The former first-round draft pick in 2003 will work from AMALIE Arena and looks forward to his new chapter in a familiar place, one that begins with the 2025-26 season.
Jeff Tambellini is joining the Tampa Bay Lightning in a new role as assistant general manager and director of hockey operations, but he is no stranger to hockey in Tampa.
Tambellini’s hiring was announced on Monday and marks his return to the last NHL organization to stitch his name on the back of a jersey—Tambellini scored 29 goals and 49 points in 65 games for Tampa Bay’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, in 2015-16 before finishing his playing career in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).
Tambellini also worked for the Lightning off the ice, earning two Stanley Cup rings while serving as an NCAA and pro scout from 2020 to 2022. Though just 41 years old, Tambellini’s resume is full of stops in hockey.
He has spent the previous three seasons as the Seattle Kraken’s director of player development, helping the team’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, to back-to-back Calder Cup Final appearances in 2023 and 2024.
Now Tambellini is back in the Lightning organization for a third time.
“I've been so fortunate to have two stints in different roles—one as a player coming through Syracuse and getting to live the Syracuse process, how they work with their players, how they build their team to win and just getting to live it for a full season, and then moving into a scouting role on Jamie Pushor’s staff and just seeing the detail and the work ethic that they had. I was so fortunate to be a part of three Stanley Cup Finals and two Stanley Cups in my time with the Bolts. So it's just an amazing term with the Lightning, and when you put it all together, it was just a role that I couldn't pass up.”
He joins the Lightning after previous assistant general manager and director of hockey operations Mathieu Darche was hired as the general manager of the New York Islanders this offseason.
Tambellini, who played 242 NHL games as well as 241 AHL games, also spent time as an NCAA assistant coach at the University of Michigan. He worked as general manager and head coach of the Trail Smoke Eaters of the British Columbia Hockey League from 2018 to 2020.
His experience is vast, ranging from NHL player to scout, rising up the ranks to coach and hockey operations positions across different levels of hockey.
Tambellini is the son of former NHL general manager Steve Tambellini, who led the Edmonton Oilers front office for five seasons from 2008 to 2013.
“I was very fortunate to have a father who was in the business, and his path to being an NHL GM was one of learning to do the complete business in different jobs, different roles, and really getting an understanding of how the complete business works,” Tambellini said. “And I've kind of tried to do that in my own way, probably with more of a development, coaching fold to it, but I wanted to have as well of an understanding of the full business from the scouting process to coaching to managing at the junior level into professional scouting, amateur scouting, college scouting and recruiting. That's the part that really excites me is just to be a part of the build. I've seen what (Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois) has done the past decade in Tampa, and it's just been amazing to watch. So to get to be a part of that again is very exciting.”
Plenty of connections already in place
Tambellini will help BriseBois in “all aspects” of player personnel decisions, analytics, player development, contract preparation and negotiation, budgeting, scheduling and salary cap tracking, according to the team.
He will also be the assistant general manager of the Crunch, working with Head Coach Joel Bouchard, who will also now take the reins as Syracuse’s general manager.
Tambellini’s familiarity with the Lightning organization extends to the current NHL roster, too. Tambellini played alongside current Lightning forwards Anthony Cirelli and Yanni Gourde, as well as goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, during his lone season in Syracuse.
BriseBois was the team’s general manager at the time, while current Lightning assistant coach Rob Zettler was Syracuse’s head coach and Jeff Halpern was the development coach.
Tambellini mentioned Gourde as a prime example of what proper hockey management can help find in players.
“I was fortunate to watch Yanni Gourde’s career right from the start. I got to play with him in 2015-16, got to watch him develop as a young star player in the Lightning system and evolve into being a top NHL player,” he said. “And then I got to be with him in Seattle as well and him going back. So just to be able to watch that process of watching a player who was undrafted become an NHL star, it's been great.”
Tampa Bay is stronger with the hiring of Tambellini, according to the team’s general manager.
“Jeff has strong leadership and communication skills,” BriseBois said of the hiring in a release.
“He is organized and thoughtful in all he undertakes. Jeff has a rich playing experience from his time at Michigan, in the NHL, the AHL and the professional ranks in both Switzerland and Sweden. From his previous roles with the Michigan Wolverines, Trail Smoke Eaters, Seattle Kraken and during his previous tenure within the Lightning organization, Jeff has acquired valuable experience with general management of staff and budgets; recruiting and scouting of players, player development and coaching.”
The former first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Kings in 2003 will work from AMALIE Arena and looks forward to his new chapter in a familiar place, one that begins with the 2025-26 season.
“What Julien's staff has done to build a roster that on day one of the season is ready to compete for a Stanley Cup, it's just so impressive,” Tambellini said. “And just you see how they've continued to find youth and been able to bring that into the organization to get younger but never lose the identity of the Bolts. And so, from my end coming into that, it's just so exciting to have a roster like that in place already.”
