The next five games, recent results and the full 2026-27 season on the Tampa Bay Lightning schedule, with start times and the Canadian TV channel, plus the roster, injuries, stats and odds.
| Market | Odds | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Stanley Cup oddsFull odds | +1200 | 7.7% |
at Records, the schedule and TV listings come from the NHL’s published data and are checked twice a day. The Cup price is Bet99’s board on 30 July 2026 and will have moved since. 19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC). Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON).
The Tampa Bay Lightning schedule for 2026-27 has 84 regular-season games, 42 at Benchmark International Arena and 42 on the road, starting on Thursday 1 October away to the New York Rangers. The last is on Saturday 10 April, and the page is checked against the NHL’s own data twice a day, so times, TV listings and results stay current. 19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC).
Tampa Bay Lightning team details
| Tampa Bay Lightning | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1992, as an expansion team that joined the NHL with the Ottawa Senators |
| In the NHL since | 1992-93 |
| City | Tampa, FL |
| Arena | Benchmark International Arena, opened October 1996, 19,092 seats for hockey |
| Previous homes | Expo Hall, 1992-1993; ThunderDome, 1993-1996 |
| Owner | A group led by Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, majority owners since October 2024, with Jeff Vinik, owner since 2010, keeping control as chairman and governor for three years after the sale |
| General manager | Julien BriseBois, general manager since 11 September 2018, when he succeeded Steve Yzerman |
| Head coach | Jon Cooper, hired on 25 March 2013, the NHL’s longest-tenured active head coach and the Jack Adams Award winner for 2025-26 |
| Captain | Victor Hedman |
| Most famous player | Steven Stamkos, the franchise leader in goals and captain of the 2020 and 2021 Cup winners |
| AHL affiliate | Syracuse Crunch, the affiliate since 2012, extended in July 2026 through 2029-30 |
| Division | Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference |
| Stanley Cups | 3, the last in 2021 |
| Retired numbers | 2 |
| 2025-26 | 106 points, 2nd in the Atlantic, made the playoffs |
| 2026-27 record | Starts Thursday 1 October |
| Schedule | 84 games: 42 home, 42 away, 1 October to 10 April 2027 |
Tampa Bay Lightning 2026-27 season outlook
Written 28 September 2026. The Lightning open 2026-27 at the New York Rangers on Thursday 1 October with Nikita Kucherov, the reigning Hart Trophy winner, in the last year of his contract. Talks on an extension continue, and he needs 14 points to pass Steven Stamkos’s franchise record of 1,137.
Last season brought three major awards and another early exit. The Lightning went 50-26-6 for 106 points, second in the Atlantic Division, and lost a first-round series of seven one-goal games to Montréal. Kucherov had 130 points, Andrei Vasilevskiy led the NHL with 39 wins to take the Vezina Trophy and Jon Cooper won the Jack Adams Award.
Darren Raddysh, whose 22 goals were a club record for a defenceman, went to Toronto in a sign-and-trade in June, and John Carlson signed as a free agent to replace him. Ilya Mikheyev and Jeffrey Viel also signed, Nick Paul was traded to Toronto for goalie Dennis Hildeby and two picks, and Corey Perry and Oliver Bjorkstrand left. With no first-round pick, the Lightning drafted Oleg Kulebiakin 52nd overall.
Vasilevskiy starts again, with Hildeby, 25, as his backup after Jonas Johansson was traded to Ottawa on 25 September. Captain Victor Hedman says he is healthy after a leave for his mental health that covered the last 15 regular-season games and the playoffs. Yanni Gourde is out until December after hip surgery and Dominic James for about two weeks with a broken hand.
The last four of their nine straight playoff appearances have ended in the first round, and the Lightning have not won a series since the 2022 Eastern Conference Final. On Bet99’s July board the Lightning were +1200 for the Stanley Cup, sixth of 32.
Tampa Bay Lightning schedule 2026-27
The next five Lightning games, the last five results and the full 84-game regular season, updated twice a day. Use the tabs to switch between them. Times are Eastern, TV is the Canadian broadcaster listed by the NHL, and “2nd night” marks the second game of a back-to-back. The Lightning play 13 back-to-backs this season, and December is the busiest stretch with 15 games.
Where to watch Lightning games in Canada
Counting the NHL’s own listings for the 84 regular-season games, 15 on TVA Sports, 12 on Sportsnet+, 7 on Sportsnet, 2 on Sportsnet 360, 2 on Prime Video, 2 on Sportsnet One and 2 on TVA Sports 2. Regional listings add 3 on Sportsnet Pacific, 3 on RDS, 3 on TSN2, 2 on TSN3, 2 on Sportsnet West, 2 on Sportsnet East, 1 on TSN5 and 1 on TSN4. 41 games have no Canadian network in the NHL’s listings. A game can appear on more than one channel, so the counts overlap, and listings change through the season.
