The last name has already appeared with the Tampa Bay Lightning logo in the past.<\/p>\n
Though it will be displayed on a different jersey with a new number and a different skater pulling the jersey over his head this week, the bloodline remains the same.<\/p>\n
Anthony Thomas-Maroon is attending this week\u2019s Tampa Bay Lightning development camp as an invitee. The 17-year-old forward is the son of Lightning alumnus Pat Maroon, who spent four seasons as a Bolt and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now Anthony\u2019s turn to show Lightning brass who he is as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously a big honor,\u201d Anthony said of the invite, \u201cand I\u2019m really excited to be here. Growing up around this rink since when my dad won, I think it\u2019s a huge honor for me to just be here and kind of represent him and the team this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony spent the 2025-26 campaign with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL, scoring a pair of goals and 19 points in 59 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added 78 penalty minutes for Muskegon, including a handful of fights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a 200-foot center. I\u2019m smart with my hockey IQ and I make good plays and I compete, I can fight,\u201d Anthony said, \u201cso I can kind of play up and down a lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony was hoping to hear his name called at the 2026 NHL Draft this past weekend. When that didn\u2019t happen, Tampa Bay was quick to invite him to camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he’s pretty bummed out that he got missed in the draft, but this is a great opportunity for him to step right in,\u201d his father, Pat, said. \u201cGetting that call was very exciting for him to have this opportunity with kids that were drafted this year and years prior just to really show how good these kids really are. I think this is a great opportunity for Anthony. I’m excited for him to have this experience and exposure, and then hopefully next year it all falls back into place. But I know he’s excited. Dad’s excited, and I know he’s looking forward to a strong week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pat will get to see his son embrace the chance up close, as he joins this year\u2019s development camp on the ice as a volunteer coach. Dad might enjoy the moment a bit, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome\u2026It\u2019s fun to see my son wearing a Tampa Bay uniform because when we\u2019re skating here in the summer he\u2019s not wearing this stuff,\u201d Pat said. \u201cNow he has an opportunity to wear the Lightning gear that dad wore once before.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told his son to relish every moment this week. After all, a hockey player never knows where their next opportunity lies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It might even be somewhere they\u2019ve already been, and Pat knows that firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was once in his shoes. I didn’t get drafted my first year. I went to St. Louis\u2019 development camp, and it came back full-circle. I ended up playing for the St. Louis Blues. So you never know where this dev camp is going to take you,\u201d Pat said. \u201cIt’s an opportunity for everyone to take a look at you, and now you’re on the radar. Enjoy, embrace these moments, and make sure you’re respectful to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some on-ice similarities to Pat are visible, but Anthony stands out on his own, according to his father. Pat will tell you his son\u2019s game is more well-rounded than his own at such a young age, and he noticed Anthony’s improvement this past season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he’s a better hockey player than I was hockey-sense wise. His numbers were like mine in junior, but I think the comparison of just the way he plays and the way he plays defensively, he’s a very good, strong hockey mind, thinks the game very well,\u201d Pat said.<\/p>\n
Anthony admitted he felt the butterflies and nerves when he took to the ice on Monday for the first time in a Lightning logo, the same one his father twice adorned while lifting the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
He said he works to be a responsible center on defense who can also chip in offensively, and he wants to display that this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a 200-foot center. I\u2019m very smart with my hockey IQ and I make good plays and I compete, I can fight. I can kind of play up and down your lineup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I show them that I can really play hockey. I got enough notice to get here, so I\u2019ve just got to keep proving people wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
For at least this week, there is a stall at the Lightning practice arena with Anthony\u2019s name above it.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s about making the most of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to have my name on the back of that jersey,\u201d he said. \u201cI just want to represent it well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last name has already appeared with the Tampa Bay Lightning logo in the past. Though it will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-324744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324744","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=324744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}