Isaac Howard is a rare first-round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Prior to 2022, when Howard was selected 31st overall, the team hadn’t picked in the first round since 2019. They also didn’t have one in 2023. The next opportunity to make another selection is in 2026. Much of the team’s future hangs on the success of his development. Fortunately for the Lightning, Howard is showing what he’s got in a big way at the 2024 World Junior Championship (WJC).
Team USA continues to dominate. They won all four games of the preliminary round – three wins in regulation and a win in the shootout – and blew out Latvia, 7-2, in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. Howard has been a crucial player behind this success.
Howard Wins it for America
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has released two power rankings so far for the WJC. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the day both rankings were released, the USA was first.
They’ve done everything they can to show they belong on top. Along with their undefeated record, Team USA scored double-digit goals in two games: An 11-3 win over Switzerland and a 10-2 win over Slovakia. As a team, they have scored 36 goals. Howard has five of them.
Related: 2024 Guide to the World Junior Championship
Against Czechia, Howard had two of his biggest moments. First, he opened scoring just 72 seconds into the game. Fast-forward to the seventh round of the shootout, and Howard slapped the puck just under the pad of Michael Hrabel to win it for Team USA.
Howard has had at least one point in all five games thus far – he had at least a goal in each game of the preliminary round. He’s had two multi-point games—one with two goals and another with a goal and an assist.
Dominance Isn’t New for the Lightning Prospect
Howard is performing exactly the way Team USA expects him to. Beyond the raw talent, he’s come up big for them in the past. In the 2022 18U World Championship, Howard had four goals in the opening game against Canada. He finished with 11 points in six games and took home the Silver Medal. The year before that in 2021, he had one goal and three assists in the same competition.
He’s even started to take his game to the next level at the collegiate level. Following his freshman year at Minnesota-Duluth, Howard transferred to Michigan State. Since his move to Lansing, he went from averaging 0.48 points per game to 1.11 points per game. The Spartans are currently ranked seventh in the USCHO.com DI men’s hockey rankings.
If Howard is on the team, success follows. Just ask the Spartans. Last year, they finished 18-18-2 (10-12-2 in the Big Ten) and weren’t even sniffing a trip to the Frozen Four. Now, they’re a top-10 team, 13-4-3 overall and 7-1-2 in the Big Ten.
Bringing in guys like Howard went a long way for this leap. Head coach Adam Nightingale, who coached Howard previously in the U.S. National Team Development Program, certainly got his guy.
An Indication of the Lightning’s Future
As Howard continues to shine against his peers, Lightning fans should feel a sense of excitement about what’s to come. What’s to come will be what they start to cling to along with what’s already been accomplished.
The Lightning sacrificed their future, trading first-round picks to win now. It’s something they don’t, and never should, regret.
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The 2020 pick they traded landed them Barclay Goodrow. The 2021 pick became David Savard. Both names have been etched on the Stanley Cup, and Goodrow’s name is on it twice. The 2023 and 2024 first-round picks are why the Lightning have Brandon Hagel, who played in the Lightning’s third-straight Stanley Cup Final.
It allowed the Lightning to take advantage of the window of opportunity. But that window is closing.
The back-to-back Stanley Cups are only going further into the past. Even with the salary cap going up next season, the current stars on the Lightning won’t be around forever. We still don’t know if Howard will get the chance to be Steven Stamkos’ teammate.
With the lack of opportunity to prepare for the future in the short term, Howard provides a major one. With how he’s playing, it looks like they hit on their one first-round pick. That goes a long way for the team’s future, potentially a decade or more.