The season was suspended by the league officials on March 12, 2020, after several other professional and collegiate sports organizations followed suit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 10, following the extension of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement by the league and the Players' Association, it was announced that the Canadian cities of Toronto and Edmonton would be the locations the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs would be staged in.
For seeding, they competed in a four-team single round-robin along with the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, and Philadelphia Flyers,[7] in which they finished in second place.
Shifting to Edmonton, they competed in their fourth Eastern Conference Finals in the past six seasons, defeating the New York Islanders in six games.
On September 28, 2020, the Lightning won their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, and the first in 16 years since 2004 after defeating the Dallas Stars in six games.
On August 27, the playoffs were briefly suspended as the remaining teams decided not to play their next scheduled contests in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake.
[8] The Lightning's off season began on April 16, 2019, when they were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs.
[10][11] On May 23, 2019, the Lightning and forward prospect Jonne Tammela mutually agreed to part ways via contract termination.
The team further announced that it would be placing Callahan on Long Term Injured Reserve for the upcoming season, which is the final year of his contract.
Verhaeghe led the Syracuse Crunch and American Hockey League in scoring with 82 points (34 goals and 48 assists).
Last season Smith skated with the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins, appearing in 17 NHL games in which he recorded 2 goals and 1 assist.
[38] On August 14, 2019, the Lightning traded forward Adam Erne to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2020 NHL draft.
The camp is to be divided among three rosters, which are named after Lightning radio and television broadcasters (Rick Peckham, Phil Esposito and Bobby ‘The Chief’ Taylor).
[44] On September 20, 2019, the Lightning placed goaltenders Mike Condon and Louis Domingue on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the Syracuse for the upcoming season.
The forward group cut consisted of Peter Abbandonato, Jimmy Huntington, Boris Katchouk, Alexey Lipanov, Ryan Lohin, Kevin Lynch, Mikhail Shalagin, and Dennis Yan.
Additionally, Cory Conacher, Chris Mueller and Spencer Martin were placed on waivers with the purpose of assignment to Syracuse.
The team assigned forwards Alex Barre-Boulet, Ross Colton, Cory Conacher, Chris Mueller, Otto Somppi, and Mitchell Stephens to Syracuse.
The team also placed Cameron Gaunce, Dominik Masin and Scott Wedgewood on waivers for assignment to Syracuse.
[50] On September 23, 2019, the Lightning announced that it had re-signed center Brayden Point to a three-year contract extension with a cap hit valued at $6.75 million annually.
[51] The team also announced that Point would not be medically cleared to play until late October due a procedure he had in the off-season.
The forwards named to the opening night roster were Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson, Mathieu Joseph, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Patrick Maroon, Ondrej Palat, Cedric Paquette, Brayden Point, Gemel Smith, Steven Stamkos, and Carter Verhaeghe.
The defensemen named were Erik Cernak, Braydon Coburn, Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Jan Rutta, Mikhail Sergachev, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Luke Witkowski.
Below are the Tampa Bay Lightning's selections at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, which was held on June 21 and 22, 2019, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.