From the perspective of Steven Santini, every day in the NHL is a good day.
Santini, 29, made his 2024-25 season debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday in an 8-3 win over the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Thursday marked Santini’s first NHL appearance in nearly two years. The veteran defenseman’s last NHL game was in January 2023 with the St. Louis Blues.
"It was almost two years since my last NHL game,” Santini said. “It’s a cool feeling. It's very rewarding, and I'm thankful I didn't give up. I'm thankful for all my friends and family that have helped me through it the last few years.”
Santini signed a one-year deal with the Lightning this summer and has five points—second most among defensemen—in 14 games with Syracuse in the American Hockey League (AHL) this season.
The Bronxville, New York native has played 124 NHL games over his career since being drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He made his NHL debut with the Devils in 2016.
Santini spent parts of four seasons with the New Jersey Devils and also has NHL games with the St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators and now the Lightning.
Tampa Bay signed Santini this offseason after he spent the entire 2023-24 season with the Ontario Reign in the AHL.
Santini was with AHL Springfield for most of the 2022-23 season, when he had 10 points in 64 games. He played four NHL games with St. Louis in January 2023, finishing with one assist. The hard-nosed, defensive defenseman has five goals and 18 assists for 23 points in 124 career NHL games and has focused on his puck skills in recent years.
"If you look at how things have gone throughout my career, my play with the puck has gotten a lot better. It's something I've really put a lot of effort into with working with skills coaches. It's not about doing anything special, but just being able to put passes on the tape, break pucks out, get up in the play and be involved in the play,” he said. “It’s just being a more well-rounded player, not just being so one dimensional defensively.”
Seven-hundred days after his last NHL chance, Santini played 11 minutes, 37 seconds and recorded one shot on goal in his Lightning debut on Thursday.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind, but it’s really cool,” Santini said of finding his way back to the NHL. “It feels really rewarding. It’s been kind of a long journey for me personally the last nine years as a pro. And anytime you get to play in the NHL, it’s a pretty special feeling.”
Fans might have been able to spot Santini easily on Thursday, as the Bolt wearing No. 64 is temporarily donning a full face shield due to an injury from his time in Syracuse.
Santini wasn’t sure if he would play until after warmups, when the Lightning announced that Victor Hedman would miss the game with a lower-body injury.
After JJ Moser left the game during the second period due to another injury, Santini was one of five defensemen tasked with finishing a game without three of Tampa Bay’s usual top four defenders—Erik Cernak also missed Thursday’s game.
“It wasn’t that overwhelming, to be honest. I knew what I had to do, and when it’s going on you’re kind of just in the moment, shift by shift. You don’t really get too high or too low throughout the course of the game, but then it definitely kind of hits you today the next day like, ‘Okay that was pretty cool. That was fun.’”
Santini called himself a “simple” guy, one who feels lucky to have a support system that includes his wife and two kids, friends and now the Lightning organization.
To Santini, every day in the NHL is a “blessing”. The defenseman is thankful for the Lightning and GM Julien BriseBois for believing in him as a player and giving him an NHL contract this summer.
“I’ll always be thankful for that, and to get this opportunity, it’s pretty cool.
“You never know how many days or games you have left. Obviously, I'm getting older now, so I cherish these moments, and hopefully one day my kids when they got a little bit older, they can understand that I fought a lot of adversity and kept working hard and eventually got rewarded for it. But honestly, I'm just very thankful for the opportunity. The staff, the coaches, the players, they’ve all been really great to me.”
