Lightning’s longtime amateur scouting director reassigned after draft
TAMPA — Hours after he oversaw a busy second day of the draft for the Lightning, the organization announced that longtime amateur scouting director Al Murray has been reassigned within the team’s hockey operations department.
Murray will be replaced by John Rosso, who had been the Lightning’s assistant director of player personnel for four years after a lengthy tenure as a well-regarded amateur scout for the organization.
Shortly after TSN’s Darren Dreger tweeted late Thursday night, “Sounds like Al Murray’s days as long time Director of Amateur scouting for the Tampa Bay Lightning are over ...” general manager Julien BriseBois announced in a news release that Murray has been reassigned to the position of senior advisor to the general manager.
The move was the Lightning’s second staff shakeup of the week. It replaced AHL Syracuse coach Benoit Groulx on Monday with Joel Bouchard .
Rosso joined the Lightning in 2011 and scouted the midwestern U.S. His work led to the team taking later-round gems such as forwards Ross Colton (fourth round in 2016) and Cole Koepke (sixth round in 2018), and defenseman Nick Perbix (sixth round in 2017).
Rosso moved to the pro hockey side in 2019, working under assistant general manager and director of player personnel Jamie Pushor. He now will oversee all amateur scouting operations, as well as draft preparation and execution.
Murray 66, has been credited with playing a major role in the Lightning’s emergence as a Stanley Cup contender through its work in the draft.
He had been director of amateur scouting since the summer of 2010 and led every draft since 2011, selecting franchise cornerstones such as forwards Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli; and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy; in addition to Colton, Perbix and Koepke.
He added assistant general manager to his title in 2019.
Earlier Thursday, the Lightning traded up to get second- and fourth-round picks after arriving in Nashville with no selections before the sixth round.
They drafted Ethan Gauthier, this past season’s winner of the Mike Bossy Trophy (awarded to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s top draft-eligible prospect), with the 37th overall pick a day after trading Colton to Colorado to move into the second round.
They also acquired the fourth-round pick they used to select Jayson Shaugabay, who recently was named Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey award as the state’s top high school player.
“A lot of flexibility, we think there’s real good skill level, and we touched pretty much all the bases we needed to,” Murray said of the Lightning’s five-pick class.
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