CHL to NHL: Two-time Memorial Cup champion O’Reilly debuts for Lightning
Former London Knights and Kitchener Rangers forward Sam O’Reilly made his National Hockey League (NHL) debut for the Tampa Bay Lightning last night in their 8-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres at the KeyBank Center.
O’Reilly played in 12:56 of ice time in his debut and recorded his first NHL point on Yanni Gourde’s second-period marker to make the game 4-0. Jake Guentzel received the other assist on the goal. O’Reilly finished the game with a +2 rating and also recorded a blocked shot and two hits.
A native of Toronto, Ontario, O’Reilly played in four Ontario Hockey League (OHL) seasons between 2022 and 2026, playing in 163 regular season games and eight playoff games for the Knights before being traded to the Rangers in January, 2026. Drafted by the Knights in the second round, 37th overall, of the 2022 OHL Priority Selection, O’Reilly served as their captain in 2025-26 until his move to Kitchener.
His teams made OHL championship appearances in all four of his seasons, winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 2024 and 2025 with London, and in 2026 with Kitchener. In his three Memorial Cup appearances, his teams played in all three championship games, winning the Memorial Cup in 2025 with London and in 2026 with Kitchener.
In addition to his team-based accomplishments, O’Reilly amounted numerous individual accolades during his OHL career. In 2024, he was named to the OHL Second All-Rookie Team. In 2026, he led the OHL playoffs in goals with 17, received the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL’s most outstanding player, the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award as the most valuable player of the OHL playoffs and the Stafford Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the Memorial Cup. He became just the fourth player to win league MVP, league playoff MVP and Memorial Cup MVP in the same season, and the first since Brad Richards did so with the Rimouski Océanic in 2000. He was also named to the CHL First All-Star Team, OHL First All-Star Team and the CHL Memorial Cup All-Star Team. In total, O’Reilly had 77 goals and 121 assists in 191 OHL regular season games, 29 goals and 33 assists in 54 OHL playoff games, and six goals and 11 assists in 13 Memorial Cup games.
With his 2026 Memorial Cup championship, O’Reilly (alongside teammate Jared Woolley) became the first player to win back-to-back Memorial Cups with two different teams since Noah Dobson in 2018 (Acadie-Bathurst Titan) and 2019 (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies). It also made O’Reilly one of just three players in CHL history to appear in three consecutive Memorial Cups with two different teams, alongside Woolley and Robert Savard (Cornwall Royals – 1980, 1981 & Kitchener Rangers, 1982). This marked the first time a player had achieved this in 44 years.
O’Reilly opened the 2026-27 season with the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate. In 12 AHL games, he’s scored two goals and added two assists.
Internationally, O’Reilly represented Canada at the 2026 World Juniors, where he recorded four goals and four assists in seven games. He won a bronze medal and was named one of Canada’s top three players at the tournament.
O’Reilly was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round, 32nd overall, of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, but was traded to the Lightning in 2025.