Of the 41 games without a Canadian network, 35 are the Lightning’s US regional broadcasts and six are US national games. In Canada, Rogers holds the out-of-market rights, so those games stream on Sportsnet+ Premium, which is sold on its own rather than through a TV package, and NHL Centre Ice through a TV provider is the other route. Blackouts apply.
Tampa Bay Lightning roster 2026-27
The current Lightning roster has 31 players, 11 of them born in Canada. Until opening night this is the club’s training-camp list, so it shrinks as players are sent down before the season starts. The status column shows any player on the injury report.
Forwards
| No. | Player | Pos | Shoots | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Jansen Harkins | C | L | 29 | 6’2″ | 199 lb | Cleveland, OH | |
| 17 | Dominic James | C | L | 24 | 6’0″ | 190 lb | Plymouth, MI | |
| 21 | Brayden Point | C | R | 30 | 5’11” | 174 lb | Calgary, AB | |
| 22 | Jakob Pelletier | LW | L | 25 | 5’10” | 173 lb | Quebec City, QC | |
| 25 | Jeffrey Viel | LW | L | 29 | 6’0″ | 218 lb | Rimouski, QC | |
| 28 | Zemgus Girgensons | C | L | 32 | 6’3″ | 200 lb | Riga, Latvia | |
| 29 | Pontus Holmberg | RW | L | 27 | 6’0″ | 198 lb | Vasteras, Sweden | |
| 37 | Yanni Gourde | C | L | 34 | 5’10” | 175 lb | Saint-Narcisse, QC | |
| 38 | Brandon Hagel | LW | L | 28 | 6’2″ | 185 lb | Saskatoon, SK | |
| 41 | Benjamin Rautiainen | C | L | 21 | 6’0″ | 187 lb | Tampere, Finland | |
| 49 | Scott Sabourin | RW | R | 34 | 6’3″ | 210 lb | Orleans, ON | |
| 59 | Jake Guentzel | C | L | 31 | 5’11” | 176 lb | Omaha, NE | |
| 71 | Anthony Cirelli | C | L | 29 | 6’1″ | 190 lb | Etobicoke, ON | |
| 80 | Nick Abruzzese | C | L | 27 | 5’10” | 177 lb | Slate Hill, NY | |
| 86 | Nikita Kucherov | RW | L | 33 | 5’11” | 172 lb | Maykop, Russia | |
| 93 | Gage Goncalves | C | L | 25 | 6’2″ | 193 lb | Mission, BC | |
| 94 | Conor Geekie | C | L | 22 | 6’5″ | 220 lb | Strathclair, MB | |
| 95 | Ilya Mikheyev | RW | L | 31 | 6’2″ | 200 lb | Omsk, Russia |
Defence
| No. | Player | Pos | Shoots | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | Max Crozier | D | R | 26 | 6’3″ | 207 lb | Calgary, AB | |
| 27 | Ryan McDonagh | D | L | 37 | 6’1″ | 218 lb | St. Paul, MN | |
| 51 | Charle-Edouard D’Astous | D | L | 28 | 6’2″ | 213 lb | Rimouski, QC | |
| 52 | Maxim Groshev | D | L | 24 | 6’3″ | 196 lb | Agryz, Russia | |
| 74 | John Carlson | D | R | 36 | 6’3″ | 225 lb | Natick, MA | |
| 77 | Victor Hedman | D | L | 35 | 6’7″ | 229 lb | Ornskoldsvik, Sweden | |
| 78 | Emil Lilleberg | D | L | 25 | 6’3″ | 210 lb | Sarpsborg, Norway | |
| 79 | Michael Callahan | D | L | 27 | 6’2″ | 202 lb | Franklin, MA | |
| 81 | Erik Cernak | D | R | 29 | 6’4″ | 232 lb | Kosice, Slovakia | |
| 90 | J.J. Moser | D | L | 26 | 6’2″ | 182 lb | Biel, Switzerland |
Goalies
| No. | Player | Pos | Catches | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Mads Sogaard | G | L | 25 | 6’7″ | 235 lb | Aalborg, Denmark | |
| 35 | Dennis Hildeby | G | L | 25 | 6’6″ | 227 lb | Jarfalla, Sweden | |
| 88 | Andrei Vasilevskiy | G | L | 32 | 6’4″ | 220 lb | Tyumen, Russia |
Tampa Bay Lightning injuries
No Lightning players are on the injury report.
Estimated returns are ESPN’s projections from club guidance. The full league list is on our NHL injury report.
