The 2025 NHL Prospect Tournament came to a close on Monday with the Tampa Bay Lightning youngsters utilizing a three-goal second period to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1.
The Lightning finished the event at AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel with a 2-1 record.
“I thought we got better every game, and it was fun,” Syracuse Crunch GM and Coach Joel Bouchard said of the tournament postgame. “We only had a couple of practices, only three games, but I felt every game, period to period in the tournament, in a lot of areas we got better and better.”
Here are 3 Takeaways from the final action before training camp opens later this week, beginning with media day and player testing on Wednesday:
- Mercuri’s Mark
There were a couple of offensive plays from Lucas Mercuri this weekend that led to Lightning goals, but other parts of his game stood out in Monday’s tournament finale.
Mercuri, acquired by the Lightning in a March trade with Carolina, dropped the gloves to fight during Saturday’s game against Florida and maintained a physical playstyle in other ways on Monday.
His 6-foot-3, 192-pound frame plays up to his size. He wasn’t afraid to get to the netfront on offense and helped out well below his own goal line as the low man there, too.
If you’re on the other team, Mercuri is not the guy you want to be facing in a board battle. He drew a penalty against Carolina on Monday by doing just that.
Mercuri also stood out in the faceoff circle. He seemed to be winning most of his chances there, particularly in the defensive dot. Every team is always looking for ways to win more draws, and you can reach the NHL if you find those wins often enough.
“I'd say I'm a 200-foot center that can win face-offs,” Mercuri said of his game during development camp in July. “Just a power forward, somebody who likes to play the game below the hash marks, get around the net and not afraid to throw their weight around, retrieve pucks on the forecheck and make plays in tight and just get to the net.”
Mercuri got six games with Syracuse last season and is likely to see more in 2025-26.
- Allard All Over It
Tristan Allard stood out for much of the weekend.
He wore an ‘A’ on his left shoulder as one of three Lightning leaders, and he was one of the first Bolts to bring some jump to the game on Monday. Allard earned a breakaway minutes into the game after a touch pass from Cooper Flinton and got a backhand shot on net, but it was saved.
Allard had a goal on Saturday, was involved in the play and smart with the puck all weekend. His speed was noticeable. He killed penalties throughout the tournament and made multiple strong plays at the defensive blue line.
“I think we were just getting the puck behind them a little bit more today,” he said of Monday’s performance. “Chipping it, close support. (Bouchard) was talking about the forecheck a lot before our game, closing quick down there and having second quick support and then making a play out of the corners and stuff and just keep getting it to the bottom.”
The 23-year-old forward showed off his vision in Monday’s tournament cap ahead of his third season of professional hockey.
Allard snuck a no-look backhand pass from behind the net to Ethan Gauthier seven minutes into the second period for a Grade A chance–one nobody but the two Bolts saw coming.
Allard then won a 1-on-1 battle at the net and chipped the puck to the crease with six minutes left in the middle period, when Flinton scored into the bottom right corner to make it 3-1.
After scoring seven goals and 16 points for Syracuse in 2024-25, he looked comfortable this weekend as one of the older players. He mentioned postgame on Monday that he took notes from recently retired Syracuse captain Gabriel Dumont as well as longtime Crunch forward Daniel Walcott during his first two professional seasons.
He looks forward to the season, saying his goal is to make the Lightning opening night roster.
“I think, like everyone else, it's (my goal) to make the big club. And if I do get sent down to Syracuse, just try to be a leader on that team,” he said. “We'll have some young guys there, and I’m just trying to get better every day and stick to the right habits, take it day by day like (Bouchard) always says. Just keep growing my game, keep growing my habits and see where it goes.”
- What a Productive Weekend
A new face entered the prospects lineup on Monday in 25-year-old forward Spencer Kersten, who signed a professional tryout contract (PTO) with the Lightning and set up the team’s second goal with a pretty play against the Hurricanes.
Kersten had a productive year for the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Orlando Solar Bears, scoring 25 goals and 55 points in 60 games while scoring a goal in nine games with the Crunch in 2024-25.
He will be one of the many faces at Lightning training camp when that opens on Wednesday.
Kersten was sitting by the pool on Sunday when Bouchard called to tell him he was playing on Monday. He helped some of the organization’s youngest players overcome a 1-0 deficit and score five unanswered goals a day later.
“I'm a little bit older than most of them, so I just tried to bring a little bit of a veteran influence even though it's my second year,” Kersten said postgame. “But they're all great skaters, a ton of skill. They're great prospects, great kids in the room, and it's not hard to get along with any of them. So I had a great time.”
He wasn’t the only one feeling good after Monday’s win.
Kersten was noticeable as the team’s eldest player on Monday, but many of the youngest players continued to show up as well. Finishing with a 2-1 record and that one falter coming in a tight, 3-2 loss was welcomed by the Lightning front office and fans.
That includes Jeff Tambellini, Lightning assistant general manager and director of hockey operations.
“We're really proud of our new draft class just to come in and handle themselves for young kids and make an impact, and I thought top to bottom our roster did a really good job of just showcasing the things they do well. They came together as a team really, really well actually right into the first game, and then you saw the Florida game, how competitive that was,” Tambellini said.
“But overall, just the takeaway from our group was that they found a way to adjust to a new system and play some really good hockey by the end of the weekend.”
While the Lightning haven’t made as many first round selections in the NHL Draft as other clubs in recent years, this weekend was another reminder of their ability to still introduce quality young players to their system.
“I think our amateur staff has identified traits in these players that they think can play in the National Hockey League, and with kids you're picking in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round, you're looking for a trait that our development staff can work with over two to five years and really leverage,” Tambellini said. “And we have guys that, whether they're going to play a first line role or a fourth line role, they have something that we can really work with and build for the NHL level. So again, I think we saw just the compete, and there's some identity in all of these players.”
