Lightning Sign Forward Noah Steen to Two-Year Entry-Level Contract

Tampa Bay didn't wait for next October. The day after signing 21-year-old Norwegian winger Noah Steen to a two-year entry-level contract, the Lightning had him reporting to the Syracuse Crunch on an amateur tryout agreement, putting him on AHL ice for the final stretch of 2025-26 before his formal deal even begins. The contract, carrying a cap hit of $972,500, doesn't officially activate until the 2026-27 season opener, but the organization's decision to accelerate his arrival makes clear this is something more than a routine paperwork move for a seventh-round pick.

Vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced the signing March 31. Steen was Tampa Bay's 199th overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, and he spent the intervening two years developing in Sweden's top professional league, Örebro HK of the SHL. He finished the 2025-26 regular season with 12 goals and 10 assists for a plus-6 rating across 52 games before Örebro's playoff run ended without a point contribution in three appearances. The combination of that production rate and his defensive profile was enough to close the ELC.

The practical consequence for Syracuse's depth chart is straightforward: Steen slots immediately into competition for penalty-kill and bottom-six winger minutes. He is a left-shot forward whose scouting reputation is built on forechecking tenacity, board-battle reliability, and defensive-zone awareness, the precise profile the Crunch lean on for late-season load management and AHL playoff structures. Any incumbent winger currently holding those fourth-line and PK minutes now has a signed prospect in the building who has already been evaluated on NHL radar.

What changes, specifically: Steen is already practicing and playing in Syracuse under the ATO this spring, giving Tampa Bay's coaching staff live evaluation before he reports to training camp as a contracted player in the fall. The ELC's Year 1 NHL salary sits at $850,000 with signing bonuses on top; Year 2 climbs to $900,000. He becomes a restricted free agent when the deal expires after 2027-28, giving the Lightning organizational control through two full AHL development seasons. Strong play in 2026-27 opens a realistic recall window, particularly given Tampa Bay's consistent emphasis on defensively structured multi-role forwards at the NHL level.

As a reference point for expectations: Tampa Bay has a documented history of signing late-round European forwards to ELCs and routing them directly to Syracuse to absorb North American pro hockey before any NHL conversation begins. Those players rarely become top-six contributors, but the ones who stick earn their roster spot by making the Crunch a harder team to play against in the dirty areas of the ice. Steen's plus-6 rating on a mid-table Örebro squad, earned at 20 and 21 years old while playing serious defensive minutes, is the exact signal that makes that developmental path credible. The fact that fewer than a handful of players taken at pick 199 in any draft class ever sign an ELC makes his arrival in Syracuse, even on a tryout, a meaningful organizational statement about how Tampa Bay evaluates what it already has.