Anthony Cirelli was a major factor in the Tampa Bay Lightning's 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night. He scored his second career hat trick, the first of which came back in January of 2020, to propel the Lightning to victory. During the process, Cirelli also moved into 10th place for most goals by a player in Lightning franchise history.
Cirelli's first goal of the night tied him with Freddy Modin, who scored 145 goals in 445 games for the Bolts during the early 2000s. His second of the night then pushed him into sole possession of 10th place.
As things currently stand, Cirelli trails Modin's long-time teammate in Tampa, Brad Richards, by just three goals. Considering the Lightning still have seven games left to play this season, it's certainly possible that we'll see Cirelli move into ninth place by the time the playoffs roll around.
At 28 years of age, there's still quite a bit of time for Cirelli to continue moving up the rankings as well. Assuming he scores around 20 goals per season for the remainder of his contract, he could realistically move into sixth place ahead of Alex Killorn who scored 198 goals with the Lightning. There's a wide gap between fifth and sixth which only continues to grow though, as Brayden Point currently sits there with 324 goals. As a result, it's likely sixth place is as high as we'll see Cirelli get.