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Lightning journal: Roster trimmed to 28

With Syracuse camp set to start Tuesday, the Lightning cut its roster down by 27
 
Wing Dennis Yan, center, celebrates his goal against the Predators on Saturday. He was among the Sunday cuts, along with forward Alex Barre-Boulet, left. (DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times)
Wing Dennis Yan, center, celebrates his goal against the Predators on Saturday. He was among the Sunday cuts, along with forward Alex Barre-Boulet, left. (DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times)
Published Sept. 23, 2018|Updated Sept. 24, 2018

TAMPA – After Sunday morning, the Lightning sat five cuts away from having a 23-man roster to start the regular season.

It cut its training camp roster by 27, leaving 28 players on the roster with the start of the regular season less than two weeks away:

Forwards: Andy Andreoff, Gabriel Dumont, Olivier Archambault, Alex Barre-Boulet, Troy Bourke, Michael Bournival, Brady Brassart, Ross Colton, Boris Katchouk, Alexey Lipanov, Kevin Lynch, Taylor Raddysh, Otto Somppi, Jonne Tammela, Carter Verhaeghe and Dennis Yan.

Defensemen: Cal Foote, Cam Gaunce, Hubert Labrie, Dominik Masin, Oleg Sosunov, Matt Spencer, Ben Thomas and Daniel Walcott.

Goaltenders: Corbin Boes, Connor Ingram and Eddie Pasquale.

Andreoff, Dumont, Pasquale, Verhaeghe and Gaunce were placed on waivers.

Andreoff, Katchouk, Yan and Ingram are among the most notable cuts. Katchouk scored two goals this preseason. Yan scored the winner against the Predators on Saturday. Ingram started Saturday and gave up two goals on 24 shots. The Lightning traded for Andreoff in the offseason, and he scored against Nashville on Friday.

Some notable players who remain: Adam Erne, Mathieu Joseph, Alexander Volkov and Erik Cernak. The first three are competing for a spot on an offense with only a couple of spots open. Cernak is competing for a spot on a crowded blue line.

“We wanted to have a good start to our season,” GM Julien BriseBois said. “In order to do that, we felt the number of forwards we needed to carry for practice purposes was 15. So we cut down to 15 healthy forwards.” 

 Johnson day-to-day with upper-body injury

Not included in that group of 15 healthy forwards is Tyler Johnson.

Johnson missed the Fan Fest practice in front of 10,164 fans at Amalie Arena with an upper-body injury. He is day-to-day.

“We’re optimistic he will be ready for the season opener (Oct. 6 versus the Panthers), but there are no guarantees,” BriseBois said. “In any event, we don’t expect this to be something that will be long term.” 

Johnson put together a 50-point season in 2017-18, scoring 21 goals. He played in 81 games.

Walcott, Lynch to miss time

In addition to the cutting of Walcott and Lynch, who both played at AHL Syracuse last season, the Lightning said they will miss a significant amount of time with injuries.

Lynch will miss 4-6 weeks with a lower-body injury. Walcott will be out 5-6 months with a shoulder injury that he will have surgery on this week.

“Know that if we have a good run at the minor-league level, (Walcott) might end up playing a lot of games down the stretch in the regular season and hopefully a long stretch of playoff hockey in the spring,” BriseBois said. 

Martel shines

The Lightning claimed F Danick Martel off waivers from the Flyers on Saturday, he arrived in Tampa later that day, and he skated Sunday.

And not only did he skate, but he skated – and performed – well.

Martel scored off a breakaway during a power-play drill. Then he scored in the shootout at the end of practice.

“I could see that he has a little bit of swagger to him, which I don’t mind at all,” BriseBois said. “Happy to see that. He demonstrated some of that on the ice today in the scrimmage.” 

Martel scored 68 goals and added 52 assists over the past three seasons in the AHL.

Other notes from the Fan Fest practice:

• During the scrimmage, F J.T. Miller shoved D Mikhail Sergachev to the ice, which the crowd noticed as it responded with an "OH." Sergachev then sprung up, hustled down the ice and scored on G Andrei Vasilevskiy. Miller grinned as he came to the bench.

• D Ryan McDonagh looked to have a prime opportunity to score on a breakaway, then Joseph stole the puck before McDonagh could shoot. Joseph is having a nice camp.