The Lightning announced Thursday they’ve recalled left-winger Conor Sheary from AHL Syracuse. He joined the team for this morning’s practice and could draw into the lineup in place of Anthony Cirelli, according to Benjamin Pierce of NHL.com. The latter may be dealing with the undisclosed injury that made him a game-time decision for last Saturday’s game against the Islanders. The Lightning’s active roster now stands at 22 players.
Tampa Bay signed Sheary to a three-year, $6MM contract in free agency in 2023. Things haven’t gone well for the two-time Stanley Cup champion, who scored a career-low four goals in 57 games last year and ended up on waivers early in 2024-25 after going pointless through three games. He’s played once since then, skating a season-high 12:18 against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 30 during a brief recall.
The 32-year-old Sheary has been good but not dominant in the AHL, where he ranks second on the Crunch in scoring with 9-15–24 through 31 games. It’s his first action outside the NHL since the 2015-16 campaign when he notched over a point per game with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and earned a mid-season call-up to Pittsburgh that kept him in the league for a decade. The undrafted free agent signing out of UMass has been a serviceable complementary winger throughout much of his career despite his 5’8″, 182-lb frame, notching 124-143–267 in 592 career appearances.
It could be an interesting look for the Bolts tonight against the Senators if they’re down a center without Cirelli. Sheary won’t be shifting to the middle – that task will be going to former Penguins teammate Jake Guentzel, who will anchor a line between Gage Goncalves and Brandon Hagel while veteran Cam Atkinson takes his spot on the top line alongside Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point.