Tampa Bay Lightning stats
The 2026-27 season has not started, so these are the final 2025-26 numbers for everyone who played for Tampa Bay Lightning, including players who have since left. The tables switch to this season after the first games.
Top scorers
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PPG | S% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nikita Kucherov | RW | 76 | 44 | 86 | 130 | +43 | 8 | 19.0 |
| Jake Guentzel | C | 81 | 38 | 50 | 88 | +13 | 8 | 17.3 |
| Brandon Hagel | LW | 71 | 36 | 38 | 74 | +34 | 5 | 16.8 |
| Darren Raddysh | D | 73 | 22 | 48 | 70 | +21 | 10 | 10.4 |
| Anthony Cirelli | C | 71 | 23 | 29 | 52 | +38 | 3 | 18.4 |
| Brayden Point | C | 63 | 18 | 32 | 50 | +12 | 6 | 14.0 |
| Gage Goncalves | C | 74 | 11 | 22 | 33 | +26 | 0 | 14.3 |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | RW | 80 | 12 | 20 | 32 | -14 | 9 | 9.2 |
| J.J. Moser | D | 79 | 7 | 22 | 29 | +41 | 0 | 6.3 |
| Charle-Edouard D’Astous | D | 70 | 6 | 23 | 29 | -4 | 0 | 7.5 |
Goaltending
| Goalie | GP | W | L | OTL | SV% | GAA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrei Vasilevskiy | 58 | 39 | 15 | 4 | .912 | 2.31 | 2 |
| Jonas Johansson | 25 | 11 | 10 | 2 | .884 | 3.29 | 0 |
| Brandon Halverson | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .810 | 4.22 | 0 |
League-wide races are on our NHL scoring leaders page.
Tampa Bay Lightning odds and how the market sees them
The Lightning markets with the most depth are the season-long futures: the Stanley Cup, the Eastern Conference, the Atlantic Division, a regular-season points total and a yes-or-no price on making the playoffs. On Bet99’s board on 30 July 2026 the Lightning were +1200 to win the Stanley Cup, sixth of the 32 teams on the board after a 106-point season. Our Stanley Cup odds page carries the current prices for all 32 teams.
Three things move a Lightning price during the season. The starting goalie matters most, and the injury section above tracks him. The schedule is next: the Lightning play 13 back-to-backs, and second nights are where tired legs and backup goalies show up in the lines. Then there is form, which our power rankings measure each week, and the race itself in the playoff picture. Picks for the weekend slate are in our Saturday predictions column.
These are the NHL sportsbooks we rate for Canadians, listed by province, with the full comparison on our NHL betting sites page:
Tampa Bay Lightning history
The NHL awarded Tampa Bay a franchise on 6 December 1990, and the group fronted by Phil and Tony Esposito named it for the area’s reputation as the lightning capital of North America. In a preseason game in September 1992, Manon Rhéaume kept goal for the Lightning and became the first woman to play in an NHL game. The first regular-season game, on 7 October 1992 at Expo Hall, was a 7-3 win over Chicago with four goals from Chris Kontos. After three seasons at the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg, the club moved into the Ice Palace in downtown Tampa in 1996, but unstable ownership followed, and it did not reach 60 points in a season from 1997-98 to 2000-01.
Vincent Lecavalier, the first pick in 1998, and Martin St. Louis, the 2003-04 Hart Trophy winner, led the first champion, which beat Calgary 2-1 in Game 7 of the Final at home on 7 June 2004. Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, drafted from 2008 to 2012, formed the next core, and Jon Cooper became coach in 2013. They lost the 2015 Final to Chicago, and a 62-win team was swept by Columbus in the first round in 2019. Back-to-back Cups followed, over Dallas in a 2020 Final played behind closed doors in Edmonton and over Montréal in five games in 2021, before Colorado beat them in the 2022 Final.
Tampa Bay have not won a playoff round since. Toronto beat them in 2023 and Florida in 2024 and 2025, and Stamkos left for Nashville as a free agent on 1 July 2024, with Hedman named captain that September. On 1 February 2026 the Lightning beat Boston 6-5 in a shootout at Raymond James Stadium, the first outdoor NHL game in Tampa, and they finished 2025-26 at 50-26-6 with 106 points, second in the Atlantic Division. Montréal then won a first-round series of seven one-goal games, taking Game 7 2-1 in Tampa on 3 May 2026.
Most famous player: Steven Stamkos
Tampa Bay drafted Stamkos, from Markham, Ontario, first overall in 2008. He won the Rocket Richard Trophy with 51 goals in his second season, shared with Sidney Crosby, and again with 60 in 2011-12, still the club record for a season. Named captain on 6 March 2014, the day after Martin St. Louis was traded, he led the Lightning in four Finals and won the Cup in 2020 and 2021.
