The Tampa Bay Lightning recently released the rosters for Prospect Camp and the NHL Rookie Showcase. Among those invited was defenseman Max Crozier, who appeared in 13 games for the Lightning in 2023-24. He’ll get a chance to show off more of what he can do before the regular season gets underway.
While the Lightning are still bonified playoff contenders, they went through a retool over the offseason. The defensive line was shuffled and there’s plenty of room for young guys to come in and make an impact.
So let’s take a look at what Crozier did last season so we can discuss what his expectations are for this upcoming season.
Crozier’s Solid 2023-24 Season
Let’s start with Crozier’s offensive production. This is a key question with the departure of Mikhail Sergachev to Utah, down year in 2023-24 or not.
On the surface level, Crozier had two assists for two points in 13 NHL games last season. That adjusts to about 12 points over 82 games. He also played three playoff games. That performance was good enough to give him a shot in the highest-leverage situations.
However, he did have four goals and 17 assists for 21 points in 49 games for the Syracuse Crunch, the Lightning’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. That adjusts to six goals and 28 assists for 34 total points over 82 games. He also had four points in six Calder Cup Playoff games. A very solid performance.
If the Lightning get a similar performance out of Crozier as the Crunch got out of him in a full season, they likely would be pretty satisfied. It would be an indication that he took a step forward in his development.
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Now, let’s look at more defensive metrics. After all, this guy is, well, a defenseman. It’s a small sample size, so stats like defensive points share (DPS) are mostly useless – he had a 0.2 DPS.
In those 13 games, he blocked 11 shots and had 16 hits. That’s pretty solid for the sample size. To dig a little deeper, he had a plus-3 defensive zone turnover differential. He’s strong on the backcheck and setting up the team for another attack. For a rookie who only played a handful of games, he put on a solid performance.
Expectations For 2024-25
Between his short NHL and AHL performance, the Lightning were impressed enough to invite Crozier to prospect camp. Even if he impresses in camp, there’s still a good chance he starts in the AHL. Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak are the top veterans on the staff. Darren Raddysh and Nick Perbix have established themselves over the last couple seasons, and JJ Moser was just acquired in the Sergachev trade.
There’s a bit of a log jam on defense. Even if there are fans who aren’t too keen on one or multiple defensemen mentioned above, the Lightning plan to start the season with them in the lineup.
That doesn’t mean we won’t see him at all. Players get hurt, underperform or need nights off. Expectations in that case would be that we will see more of Crozier this season. However, it will be more of a fill-in role at least to start. He’s in the final season of his entry-level contract, meaning the Lightning have the flexibility to send him between Syracuse and Tampa as well. He’ll definitely get playing time in the AHL to keep him from sitting around.
Expect him to be a depth piece with a lot of upside.
A solid takeaway here is that the Lightning certainly have more defensive depth than you may realize. It’s just younger and inexperienced. As they continue to develop, they’ll continue to rebuild the strong defense that helped them win Stanley Cups. Part of the offseason plan was to get younger and guys like Crozier will help them do that.
