Syracuse, N.Y. — Defenseman Slater Koekkoek’s cell phone blew up with congratulatory text messages last month when he made the Tampa Bay Lightning out of training camp.

Koekkoek, a promising third-year prospect, had sampled the NHL before with 12 regular-season games and 10 playoff contests for Tampa Bay.

But those were trials. After a strong 2016 training camp with the Lightning, Koekkoek, a first-round pick in 2012, clearly earned a home in the lineup.

“I get so many congratulation texts and everyone is saying, ‘You finally did it. It’s what you worked for,”’ Koekkoek said.

Ooops.

Koekkoek still has “NHL” stamped all over him, and likely will be playing at that level again very soon.

But right now he’s back with the Syracuse Crunch, the team for whom Koekkoek polished his game for the past two seasons. Tampa Bay assigned him here on Wednesday.

“It’s tough, but that’s how it goes sometimes,” he said after practice on Thursday. “It is a step to make the team out of camp like that. It (coming back down) is just another bump in the road, I guess.”

The reassignment was equal parts obvious and abrupt. Koekkoek was slotted as the Lightning’s seventh defenseman and sat out its first three games. Koekkoek is far too young and good to sit, so such situations are what AHL affiliates are for.

“We can’t have the young guy sitting up in the stands, waiting for his chance when he can have an opportunity to play games,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told NHL.com. “It should never be taken as a demotion because it’s not. It’s a free move to be able to get somebody games, and that’s what we want because we need guys like Slater to be ready in case they come in.

“If they can get a couple games, just as we did with (Nikita) Nesterov and (Andrei) Vasilevskiy and a long list of guys who were in this situation in the past to get the games. We’re on our way up to the northeast for six games, so everybody’s close, Slater’s close, get him some games and hopefully see him back with us.”

Koekkoek said he was braced for the move. He said Cooper had discussed with him the possibility of toggling between Syracuse and Tampa Bay, much like goalie Vasilevskiy did last season.

“At the time I was upset. It’s always hard getting that news,” Koekkoek said. “But I understand that I need to get some playing time.”

So Koekkoek showed up in Syracuse practice all smiles, eager to flash the speed and puck-handling ability that marked him as an NHL newcomer to watch in the first place.

“Why would you be sitting here pouting? There’s nothing you can do about it. I’m here to work hard and then hopefully get called up as soon as I can,” he said.

“When you look at Slater, he flew in last night, he comes in this morning with a smile, he’s ready to go, he’s ready to play,” said Syracuse coach Benoit Groulx. “That shows what kind of person he is. This morning on the ice, I noticed his speed. And he competes. I think he understands what this job is about. It’s never easy, but I really liked what I saw this morning from him. He’s going to have the opportunity here to play a lot of minutes and become even more confident.”

Koekkoek will be in the lineup Friday against visiting Utica. He’ll be paired with buddy Luke Witkowski, his defensive partner for much of last season and the man with whom he shares pregame “Talladega Nights” shake-and-bake fist bumps.

“I love playing with Luke. I think we know where each other are going to be,” Koekkoek said. “Even in practice, you can see we find each other. I think there’s a good chemistry there.”