The Lightning have released center Logan Brown from his professional tryout, PuckPedia reports. He’s expected to remain in the organization on a contract with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.
Brown signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Bolts back in July 2023 after being non-tendered by the Blues. But the 6’6″ pivot sustained a hip injury in training camp that required surgery, which ended up shutting him down for the entire 2023-24 season.
Unfortunately, after being given a second chance in Tampa on a PTO, Brown has also missed the last few days of camp with an undisclosed injury. Injured players can’t be placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment, so for now, signing him to an NHL deal and attempting to send him to Syracuse that way wouldn’t have been an option. Instead, he’ll start the year in Syracuse to get up to speed as he returns from a lengthy injury absence. He’s still an unrestricted free agent and is eligible to sign with any NHL club, but it’s certainly possible Tampa Bay will look to quickly re-sign Brown after he gets some AHL action and attempt to pass him through waivers to send him back to the Crunch or keep him around on the NHL roster.
The 26-year-old Brown made his NHL debut with the Senators back in 2017-18, one year after being taken 11th overall in the 2016 draft. The big-bodied center has never been able to convert his offensive success from juniors to the NHL level, posting only seven goals and 26 points in 99 career appearances thus far in parts of six seasons. He’s been much more effective in the minors, where he has 98 points in 115 games for the Blues and Senators affiliates.
Brown’s 27th birthday is in March 2025, so regardless of his service time lost to injury, he’ll be eligible for outright UFA status next summer if he happens to ink a one-year deal with the Lightning or any other team.