Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Less than a month remains until NHL training camp.
Jakob Pelletier’s aim is to be with the Tampa Bay Lightning come late September.
Pelletier is coming off his most productive season as a pro, leading the American Hockey League with 77 points (28 goals, 49 assists) in 63 games with the Syracuse Crunch and capturing a spot on the AHL First All-Star Team.
After another summer of training comes an opportunity to further his case for a full-time roster with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And should that bid fall short, he aims to be a first-choice recall option after playing five games with the Lightning in 2025-26.
Still just 25, Pelletier knows what he needs to do as he prepares for his second season in the organization. He was a first-round choice by Calgary in the 2019 NHL Draft and was an AHL All-Rookie selection skating for Stockton in 2021-22. He has played 91 games in the NHL with the Flames, Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers.
With a chance to plot his own path as a free agent, he secured a three-year contract with Tampa Bay in July 2025. That deal converts to a one-way contract this season, meaning he gets an NHL salary even if he is back in Syracuse.
It’s a financial choice the Lightning are willing to make. They have a proven history of making full-time NHL’ers out of players on the NHL-AHL bubble, players like Yanni Gourde, Darren Raddysh, Jonathan Marchessault and three-time Stanley Cup champion Carter Verhaeghe.
But Tampa Bay’s roster is a tough one to crack. The Lightning are a perennial contender, with four Finals appearances and two Stanley Cup championships in 13 seasons under head coach Jon Cooper. But the Bolts have been eliminated from the postseason in the first round each of the last four seasons, and the Crunch have won just one playoff series since 2018. This fall brings more to prove at both levels.
Pelletier does have a few factors potentially in his favor for more NHL work. Forward prospect Benjamin Rautiainen, who signed with the Lightning this past May, will be on loan to Liiga club Tappara Tampere. Rautiainen, 21, led that league with 77 points last season as well. Potential forward competition in Mitchell Chaffee signed with the New York Islanders this summer.
But most of all it is Pelletier’s play. His 31 power-play points topped all AHL forwards last season while his five shorthanded goals tied him for first overall. He closed out the regular season with a Crunch-record 20-game point streak, the AHL’s longest in 17 years. Tack on his postseason work, and he finished the campaign with at least a point in 22 of his final 24 outings.
And Pelletier’s mission coming to the Tampa Bay organization centered on rounding out his two-way play, especially without the puck. Syracuse trusted him on a penalty kill that tied for 11th overall last season. With him taking on heavy minutes, Syracuse ranked fifth in the AHL in regular-season competition with 2.63 goals-against per game. The team allowed just 25.5 shots per game, second-best in the AHL as well.
Playing for Crunch general manager and head coach Joël Bouchard means a steadfast commitment to that defensive play. It’s a must for AHL players, really, given that they first need to prove themselves defensively reliable at the NHL level before they are given more offensive freedom.
“I think he has taken me to another level in my game all around,” Pelletier said of learning from a noted stickler like Bouchard. “I think he’s a hard coach, but a fair coach. If you do what he’s asking, you put yourself in a spot to succeed.”
Now it starts again when the Lightning reconvene in Florida next month.
“I thought I had a good camp [last year],” Pelletier said. “It’s a hard team to go there and take a spot. You’ve got to work your way [through], and then if you get an opportunity, you have to take it.”
But he will be ready again. A season with the Crunch solidified his grasp of what the organization is looking for.
“The way they prepare you in the AHL, the way they treat you, the expectations in the AHL are the same as with the Lightning.”
On the American Hockey League beat for more than two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2015-16.
