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Tampa Bay Lightning sign Andrei Vasilevskiy to 8 year extension

By Dave Stevenson

COLUMBUS, OH - APRIL 16: Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy #88 of the Tampa Bay Lightning defends the net against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 16, 2019 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus defeated Tampa Bay 7-3 to win the series 4-0. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - APRIL 16: Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy #88 of the Tampa Bay Lightning defends the net against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 16, 2019 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus defeated Tampa Bay 7-3 to win the series 4-0. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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According to Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to give Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy an 8 year deal worth $9.5 million a year.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have had a relatively uneventful offseason to this point. However, that has changed. The Lightning, according to Elliotte Friedman, are expected to sign goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to a massive extension.

The deal will be for eight years and it will go into effect starting in the 2020-21 season. Vasilevskiy was scheduled to be a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season. He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender in 2018-19 and was a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2017-18.

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Annually, the contract will be worth $9.5 million and there will be over $40 million allocated to signing bonuses. The Lightning have confirmed the deal.

He got the same average annual value as Nikita Kucherov, who signed last summer. Vasilevskiy will be the third-highest paid goaltender in the league, trailing only Sergei Bobrovsky and Carey Price. However, Braden Holtby, a Stanley Cup champion and Vezina Trophy winner, will be a free agent next summer. His next deal’s AAV could surpass Vasilevskiy’s.

I’m usually not a huge fan of long-term deals for goalies, but Vasilevskiy is a special case. His deal is perfectly fine for an elite goaltender. Vasilevskiy, unlike Price and Bobrovsky (and Holtby), is just 25 years old. His deal will go into effect when he is 26 years old, meaning the Lightning will control him until he’s 34 years old.

By comparison, Price and Bobrovsky were both over 30 years old when they signed their respective long-term deals. In fact, of the five highest-paid goaltenders in the NHL right now, only Tuukka Rask was under 30 when he signed. Rask, much like Vasilevskiy, was 26 when his deal went into effect.

Vasilevskiy has been very reliable, having been named a Vezina Trophy finalist in each of the past two seasons and winning it last season. He’s in the prime of his career. Vasilevskiy’s been remarkably durable, as he has played in at least 50 games in each of his last three seasons.

The Lightning recently signed Curtis McElhinney, which makes me wonder if they’re going to give him a slightly easier workload than before. That would be a wise decision, as fresh goalies tend to do better in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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Despite their first-round loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Lightning will go into the 2019-20 season as the Stanley Cup favorites, most likely. They should remain among the top teams in the league for the foreseeable future thanks to Vasilevskiy’s new deal.

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