Tampa Bay Lightning made masterful offseason moves

The Tampa Bay Lightning had a perfect reaction to their disappointing postseason.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had tied an all-time NHL record for most wins in a single season in the 2018-19 season. Despite falling short in the playoffs, getting swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets, it’s safe to say that they arguably had one of the greatest rosters of all-time. Now, they’re even better.

Currently, the Tampa Bay Lightning are talking to RFA Brayden Point, and it hasn’t been updated often enough to know where the team stands in bringing him back. However, the dominoes are beginning to fall, as Kevin Fiala, Zach Werenski, Ivan Provorov, and Brendan Lemieux have all recently signed new deals.

Who They Lost

More from Puck Prose

• Detroit Red Wings 2023 Rookie Camp Has Plenty of Ups and Downs
• This Columbus Blue Jackets rookie doesn’t want to be forgotten
• 2 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup
• 3 reasons the Avalanche won’t win the Stanley Cup in 2024
• This is a big year for Alex Turcotte and the Los Angeles Kings

The Lightning have officially lost defenseman Anton Stralman, Adam Erne, J.T. Miller, and Ryan Callahan. There’s also defenseman Dan Girardi, who remains an unrestricted free agent. Stralman went off to get overpaid by the Florida Panthers.

Erne signed a new deal after being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings for a fourth-round pick, which is decent value for a player who could not find a role on the Lightning roster. Miller was dealt to the Vancouver Canucks for a conditional 2020 1st round pick, a 2019 3rd round pick (turned into Hugo Alnefelt) and Marek Mazanec (who left for Europe). That’s excellent value for a middle-six forward.

Callahan was placed on the Lightning’s Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) after dealing with back problems that may be career-ending. He was then dealt to the Ottawa Senators. Girardi, meanwhile, was a depth defenseman that, despite the team finding a boatload of success, had his struggles and looked pedestrian, most of the time.

In all, based on last season’s cap hits, the Lightning saved a grand total of $19.444 million. That allowed them to re-sign Cedric Paquette, Danick Martel, and Braydon Coburn, as well as sign Curtis McElhinney, Patrick Maroon, Kevin Shattenkirk, Luke Schenn, Luke Witkowski, and Scott Wedgewood.

Those re-signings plus free-agent acquisitions had a combined cost of $11.5M. Add in the fact that the cap went up from $79.5M to $81.5M, which gave them an additional $2M, they were able to add more this off-season, for a far cheaper price. They are currently left with $8.476M (roughly) to bring back Point.

Bringing Back Point

That’s a very questionable number, from the negotiating perspective. While they have been exploiting the market where talented players haven’t gotten signed and taking advantage of their lengthy availability in order to buy low, they have just enough to maybe have a talking point with Point. Keep in mind the Stamkos and Kucherov contracts, that have ultimately set the standard for the Lightning.

Stamkos is signed at $8.5 million for the next five seasons, while Kucherov is signed at $9.5 million for the next eight seasons. While the numbers suggest Point will get somewhere between the two, it’s more important to look at the percentage of which their cap hits make up the total team salary.

When Stamkos signed his contract back in 2016, the total cap space teams had was placed at $73M. That means that Stamkos’ $8.5M deal made up 11.6% of the total cap. Meanwhile, Kucherov signed his extension in the 2018 season, where the cap was placed at $79.5 million. That meant that Kucherov’s $9.5 million cap hit made up 11.9% of the total salary cap.

That being said, I believe that Point is leaning more towards earning 11.8% of the total salary for this season, as that would be closer to what Kucherov earned for himself last season. That would mean Point’s asking price could be in the neighborhood of $9.795 million per season.

However, I’m certain that Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois does not want to pay Point more than someone coming off of a 128-point season. However, even a Stamkos contract that makes up 11.6% of the cap space would cause Point to be higher paid than Kucherov. Could they aim that low? Maybe 11.3%, which is an annual average of $9.379 million? Even so, they would not be able to afford such a cost.

Don’t fret Lightning fans, other teams are in the same boat. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner saga continues to heat up. However, the Lightning are open to other options. To put a more accurate point on the topic, let’s give Point what I have determined as the max amount of cash he would receive ($9.795 million).

They would need to free up more than $1.4 million, at the very least, to afford that price tag. Trading Mike Condon ($2.4 million) would be enough right off the bat, however, he is currently buried, using up just $1.325 million of the total cap.

Another goaltender is listed along with him as trade bait. This netminder is also very likely to be shipped soon, and that is Louis Domingue. With Condon and Domingue shipped, that frees up a combined $1.4 million (both buried). That’s perfect… right? Wrong.

Keep in mind, they still need to re-sign Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, and Anthony Cirelli next off-season. They certainly must look ahead. That being said, they could get Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, or Alex Killorn to waive their No-Trade Clauses.

The problem is, based on the strength of the Lightning roster, it’s unlikely they waive this season. That being said, there may be no news on this front until next off-season, where there will likely be more RFA hold-outs offering the Lightning time to ship Killorn, who’s NTC becomes modified, and he submits a 16-team list.

In the meantime, the Lightning can send down Luke Schenn and Luke Witkowski (both defensemen) to play in AHL Syracuse. That frees up an additional $1.4M, totalling $2.8M more cap space, which is more than enough to bring back Point.

Overall, including the moves that I predict can happen prior to the start of this season, this is who the Lightning lost: Stralman, Miller, Girardi, Erne, Domingue, Condon and Callahan. This is what they got in return for those they lost: Point, Maroon, Shattenkirk, McElhinney, Martel, Schenn, Witkowski, Rutta, Coburn, Paquette, Vancouver 2020 conditional first-round pick, prospect goalie Alnefelt and Wedgewood.

That is unbelievable turnover in the organization. BriseBois showed he isn’t afraid to make the necessary moves, signings and salary finagling in order to right the ship. BriseBois has been absolutely masterful and precise in every move made while keeping his options open to a return of phenom centerman, Brayden Point.