{"id":19141,"date":"2025-10-24T16:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:39:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:39:29","slug":"dominic-james-makes-nhl-debut-with-tampa-bay-duluth-news-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19141\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominic James makes NHL debut with Tampa Bay &#8211; Duluth News Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dominic James makes NHL debut with Tampa Bay<\/p>\n<p>Former Minnesota Duluth captain <a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/sports\/bulldogs-hockey\/bulldog-insider-dominic-james-made-blind-commitment-to-umd\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dominic James<\/a> made his NHL debut on Thursday with the Tampa Bay Lightning against the team that drafted him, the Chicago Blackhawks, in Tampa.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago won 3-2, <a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/gamecenter\/chi-vs-tbl\/2025\/10\/23\/2025020113\/boxscore\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">with James getting one shot on goal in 9:59 of ice time.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>James, wearing No. 17, was taken in the sixth round of the 2022 NHL Draft by the Blackhawks after a breakout freshman season at UMD. James, 23,<a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/blackhawks\/2025\/10\/23\/blackhawks-prospect-dominic-james-lightning-nhl-debut-contract-rejection\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">turned down a contract offer from Chicago<\/a> after his career came to a close at UMD in the spring, and he didn\u2019t end up signing with Tampa until <a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/sports\/bulldogs-hockey\/former-umd-captain-james-says-he-is-signing-with-tampa-bay\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">after training camp opened in the fall.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The UMD captain in 2024-25 <a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/lightning\/news\/dominic-james-aims-to-bring-speed-to-nhl-debut-against-familiar-blackhawks-team-thursday\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">got his first call-up to the NHL<\/a> after posting three goals and two assists in five American Hockey League games with the Syracuse Crunch to start 2025-26. The former Bulldogs top-line center was listed as the <a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TBLightning\/status\/1981486400659681519\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow\">Lightning\u2019s third-line left wing Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the Blackhawks never officially became James\u2019 team \u2014 though he did attend their development camps in the offseason after his freshmen, sophomore and junior seasons at UMD \u2014 there was one former teammate on the other side in defenseman Wyatt Kaiser. The two were teammates from 2021-23.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/sports\/bulldogs-hockey\/umd-bulldogs-hockey-players-in-the-pros\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nine former Bulldogs started the 2025-26 season in the NHL.<\/a> Now there are 11, with former Bulldog Isaac Howard making his professional debut with the Edmonton Oilers after initially being left off their 2025-26 roster. Howard played one season at UMD, as a Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick, with James and Kaiser in 2022-23 before transferring to Michigan State. He declined to sign with the Lightning after winning the Hobey Baker Memorial Award last season, and was traded to the Oilers in the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic James makes NHL debut with Tampa Bay Former Minnesota Duluth captain Dominic James made his NHL debut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15676,15677,14392,15678,15679,15680,15681,135,862,137,136,15683,15682],"class_list":["post-19141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bulldogs-hockey","tag-bulldogs-in-the-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-dom-james","tag-dominic-james","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-isaac-howard","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-umd-alumni-in-the-nhl","tag-umd-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}