In 2020 he played one playoff game, Game 3 of the Final against Dallas, and scored on his only shot in 2:47 of ice time. He was the first Lightning player to reach 1,000 points and 500 goals, and when he left for Nashville as a free agent on 1 July 2024, his 1,082 games, 555 goals and 1,137 points were all club records. Victor Hedman has since passed his games total, and Nikita Kucherov holds the assists record.
Steven Stamkos’s Lightning totals, from the NHL’s official statistics: 1,082 games, 555 goals, 582 assists and 1,137 points.
Stanley Cups
The Lightning have won three Stanley Cups: 2004, 2020, 2021. They have lost the Final two times since 1927, most recently in 2022.
Arenas
| Arena | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Expo Hall | 1992-1993 | A 10,425-seat hall on the Florida State Fairgrounds. The Lightning won their first game there, 7-3 over Chicago on 7 October 1992. |
| ThunderDome | 1993-1996 | The Florida Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg, now Tropicana Field, renamed for the Lightning’s stay. The 28,183 who watched Game 3 against Philadelphia on 23 April 1996 are still the largest crowd for a Stanley Cup playoff game. |
| Benchmark International Arena | 1996-present | Opened as the Ice Palace. The Lightning won the Cup on home ice here in 2004 and 2021, and it hosted the NHL All-Star Game in 1999 and 2018. |
Benchmark International Arena holds 19,092 for hockey. It opened in October 1996 as the Ice Palace, became the St. Pete Times Forum in 2002, the Tampa Bay Times Forum in 2012, Amalie Arena in 2014 and Benchmark International Arena on 13 August 2025.
Retired numbers
| Number | Player |
|---|---|
| 4 | Vincent Lecavalier |
| 26 | Martin St. Louis |
The Lightning have retired two numbers. No. 26 for Martin St. Louis went up first, on 13 January 2017, and No. 4 for Vincent Lecavalier followed on 10 February 2018; no further ceremony has been announced.
Franchise leaders
| Category | Player | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Points | Steven Stamkos | 1,137 |
| Goals | Steven Stamkos | 555 |
| Assists | Nikita Kucherov | 723 |
| Games played | Victor Hedman | 1,164 |
| Goalie wins | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 370 |
| Shutouts | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 42 |
Regular-season totals for the whole franchise, from the NHL’s official statistics, updated as the season goes on.
Every champion since 1927 is on our Stanley Cup winners page, and the other 31 clubs are on our NHL teams page.
Atlantic Division rivals
| Rival | Meetings in 2026-27 | Next meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Bruins | 4 | Thu 10 Dec (home) |
| Buffalo Sabres | 4 | Wed 11 Nov (away) |
| Detroit Red Wings | 4 | Tue 3 Nov (home) |
| Florida Panthers | 4 | Sat 28 Nov (away) |
| Montréal Canadiens | 4 | Wed 2 Dec (away) |
| Ottawa Senators | 4 | Fri 27 Nov (home) |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 4 | Sat 19 Dec (away) |
Tampa Bay Lightning FAQ
The next Lightning game is away to the New York Rangers on Thursday 1 October at 7:00 PM ET, at Madison Square Garden. In Canada it is on TVA Sports.
National listings this season: 15 on TVA Sports, 12 on Sportsnet+, 7 on Sportsnet and 2 on Sportsnet 360. Regional listings: 3 on Sportsnet Pacific, 3 on RDS and 3 on TSN2. Of the 41 games without a Canadian network, 35 are the Lightning’s US regional broadcasts and six are US national games. In Canada, Rogers holds the out-of-market rights, so those games stream on Sportsnet+ Premium, which is sold on its own rather than through a TV package, and NHL Centre Ice through a TV provider is the other route. Blackouts apply.
Victor Hedman is the captain for the 2026-27 season.
Jon Cooper, hired on 25 March 2013, the NHL’s longest-tenured active head coach and the Jack Adams Award winner for 2025-26.
Three, most recently in 2021.
Steven Stamkos. He holds the Lightning record for goals, with 555, and captained Tampa Bay to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
Julien BriseBois, general manager since 11 September 2018, when he succeeded Steve Yzerman.
Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, FL, which opened in October 1996 and holds 19,092 for hockey.
84 regular-season games, 42 at home and 42 on the road, from 1 October to 10 April 2027.
19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC) | Please play responsibly | Schedule, roster and statistics come from the NHL’s published data and injuries from ESPN’s NHL injury data | ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON); your province’s helpline is on our gambling awareness page.
Last updated 28 September 2026.