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The Tampa Bay Lightning have released their final roster for their Young Guns Prospect Camp scheduled for July 8-15 at the St. Pete Times Forum. The camp includes a prospect scrimmage on July 11 at 7pm that is open and free to the public and will include autograph sessions by the prospects and newly signed Lightning defensemen Mattias Ohlund and Matt Walker.

The camp roster includes the following Bolt prospects and non-organizational invitees:

Goaltenders: Dustin Tokarski, Riku Helenius, Jaroslav Janus, Bryan Mountain, and Michael Zador

Defensemen: Mark Barberio, Erik Gustafsson, Victor Hedman, Scott Jackson, Vladimir Mihalik, Kevin Quick, Ty Wishart, and Luke Witkowski

Forwards: Carter Ashton, Kyle DeCoste, Mitch Fadden, Tommy Grant, Alex Hutchings, Alex Killorn, Chris Lawrence, Matt Marshall, Matt Read, Juraj Simek, Dana Tyrell, and James Wright

Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune is reporting that six players originally scheduled to attend the camp have been omitted from the final roster and includes forwards Johan Harju, Justin Courtnall, Denis Kazionov, Dmitri Kazionov, Paul Szczechura, and Steve Downie.

The Ottawa '67's of the OHL selected Bolt prospect forward Matias Sointu with the 48th pick in Tuesday's OHL Import Draft. The smallish forward was selected by the Lightning in the 7th round of the 2008 Entry Draft. The Finnish-born Sointu failed to secure a regular roster spot in the SM-Liiga last season after suffering a season-ending injury after just 7 games into the FNL Jr.A season. Sointu potted 3 goals in 6 games for the undermanned Finnish U18 WJC team in early 2008, and has scored 22 goals and 20 assists in 48 games for the Ilves Jr.A squad.

It is speculated that Sointu is considering coming to North America after losing almost a whole year of development last season similar to Riku Helenius after losing a season a few years ago to a shoulder injury.

Sointu is currently not on the 2009 Young Guns prospect camp roster scheduled for mid-July in Tampa.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have re-signed defenseman Lukas Krajicek to a one-year contract today, Executive Vice President and General Manager Brian Lawton announced. Terms of the restricted free agent's deal was not released, but Lawton indicated during the NHL Entry Draft in Montreal last weekend that the sides were close on a deal. The Lightning acquired Krajicek with Juraj Simek from Vancouver in exchange for Shane O’Brien and Michel Ouellet on October 6, 2008.

“Lukas is one of the elite skating defensemen in the NHL and he played admirably for us last season in a difficult blueline situation,” said Lawton. “We are pleased to sign him for the 2009-10 season and we look forward to seeing for training camp.”

Krajicek, a 6-foot-2, 196-pound native of Prostejov, Czech Republic, played in 71 games with the Lightning last season, recording two goals and 19 points. He led all Tampa Bay defensemen in assists and points while also ranking second in blocked shots with 90. His 71 games played were the second-most played during a season in his career. In 2008-09 Krajicek established career highs for assists, points and average ice time with 19:37.

Further bolstering their defensive corps via free agency, the Lightning have signed stay-at-home veteran backliner Matt Walker. Walker played one year for the Chicago Blackhawks last season after spending 8 years in the St. Louis Blues organization. Walker has 2 goals, 23 assists, and 354 penalty minutes in 240 career NHL games.

“Matt [Walker] is the big, physical, intimidating presence that we lacked on the blue line last season,” said Lawton upon making the announcement today. “He is a high-character, team-first player and he demonstrated that last season, going right back in a playoff game after suffering an ugly, ugly broken finger. He is just the type of player that we were looking for to fill a specific defensive need.”

TSN.ca is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lightning have struck first in this year's NHL free agency by signing free agent veteran Swedish defenseman Mattias Ohlund to a 7-year, $26.5M contract. A Swedish-born veteran defenseman seems like the perfect fit for a team that not only struggled last season without a veteran presence on the blueline, but also just drafted Swedish defensive phenom Victor Hedman.

“We are thrilled Mattias [Ohlund] elected to sign with the Tampa Bay Lightning today,” said Lawton upon making the announcement. “With so many options in front of him, having him elect to play in Tampa demonstrates the faith he has in our team’s strategy and vision for success, which should be exciting for our fans. This signing accomplished two primary goals for us. First, we have added the top-two defenseman we coveted to lead our blue line and second, we have found a leader and a mentor for Victor Hedman as he prepares to play in the NHL this fall.”

Ohlund is a 12 year veteran of the Vancouver Canucks, drafted by the Vancouver 13th overall in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. In 770 career regular season games, Ohlund has 93 goals and 232 assists for 325 points. He the leads the franchise all-time for defencemen in goals and points.