From the Florida sunshine this week, Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Aiden Foster can taste NHL life, even if development camp is just a sneak peek.
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The 18-year-old forward from Lloydminster arrived in Tampa overnight Saturday (June 28), just hours after the Lightning selected him in the fourth round of the NHL draft with the 127th pick overall.
“They set everything up really good for us,” Foster said Sunday night as prospects gathered for Tampa’s weeklong camp. “It’s a really nice hotel spot and our meal tonight was really nice, so we’re pretty lucky. We’ll see how the week goes.
“That’s the exciting part of all this, just getting a glimpse. It kind of makes you want it more. It’s an eye-opener. You can take everything you learned from here back and it gets you ready for pro, which is obviously the goal.”
Lloydminster native Aiden Foster (second from left) poses with fellow 2025 draft selections.
Submitted photo
Foster’s goal became a step closer to reality at about 1 p.m. Saturday when the Lightning called his name during the second day of the NHL draft from Los Angeles. He was sitting at home in Lloydminster, watching TV coverage of the draft with his family and his girlfriend and preparing to host more family members later that afternoon for his high school graduation barbecue.
“It worked out good — it was a draft and grad barbecue,” said Foster, part of the Class of 2025 from Lloydminster Comprehensive High School.
“It was just me and my family watching, and then everyone else came over after (I was drafted) — my uncles, aunties and grandparents.”
Foster has spent two years with the Prince George Cougars of the WHL, playing a physical brand of hockey that endeared him to teammates and feared many of his opponents. His draft stock rose appreciably in the second half of the season, with NHL Central Scouting ranking him 89th among draft-eligible North American forwards. Factoring in goaltenders and Europeans, that projection was right in the ballpark with Foster’s selection late in the fourth round.
His sister Alivia, who plays defence with the U18 AAA Lloydminster Steelers, heard the magic words — Prince George — in the background while TV broadcasters were talking just seconds before Foster’s name was called.
“It was kind of weird how it happened,” Foster recalled. “My sister jumped up and said, ‘You got drafted,’ but no one else heard it.
“A couple of seconds later, my name popped up on the screen and I was just like, ‘Holy crap.’ I was speechless and just hugged everyone. It was an unreal feeling. I still can’t really believe it.”
The six-foot-three, 180-pound Foster made a believer of the Lightning, whose head scout and Western league scout followed him closely during the past season and did their homework on the Lloyd boy.
At least five teams, particularly the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, had shown substantive interest in possibly drafting Foster or at least inviting him to their development camp if he wasn’t selected.
“You never really know (what could happen),” he said. “I was really surprised, to be honest.”
That draft unpredictability was evident with the players ranked immediately above and below Foster. Brandon Wheat Kings forward Carter Klippenstein, rated 88th among North American skaters, went to the Minnesota Wild in the fourth round, 123rd overall, while Halifax Mooseheads forward Liam Kilfoil, ranked 90th in the same category, wasn’t selected in the seven-round draft.
BUDDIES RIGHT ON CUE
Foster’s draft shock still hadn’t subsided when a couple of surprise visitors showed up in his garage that rainy afternoon as his family was setting up for the celebratory barbecue. His hometown hockey buddies — Kade Fendelet from the junior A Bobcats and Cayden Wildeman from the junior B Bandits — were wearing Tampa hats, right on cue.
“That was pretty much half an hour after I was picked and they were already there to congratulate me,” Foster said. “It was pretty crazy and all happiness at the same time, and to see my buddies there and how excited they were, it was really cool.”
Fendelet and Wildeman had rushed to Lids store in the Lloyd mall and bought Tampa caps. Soon after, Foster’s family members from Saskatoon and his grandfather from Lloyd purchased the remaining Lightning hats in the same shop.
“They all showed up to my house wearing Tampa Bay hats, so that was pretty cool,” he said. “I guess the person working in the store was saying, ‘What’s the big thing with these Tampa hats?’ They got the last five. They sold out.”
