Another year of Tampa Bay Lightning development camp is officially underway as the next generation of players descended upon TGH Ice Plex in Brandon on Monday.
Thirty-one players are participating in the 2025 camp, which ends with a 3-on-3 tournament spread across Thursday and Friday.
Each day during camp, I’ll share notes from my interviews and observations throughout the day, taking fans through the day’s events, introducing you to the newest members of the organization, sharing thoughts from the coaching staff and other storylines I’m tracking.
Today, we’ll introduce the 2025 attendees, talk through Monday’s on-ice focus and catch up with a Bolts alumnus who is jumping in as a volunteer coach this week.
Names, names and more names
Among this year’s attendees are seven of the team’s eight 2025 NHL Draft picks—second-rounder Ethan Czata is joined by fourth-round picks Benjamin Rautiainen and Aiden Foster as well as fifth-round pick Everett Baldwin. Seventh-round picks Caleb Heil, Grant Spada and Marco Mignosa are also in attendance this week.
Tampa Bay will also see 2024 draftees Hagen Burrows, Jan Golicic, Joona Saarelainen, Joe Connor, Kaden Pitre, Noah Steen and Harrison Meneghin at this week’s camp alongside 2023 draft picks Ethan Gauthier and Jayson Shaugabay. Forward Lucas Mercuri, who the team recently signed after acquiring the 23-year-old forward in a March trade with Carolina, is also here this week.
In all, Tampa Bay is hosting 21 forwards, six defensemen and four goalies at this week’s camp, a list that includes 22 Lightning draft picks.
Seven players with no direct affiliation to the Lightning will take to the ice this week, joining the camp as invitees.
Maddox Labre, 18, is the lone defensive invitee. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound defenseman had three goals and 19 points in 61 games in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and will head to Ohio State University this fall.
Two goalies join this year’s camp as invitees—18-year-old Anders Miller and 21-year-old Arthur Smith.
Miller split his 2024-25 season between the Lloydminster Bobcats of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League (WHL). The 6-foot-2 netminder posted a 13-4-2 record and .909 save percentage in Calgary.
Smith finished his sophomore season at Princeton University with a 5-7-1 record, .892 save percentage and one shutout.
Forward invitees Callum Arnott, Will Elger and Rainers Rullers all played NCAA hockey during the 2024-25 season, while forward Sawyer Mayes spent last season in the Western Hockey League with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Calgary Hitmen.
Skating intake with Barb Underhill
Monday began with off-ice testing and meetings, but players also took to the ice for skating intake tests.
These tests have been conducted each of the past 14 seasons by Lightning skating coach consultant Barb Underhill. Players skate around the ice while being recorded before Underhill assesses their technique from all angles to find focus areas.
“To improve your skating, you have to have a solid foundation. So I look really closely at how they load their weight, how they unload their weight, how aligned they are, how they control their torso. I look at the symmetry of how they move,” Underhill said.
“There's so many areas I look at, and then I sometimes just see something and pinpoint something and work on correcting that, work on correcting or unlocking that potential so we can build a stronger foundation. And when you have a stronger foundation, everything improves.”
Underhill has helped multiple current Lightning players improve as skaters, and she still remembers their initial development camp strides. Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli both improved their skating greatly, she said.
"Skating wasn't his strong point,” she said of a young Point, “and I could see right off the bat that he wasn't balanced correctly on his blade. And so I worked to figure out why, and then I got him into a balanced position. And then once he felt the balance, he was able to load his joints properly, transfer his weight properly, and then everything just kind of falls into place after that. So he was definitely the one that made the greatest change.”
Underhill said Lightning captain Victor Hedman is one example of a powerful, refined stride as a skater. Underhill also gave props to former Lightning forward Tyler Johnson, who possessed a “beautiful” stride when he arrived as a development camp invitee years ago.
Often young players need to improve their torso control and strength in order to transfer weight from skate to skate properly and become smoother skaters, according to Underhill. The most important part of a skating stride is about wearing skates that fit and finding the “sweet spot” on the skate blades with balance.
“It’s about being able to have your center mass over your blade so that you can load all your joints, and if your feet aren't under you and if you're not on the right part of your blade, you can't load correctly and you're just compensating,” Underhill said. “Every sport has a sweet spot. Like baseball, golf, tennis, everything has a sweet spot. In skating, there's a sweet spot on the blade, and when you find it there's a lack of tension in your body. You're just supported. There's no tension. And what I love to do is help players feel that. And when they feel it, they look at me and go, ‘Wow, that felt easy.’ And once you feel it, you don’t want to go back.”
Look and see, it's P.C. Labrie!
It was only three seasons ago that Tampa Bay Lightning fans could still watch P.C. Labrie play games for the organization’s American Hockey League (AHL) team, the Syracuse Crunch.
Labrie is back in Brandon this week as a volunteer assistant coach at development camp. Labrie played parts of six seasons in the Lightning organization, scoring two goals and five points with 65 penalty minutes in 46 NHL games with the Lightning between 2011 and 2014.
Labrie is currently the head hockey coach at Champlain St. Lawrence College, a Division I school in the Quebec College Hockey League (QCHL) that won a title this year.
“Just here to soak it all in,” Labrie said of being a guest coach.
“There's a lot of good hockey brains there, so I'm just kind of picking their brains and talking hockey…It’s fun to be with Barb (Underhill) and the people I’ve worked with as a player. Being behind the scenes, it’s a lot of information that I can bring back with me.”
He said his best advice to young players is to work hard, regardless of how you got to development camp.
“You're on the same level as the guy next to you. Because he's drafted higher than you, that doesn't mean anything when you're here,” Labrie said. “It's all about commitment, buying in and little habits that you have to take, and that's what they're looking for is who can be a pro as fast as he's willing to be. And I think what I can do to help them is just kind of talk to them about my experience and make sure that they embrace every minute of it and whatever happens, they’ve just got to keep going and grinding.”
He admitted being back in the Tampa area comes with a renewed appreciation for the organization.
“People are so grounded here, and it's fun to be part of such a good organization that’s humble.” Labrie said. “Every time you come back here, you just realize how enjoyable things are here and that people love to be here. They're here by passion, and that's why they stick around for so long. It's because they all share the same passion, and it makes it easier for everyone to just dig in, help and work here.”
