Photo: Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vladislav Namestnikov starred for the OHL’s London Knights for two seasons before playing the past two seasons for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch (courtesy of Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire)
Tampa Bay Lightning rookie forward Vladislav Namestnikov was among the scoring leaders during the 2014 NHL preseason, picking up seven assists in five games. It took him a couple of regular season games to find his groove, but Namestnikov broke through with two points against the Montreal Canadiens in a 7-1 Lightning win that included Namestnikov’s first NHL goal.
The Zhukovskiy, Russia native’s performance was overshadowed by a hat trick from Lightning star Steven Stamkos, with Namestnikov’s goal being the seventh in a game that had long been decided. Namestnikov took a feed from Nikita Kucherov and buried a quick shot past Canadiens’ goaltender Dustin Tokarski.
Namestnikov, who is ranked fifth among the Lightning’s prospects by Hockey’s Future, is coming off of a successful second AHL season in which he produced 48 points in 56 games.
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