Brian Bradley and Rick Peckham’s careers were shaped by their time with the Lightning, and they cherish their roles in making the team into one of the model organizations in hockey.
And at the team’s Hall of Fame Game on Feb. 1 against the Islanders, they will go in together as members of the Lightning Hall of Fame’s third class.
Bradley played on the first six Lightning teams after coming to the organization in the expansion draft after competing in hockey hotbeds Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. He was the Lightning’s first All-Star Game representative in their inaugural 1992-93 season, in which he scored 42 goals. He finished his playing career with six seasons in Tampa Bay and hasn’t left the organization, remaining with the team as a community ambassador.
Peckham brought Lightning games into homes for 24 seasons as the team’s TV play-by-play man. His tenure dated back to the 1995-96 season and spanned through the Lightning’s eventual 2020 Stanley Cup season in the bubble, when he was forced to call first-round games remotely from the broadcast booths at Amalie Arena that now bear his name.
When Bradley and Peckham first arrived in Tampa, well ahead of the team’s three Stanley Cups, lean times made them wonder whether the organization was built for the longterm success fans now have become accustomed to.
“We didn’t want to be like a team like Atlanta where they’re there for a few years, and then they moved to Winnipeg,” Bradley said of playing on the first Lightning teams. “So, you know what? I think that’s one of the things I’m most proud of. At the beginning, the guys we had, we wanted to set the groundwork for the future. And look what we did.
“When you’re talking about three Stanley Cups in our franchise history, it’s amazing, because I look at teams, and (Toronto), they haven’t won a Cup since ’67 and we’ve won three.
Bradley and Peckham will join a group of Lightning Hall of Famers that includes founder Phil Esposito, former players Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier (who both have their numbers retired), as well as 2004 Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards and the captain of that Cup team, Dave Andreychuk.
“I remember there was so much shuffling in and out,” Peckham said of the early years. “Lineups would change, guys would get called up. We used 50 players one year. If you wanted to meet people, Tampa Bay was the place to be. But then stability came in and we got on the winning path. And it’s been exciting. It’s been fun, rollicking at times, with the history of this team.
“But what a time, and to do it in a beautiful place like the bay area, like we’ve done, with the fans, who have grown with this team and now have enjoyed championships and deserve championships, to still be around those people, night in and night out in the arena, it’s a great thrill, and to be recognized for your role in this, it’s been overwhelming.”
Peckham’s first season with the Lightning, which came after he was the play-by-play man for the Hartford Whalers and cut his teeth broadcasting for his hometown Rochester Americans, was during the Lightning’s last season at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field). That Lightning team was the first to make the postseason and filled the dome with a record 28,183 fans during its first playoff series against the Flyers.
Bradley scored the first goal in the Ice Palace on opening night the following season. Peckham calls that night one of the most memorable of his broadcasting career.
“I remember your goal, Brads, that got things started, and just the eruption from the stands with all the fans going crazy,” Peckham said. “We’re in a brand new building, we’ve all got tuxes on in the press box and it was so much fun.”
Now, they will both join the team’s Hall of Fame, which is recognized on the facade below the Amalie Arena press box above the 300 level.
“People had no idea what hockey was (early on) and to see where it’s grown from on the ice to in the communities, to all the hockey rinks, there was only one rank or two rinks in all of Tampa Bay back in ’92,” Bradley said. “Now there’s so many kids playing hockey. ... We were fortunate to be at the beginning and to see how it turned out. It’s grown so much.”
