2020–21 Tampa Bay Lightning season

The 2020–21 Tampa Bay Lightning season was the 29th season for the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise that was established on December 16, 1991. The Lightning entered the season as the defending Stanley Cup champions. In a joint announcement from the NHL and NHLPA on October 6, 2020, a target date of January 1, 2021 was set for the start of the season. It was reported December 18, 2020 that the two parties had tentatively agreed to a 56-game season scheduled to begin on January 13, 2021.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing prior to the season, as part of the league's return to play protocols, the divisions were realigned and the Lightning were put into the Central Division. This new configuration retained Chicago, Dallas, and Nashville, while it added Detroit and Florida from the Atlantic Division, as well as Carolina and Columbus from the Metropolitan Division. The regular season schedule was announced on December 23, 2020. Opponents in each game during the regular season and potentially the first two rounds of the playoffs are from within the new division.

The Lightning entered the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs as the defending Stanley Cup champions and the third seed in the Central Division. In the first round, the Lightning defeated their in-state rival the Florida Panthers in six games. They went on to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes in five games to earn a spot in the Semifinals, where they defeated the New York Islanders in seven games to reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive season. Tampa Bay would then repeat as champions in five games against the Montreal Canadiens.

September
The Lightning's off-season began after the team captured its second Stanley Cup in franchise history in a 4–2 series win over the Dallas Stars.

October
On October 7, 2020, the Lightning re-signed forwards Mitchell Stephens and Gemel Smith to contract extensions. Stepehens was signed to a two-year extension after being part of the 2020 Stanley Cup championship roster. Smith signed a one-year deal after appearing in three regular season games for the Lightning and spending the majority of the season with the Lightning's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

At the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, the Lightning selected Jack Finley, Gage Goncalves, Maxim Groshev, Jack Thompson, Eamon Powell, Jaydon Dureau, Nick Capone, Amir Miftakhov and Declan McDonnell. Later in the evening, the Lightning announced that it had issued qualifying offers to Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak, Ross Colton, Mathieu Joseph, Dominik Masin, Mikhail Sergachev, Ben Thomas and Alex Volkov. The team did not issue qualifying offers to Devante Stephens, Carter Verhaeghe and Dennis Yan.

On October 9, 2020, the Lightning placed Tyler Johnson on waivers after being unable to trade him prior to free agency. Johnson has a $5 million cap hit with four years remaining on his current contract with the Lightning. Johnson cleared waivers the following day after going unclaimed by another team.

That same day, the Lightning announced that it had signed forward Patrick Maroon to a two-year contract extension. Maroon skated in all of the Lightning's playoff games on their way to winning their second Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Around the same time, the Lightning re-signed defenseman Luke Schenn to a one-year contract extension. Scheen appeared in 25 regular season games and 11 playoff games during the Lightning's championship run the prior season. Schenn's contract counted for $800,000 against the salary cap.

The Lightning also made a series of depth signings that day. The Lightning signed defenseman Andreas Borgman and goaltender and Christopher Gibson. The Lightning also re-signed Spencer Martin to a one-year contract extension. Martin had spent the previous season with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL. Borgman played in 53 games this past season for the AHL's San Antonio Rampage. Gibson appeared in net in 25 games for the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers during the prior season.

On October 12, 2020, the Lightning announced the re-signing of defensemen prospect Ben Thomas. Thomas had been playing for the Syracuse Crunch for the past four seasons, during which time he appeared in over 200 career games. Thomas was originally drafted by Lightning in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

On October 14, 2020, the Lightning announced that it had re-signed forward prospect Ross Colton. Colton had spent the last two years playing for the AHL's Syracuse Crunch. Colton was drafted by the Lightning in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.

On October 23, 2020, it was announced that assistant coach Todd Richards was leaving the Lightning to take an assistant coaching job with the Nashville Predators. Richards spent the past four seasons with the Lightning and helped the team capture its second Stanley Cup.

November
On November 25, 2020, the Lightning announced the re-signing of defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to a three-year contract extension. The contract carried a $4.8 million cap hit. Since coming over to the Lightning via trade, Sergachev produced three straight seasons of more than 30 points and helped the franchise to its second Stanley Cup.