Before he even had a chance to sample any Lightning team clothing, Foster already had a busy afternoon of congratulatory calls and interviews.
“My phone was blowing up and a bunch of people from Tampa called me, and then I hopped on a Zoom call with media from down here (in Florida),” he said.
“I was wearing a collared shirt and some nice pants, just ready for the barbecue. I was kind of prepared, but when (my draft selection) happened, I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. I can’t really believe I’m here (in Tampa) now and part of this organization.”
Lightning vice-president and general manager Julien BriseBois was among those who called Saturday to welcome Foster to the team.
STRAIGHT TO CAMP
A few hours later, Foster drove to Edmonton to catch a red-eye flight to Tampa for the development camp. While the week is filled with skates, workouts and testing, the fun part of the prospects’ schedule included a Rays’ Major League Baseball game Tuesday, July 1.
For most of his life, Foster played competitive baseball along with his hockey pursuits.
One of the first players to congratulate Foster on Saturday was Prince George teammate Josh Ravensbergen, the six-foot-five goaltender selected in the first round Friday night when the San Jose Sharks chose him 30th overall.
Foster and Ravensbergen became close friends in Prince George, along with Cougars forward Terik Parascak, a first-round selection of the Washington Capitals last year. Before this year’s draft, Parascak and Ravensbergen both spoke highly of Foster for his character and his value to the Cougars.
Lightning scouts recognized those same traits in Foster, whose tenacious play and willingness to stick up for teammates earned him first-line duty the past winter with Cougars stars Parascak and Riley Heidt, a Minnesota prospect.
“For (the Lightning) to take the risk on me shows what they’ve done for me and what I have to do for them,” Foster said.
MORE LOCAL FLAVOUR
Among the 31 players participating in Tampa’s development camp this week is Alaskan-born goaltender Anders Miller, who began the past season playing junior A in Lloydminster before graduating to major junior with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. The undrafted Miller, 18, is a Lightning camp invitee.
During his Lloyd school days, Foster remembers watching Tampa win two of the franchise’s three Stanley Cup championships. He has admired skilled and gritty Lightning forwards like Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli and, more recently, Conor Geekie.
“Now, to be part of the same organization is really cool,” Foster said.
A decade ago, Hagel was playing U18 AAA with the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers when he was called up to the Whitecourt Wolverines to play an Alberta Junior Hockey League game against the Bobcats at Lloydminster’s Centennial Civic Centre.
That’s the same rink where Foster skated up through the Lloyd minor hockey ranks, graduating to the WHL in 2023.
He grew up cheering for the Calgary Flames, who made headlines Friday when they chose Macklin, Sask., centre Cole Reschny in the first round, 18th overall. Reschny, a 92-point man with the Victoria Royals this past WHL season, is headed to the University of North Dakota this fall to continue his hockey journey.
Reschny’s younger brother, Anderson, a defenceman, signed with Prince George this spring after the Cougars selected him in the second round of the WHL draft. Anderson plans to play with the U18 AAA Saskatoon Blazers this coming season.
Bryce Pickford, a defenceman from Chauvin, Alta., became a Montreal Canadiens’ prospect Saturday when he was drafted in the third round, 81st overall. Pickford, 19, is a member of the WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers.
Foster is going into his third WHL season with Prince George, which picked him in the third round in 2022. Along with scouting at the regional level, Tampa’s head scout watched Foster about six times this past year, including a couple of playoff games. Foster had six points in seven playoff games and continued to make his presence felt physically. He’s a willing fighter who accumulated 260 penalty minutes — and 27 points — in 134 regular-season games combined the past two years.
“I bring the energy,” he told reporters who asked about his style of play. “I want to play with grit and play the hard game, kind of be a fan favourite. Throw those hits and be physical, which fans usually like.
“Every team’s goal is winning the Stanley Cup, which is mine, too. A big thing for me is being a playoff player and being a big player in the big moments.”
Foster and his family celebrated a truly big moment Saturday in the border city of Lloydminster.
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