Gauthier’s growth and Steen’s international year

Tampa Bay Lightning prospects and staff at this year’s development camp pivoted quickly on Tuesday after an overnight power outage affected the ice surface at TGH Ice Plex.

On-ice sessions were canceled, and players instead participated in off-ice workouts and meetings in Brandon. Wednesday’s on-ice sessions were still scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.

We pivoted also, catching up with two recent Lightning draft picks in Ethan Gauthier and Noah Steen.

Here are our conversations from today:

Gauthier prepares for first full pro season

Forward prospect Ethan Gauthier is the highest Lightning draft selection at this year’s development camp, taken 37th overall during Round 2 of the 2023 NHL Draft.

Entering his third development camp with the Lightning, Gauthier said his priority is improving however possible to someday reach the NHL. He understands, though, that it will require commitment and further development.

"Every time you come here, you get some new tools that you can add to your toolbox and come back home and train hard and make sure you're ready for main camp. That's pretty much the goal here."

The 20-year-old forward scored 25 goals and 62 points in 50 games with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 2024-25 and also played for Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Drummondville head coach Sylvain Favreau is a guest coach at this week’s development camp. Favreau spoke on Gauthier’s development on Tuesday, saying he has matured as a player and person. Gauthier was an assistant captain for Favreau in each of the past two seasons.

“He’s someone that can be a little bit of a pest on the ice and play with a lot of engagement level…It's just being consistent in that mindset of playing the right way game in and game out and practice in, practice out,” Favreau said.

“But the beauty of him is that he does have some offensive touch to him, and he's very good defensively. I had him at the World Juniors as well, where he played more of a defensive role for us. So he's sort of a Swiss Army Knife where he can do a lot of things.”

Gauthier played three regular season games with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (AHL) in April and also played in one Calder Cup Playoffs game.

Following his AHL debut, Gauthier plans to stay in the moment and try to improve each day.

“I left with confidence knowing I can play in that league, and hopefully I can take another step every year, take it month by month, not look too far ahead,” he said of his first AHL games. “I’m not the type of player putting too much pressure on myself to when I want to play in the NHL or whatever. I don't want to skip any steps. I just want to take my time, make sure whenever the opportunity comes, I'll be ready.

Steen talks through busy 2024-25 season

Forward Noah Steen played plenty of hockey last season, most of it against professional hockey players. Steen was one of three Tampa Bay selections during Round 7 of the 2024 NHL Draft.

The 20-year-old forward is a 6-foot-1, 191-pound wing who played 51 professional games in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) last season.

He scored five goals and six points while racking up 47 penalty minutes in his first season with Örebro HK and is attending his second Lightning development camp.

“It's awesome to be back,” Steen said. “One of the funnest weeks in the year. It’s nice to see all the new guys and especially the guys who've been there last year. Yesterday was fun. Lots of testing, I think it went well. So yeah, I'm really happy about that.”

He knows current Lightning defenseman and fellow countryman Emil Lilleberg well. The two played together for Team Norway at the 2025 IIHF World Championship this winter, which ended with Lilleberg as the team’s captain.

Steen scored two goals for Norway in the tournament.

Steen said Lilleberg was the “perfect” leader for Norway, and seeing him carve a spot in the NHL has provided him with confirmation that the NHL is reachable with hard work.

“This is a great organization,” Steen said. “I’m really happy to be here…He’s (Lilleberg) a guy who was working his way up and really worked really hard to be here, and that just motivated me a lot, and really happy to be here and just try to do my best and try to show my best side every day.”