December
On December 7, 2020, the Lightning announced the hiring of assistant coach Rob Zettler. Zettler was previously an assistant of Lightning head coach Jon Cooper when he was the head coach of the AHL's Syracuse Crunch. Zettler took over as head coach of the Crunch after Cooper was promoted to be the Lightning's head coach. Zettler was released by the team after three seasons. Zettler went on to spend two seasons as an assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks and a season of prospect coaching for Adam Oates and the Oates Sports Group. Zettler filled the vacancy left by the departure of Todd Richards. Richards worked with the Lightning defensemen and handled the team's penalty kill.

On December 12, 2020, the Lightning announced the signing of 2020 NHL draft pick Jack Finley. Finley spent the past three seasons with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League (WHL), where he has skated in 131 career WHL games and recorded 28 goals and 77 points.

On December 13, 2020, the Lightning announced the signing of another 2020 NHL draft pick, center Gage Goncalves, to a three-year entry-level contract. Goncalves was previously an undrafted camp invite by the WHL's Everett Silvertips before being drafted by the Lightning. Gonclaves appeared in 128 career WHL games, recording 34 goals, 52 assists and 86 points.

On December 22, 2020, the Lightning announced the re-signing of defenseman Erik Cernak to a three-year contract extension. Cernak played in 67 games last season and lead the team in hits with 172. In the Lightning's championship run, Cernak appeared in all 25 games, during which he averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game, fourth-highest amongst Lightning defensemen.

On December 23, 2020, the Lightning announced the re-signing of forwards Mathieu Joseph and Alexander Volkov. Joseph was signed to a two-year extension and Volkov was signed to a one-year extension. Both forwards split the season between the Lightning and the Syracuse Crunch. Joseph played in 37 regular season games with the Lightning, scoring four goals and three assists. Volkov appeared in nine regular season games, recording one assist. Volkov also drew into the Lightning's Stanley Cup-clinching game win over the Dallas Stars.

The Lightning also announced the re-signing of defenseman Jan Rutta to a two-year extension. Rutta played in 33 regular season games, recording a goal and six assists. Rutta also plated in six playoff games, recording a lone assist during the Lightning's Stanley Cup run. Rutta was originally acquired by the Lightning via trade from the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019.

On December 24, 2020, the Lightning announced the re-signing of forward Anthony Cirelli to a three-year contract extension. Cirelli had 16 goals and 28 assists over 68 games in the regular season. Cirelli also recorded six assists in the Lightning's 25 playoff games. Along with winning the Stanley Cup, Cirelli finished the past season fourth in Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, which trophy is awarded to the NHL's best defensive forward.

On December 27, 2020, the Lightning announced that it had traded Braydon Coburn, Cedric Paquette and their 2021 second-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Anders Nilsson and Marian Gaborik. Both Nilsson and Gaborik were immediately placed on long-term injured reserve for additional salary cap space to allow the Lightning to become salary cap compliant for the upcoming season.

January
On January 1, 2021, the Lightning announced its training camp roster for the 2020–21 season, which consisted of 25 forwards, 14 defensemen and 4 goaltenders. The notable absence from the roster was forward Nikita Kucherov, who was to miss at least all of the regular season after having hip surgery, with optimism that he would return to action in the playoffs.

The forward roster consists of Alex Barre-Boulet, Anthony Cirelli, Ross Colton, Blake Coleman, Jack Finley, Gage Goncalves, Barclay Goodrow, Yanni Gourde, Jimmy Huntington, Tyler Johnson, Mathieu Joseph, Boris Katchouk, Alex Killorn, Ryan Lohin, Patrick Maroon, Boo Nieves, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point, Taylor Raddysh, Gemel Smith, Steven Stamkos, Mitchell Stephens, Alexander Volkov and Daniel Walcott.

The defensemen group consisted of Andreas Borgman, Erik Cernak, Sean Day, Cal Foote, Alex Green, Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh Jan Rutta, Luke Schenn, Dmitry Semykin, Mikhail Sergachev, Devante Stephens, Ben Thomas and Luke Witkowski.

