The Tampa Bay Lightning are doing everything they can to add more talent to a prospect pipeline that has been depleted by a seemingly endless string of traded first- and second-round picks. Snagging Jack Pridham away from the Chicago Blackhawks is a recent example of that, but now seems like a good time to check in on a forward general manager Julien BriseBois acquired from the Edmonton Oilers last July.
What's Sam O'Reilly up to these da...oh. He was just named the Memorial Cup MVP after his Kitchener Rangers beat the Everett Silvertips 6-2 on Sunday. He scored three goals and added five assists in four contests, en route to winning his *triple checks notes* third Memorial Cup in four years.
That makes him just the fourth player in OHL history to win league playoff MVP honors, Memorial Cup MVP honors, and a league's most outstanding player award. The other three guys who hit that award hat trick should get Lightning fans excited: Mitch Marner, Corey Perry, and some dude named Brad Richards. Wonder what they all went on to do in the NHL.
Most Valuable Peanut 🥜
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) June 1, 2026
Sam O'Reilly becomes the fourth player to win Regular-Season MVP, Playoff MVP and #MemorialCup MVP in the same season!@OHLRangers | #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/qBiaLnyk74
Edmonton Oilers fans are already sweating the Sam O'Reilly trade
We don't want to put the cart before the horse with a 20-year-old who has yet to play a professional hockey game, but it's a good sign that some members of the Canadian media are handwaving O'Reilly's development away already. Michael Menzies of OilersNation.com has advised Oilers fans to "pump the brakes" on the idea that the forward is one that got away.
His reasoning is sound enough. Isaac Howard, whom the Lightning traded for O'Reilly, has continued his development as a great prospect for Edmonton. It's tough to ignore what O'Reilly has done over the last year, however, and the company he is keeping as a triple MVP bodes pretty well for his future in the NHL.
Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal is a bit less rosy about this outcome from Edmonton's perspective, opining that O'Reilly "looks like a legit third-line [center] for the next 10 to 12 years in Tampa." Sounds pretty good to us!
Sam O'Reilly will push to make the Lightning roster in 2026-27
These are the kinds of trades the Lightning have to "win" if they want to keep their currently slipping Stanley Cup window open. The Atlantic Division is young and on the rise. Tampa Bay doesn't have many high-end prospects to speak of, so having O'Reilly develop the way that he has is a pretty significant development in Florida.
The Lightning have four NHL-caliber centers on their roster already, but O'Reilly's progress could nudge Yanni Gourde to the wing on the third line. With 23-year-old Dominic James already centering the fourth line, suddenly Tampa Bay seems to have a handful of young centers who could help boost the organization into an era of contention beyond Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov.
Keeping the prospect and youth flowing while also pushing for Stanley Cup playoff victories is tricky, but nailing trades like the one for O'Reilly will allow the Lightning to at least flirt with the concept.
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