has set career bests in goals (17), assists (21), and points (38) to tie for second in scoring for Minnesota in 2024-25 after putting up 32 combined points as a freshman and sophomore. The Lindstrom, Minnesota native is the nation’s plus/minus leader at plus-31 and currently leads the Gophers with six appearances of three or more points this season, including his first collegiate hat trick on opening night against Air Force (Oct. 11) during the 2024 Ice Breaker Tournament.

Eamon Powell – Boston College

The Boston College Eagles were the regular-season champs in the Hockey East but fell to Northeastern in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament over the weekend. However, they claimed the top seed in the tourney following a 26-7-2 season. Boston College, which was selected as the top seed for the second straight season, will open this year’s tournament in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday (March 28) against Bentley University, which is making its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance as the Atlantic Hockey champs.

Powell, a graduate student at BC, decided to return for one more season after the Eagles lost to the University of Denver in last season’s title game. The Lightning had selected the Marcellus, N.Y., native in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, and the plan was to turn pro in the spring of 2024. However, in the days following the loss to the Pioneers, Powell realized he could benefit from another year in college. Now, Powell and the Eagles have another chance to claim college hockey’s top prize.

Hagen Burrows – University of Denver

The University of Denver hockey team is the No. 3 seed in the Manchester Northeast Regional and will play No. 2-seed Providence College to begin the 2025 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Championships on Friday (March 28). DU earned one of the 10 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament after going 29-11-1 and finishing ninth in the Pairwise computer rankings that determine the national tournament field. Burrows, a fourth-round selection of the Lightning in 2024, was named Mr. Hockey in Minnesota in 2023-24 and was also awarded Metro Player of the Year and the Associated Press’ Minnesota Player of the Year. He has nine points in 36 games for the Pioneers.

As all games will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, Lightning fans will get the chance to watch the prospects compete for a national championship while also seeing how these young players have developed and someday may don a Lightning sweater.