Lightning Recall Sam O’Reilly

The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that they’re recalling prospect Sam O’Reilly from AHL Syracuse.

Whenever Tampa places him into the forward lineup, it’ll be for the player’s NHL debut. O’Reilly has two goals for six points in 12 AHL games with the Crunch to start the AHL this season.

The 20-year-old was the last selection of the first round by the Oilers in the 2024 NHL draft, but Edmonton traded him to the Bolts for the signing rights to reigning Hobey Baker Award winner Isaac Howard. Howard was previously Tampa’s top prospect, but a disagreement over the role he would play in 2025-26 led him to decide not to sign with the club, essentially forcing a trade unless they wanted to lose him for nothing in free agency next summer. O’Reilly was a good consolation prize. The 6’1″, 190-lb pivot projects squarely as a bottom-six piece for this Bolts squad long-term but with the unknown timeframe of Brayden Point’s injury, he’ll likely fill in as the 2nd-line center.

Point is set to miss some time for Tampa as he left their 4-3 loss to Winnipeg with an undisclosed injury in the first period, playing just above five minutes of ice time. The 30-year-old is a key loss for a contending Lightning team, who benefit from his near 19 minutes of ice time, fifth on the roster, along with his scoring; a 5-11—16 statline, all of which are top-4 in their respective categories among his teammates.

For O’Reilly, it’s a huge step but nothing he hasn’t seen before in previous stints. Simply put, he’s a winning team player, having been just the fourth player in OHL history to be named regular season MVP, playoff MVP, and Memorial Cup MVP in one campaign. Scouts credited him as a relentless shutdown defensive middle-man with attention to details; it’s rung throughout his development that he’s nearly always in a perfect position on the ice. He’s also a strong playmaker, having registered 77 goals and 198 points with a plus-103 rating in 191 career OHL contests between the London Knights and Kitchener Rangers, winning back-to-back Memorial Cup Championships.

That all will help an NHL insertion, unlike some young first-round talents, a bottom-line workload wouldn’t be detrimental to his development but can certainly benefit the Bolts’ roster. O’Reilly is in year one of a three-year entry-level contract that’ll pay him $936K annually.