TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning today announced that the team’s 2025 Hall of Fame Class will feature the organization’s first NHL All-Star Brian Bradley and longtime play-by-play television broadcaster Rick Peckham. They will be inducted as part of Lightning Alumni Weekend. A full schedule with event details will be available at a later date.
Bradley joined the Lightning ahead of the team’s inaugural season when Tampa Bay selected him with the 36th overall pick in the 1992 NHL Expansion Draft. After spending his first eight seasons playing in three Canadian markets between Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, Bradley played a key role in the early success of the NHL’s first-ever hockey team based in the non-traditional market of Florida.
The Kitchener, Ontario native became an immediate fan favorite throughout Bolts Nation after finishing the 1992-93 inaugural season with 42 goals and 44 assists for 86 points, along with 16 power-play tallies, six game-winners and 205 shots on goal, leading the team and setting new career highs in all six categories. That season, Bradley was named Tampa Bay’s first-ever NHL All-Star, representing the Lightning in Montreal, Quebec, alongside all-time greats and Hall of Famers, such as Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey.
On October 20, 1996, Tampa Bay played in its first-ever game at AMALIE Arena, then known as the Ice Palace, with Bradley netting the game-opening goal as the Bolts skated to a 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers. In total, Bradley would play his final six NHL seasons with the Lightning, leading the club in scoring for four-consecutive years before concluding his career with a power-play goal in the third period of his last game. Today, he stands in an elite club as one of just 12 skaters in franchise history to record 300 or more points with the organization and still ranks in the top 15 all-time for goals, assists, points, power-play goals and power-play points with Tampa Bay.
Following his playing career, Bradley continued to make an impact off the ice, offering in-game analysis on the team’s television broadcasts, helping grow the game at the grassroots level with young hockey players across the Tampa Bay region and now serving as a Community Relations Representative and assisting with various projects across Vinik Sports Group.
While Bradley was making his impact on the organization felt with his play on the ice, Peckham’s performance in the television broadcast booth was attracting fans in its own way as his voice became a regular guest inside the homes of Lightning fans for over two decades.
With 18 seasons of broadcast experience under his belt, Peckham was hired ahead of the 1995-96 campaign to be Tampa Bay’s television play-by-play announcer, a position he would hold for 24 seasons before retiring in 2020. Over those 24 seasons, Peckham quickly cemented himself as one of the top play-by-play announcers in all of sports, regularly being selected by the NHL’s National broadcast partners to call some of the league’s biggest games during both the regular season and playoffs.
Throughout the history of the Lightning, Peckham’s voice reverberated throughout the homes of Bolts fans everywhere as his unforgettable calls highlighted some of the biggest moments in franchise history, from the 2004 run to the organization’s first-ever Stanley Cup title to the first career goal of future Hall of Famer and current team captain Victor Hedman.
In 2020, Peckham was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame after being selected as the Hewitt Memorial Award Recipient, an award dedicated to recognizing distinguished members of the radio and television industry who made outstanding contributions to their profession and the game during their career in hockey broadcasting.
One year later, Peckham’s legacy was permanently enshrined inside AMALIE Arena when the organization rebranded the press box’s broadcast booths as “The Rick Peckham Broadcast Booths.” Known for his unmatched preparedness, selfless mentality and an immense love for hockey, Peckham played an instrumental role in helping grow the Lightning organization into what it is today.