The goaltending group consisted of Christopher Gibson, Spencer Martin, Curtis McElhinney and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

On January 8, 2021, the Lightning announced its first roster cuts for the upcoming season. The team assigned Ryan Lohin and Devante Stephens to Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL. There were 41 players remaining after the first round of roster cuts.

On January 11, 2021, the Lightning announced the final round of roster moves for the start of the season. The Lightning assigned Alex Barre-Boulet, Ross Colton, Sean Day, Jack Finley, Gage Goncalves, Alex Green, Jimmy Huntington, Boris Katchouk, Taylor Raddysh and Dmitry Semykin to the Syracuse Crunch. The Lightning placed Spencer Martin, Daniel Walcott and Luke Witkowski on waivers for purposes of assignment to Syracuse.

The Lightning also announced that it had placed Andreas Borgman, Christopher Gibson, Tyler Johnson, Luke Schenn, Gemel Smith and Ben Thomas on waivers. If the players cleared waivers, they were to likely be destined for the team's taxi squad, which roster group the NHL created for teams' predicted roster challenges during the season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The following day, all the players that were placed on waivers the previous day had cleared without being claimed by another team. Those not destined for Syracuse were set to be assigned to the taxi squad on opening night the following day.

Latter that day the Lightning also announced that it had signed forward Boo Nieves to a one-year contract after joining the team on a PTO contract for training camp. Nieves had previously played in the New York Rangers system for the past four seasons.

After completing these moves, the team set-up its opening night roster: forwards Anthony Cirelli, Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow, Yanni Gourde, Mathieu Joseph, Alex Killorn, Patrick Maroon, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, Mitchell Stephens and Alexander Volkov; defensemen Erik Cernak, Cal Foote, Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Jan Rutta and Mikhail Sergachev; and goaltenders Andrei Vasilevskiy and Curtis McElhinney.

The taxi squad roster consisted of Tyler Johnson (C), Gemel Smith (C), Luke Schenn (RD), Andreas Borgman (LD), Ben Thomas (RD) and Christopher Gibson (G). Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois stated that Johnson would be added to the active roster after the first game due to cap reasons. Due to the timing of his signing, Boo Nieves was unable to be assigned to the taxi squad until after the first game.

Regular season

 * Lightning score listed first;
 * Lightning score listed first;

Playoffs

 * Lightning score listed first;
 * Lightning score listed first;

Player stats
Final

Goaltenders
†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Tampa Bay. Stats reflect time with Tampa Bay only.

‡Traded from Tampa Bay mid-season.

Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Transactions
The Lightning have been involved in the following transactions during the 2020–21 season.

Draft picks
Below are the Tampa Bay Lightning's selections at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which was held on October 6 and 7, 2020, via video conference call due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes:


 * 1) The St. Louis Blues' second-round pick went to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the result of a trade on October 7, 2020, that sent a fourth-round pick in 2020 (124th overall) and a second-round pick in 2021 to Montreal in exchange for this pick.
 * Montreal previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on February 18, 2020, that sent Marco Scandella to St. Louis in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2021 and this pick.
 * 1) The Philadelphia Flyers' third-round pick went to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the result of a trade on February 24, 2020, that sent Anthony Greco and a first-round pick in 2020 to San Jose in exchange for Barclay Goodrow and this pick.
 * San Jose previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on June 18, 2019, that sent Justin Braun to Philadelphia in exchange for a second-round pick in 2019 and this pick.
 * 1) The Philadelphia Flyers' forth and fifth-round pick went to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the result of a trade on October 7, 2020, that sent Detroit's fourth-round pick in 2020 (94th overall) to Philadelphia in exchange for a fourth-round pick in 2020 (116th overall) and fifth-round pick in 2020 (147th overall) for this pick.
 * 2) The Tampa Bay Lightning's fifth-round pick will go to the Ottawa Senators as the result of a trade on July 30, 2019, that sent Mike Condon and a sixth-round pick in 2020 to Tampa Bay in exchange for Ryan Callahan and this pick.