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Tampa Bay Lightning already busy, more to come? Bishop? Stamkos? |
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The Lightning have already been relatively busy in the hours leading up to the draft.
But is there more noise to come?
Already on Friday Tampa Bay has re-signed three players to new contracts, crossing off two of the many restricted free agents the Lightning had to sign as well as a potential unrestricted free agent.
Those deals however only seem to set the scene for what may be a busy and productive weekend for Steve Yzerman as the Lightning look to retool the roster ahead of next season and beyond.
Forward J.T. Brown was signed to a two-year contract. The salary figures have not been picked up on by any outlets to this point, but I can't imagine the number is too high.
Cedric Paquette, meanwhile, was also signed to a two-year, one-way contract that pays Paquette $800,000 in 2016-17 and $825,000 the following season. That is a pretty team friendly deal for Paquette, who gets the one-way contract to keep the salary down. Works well for both sides.
Defenseman Luke Witkowski was also signed to a new contract on Friday, signing a one-year-, two-way deal. Witkowski could have opted for free agency as a Group VI unrestricted free agent.
So, what's next?
Lots of rumors swirling around Ben Bishop and a possible deal to Calgary. TSN's Bob McKenzie reported that the Flames have been granted permission to talk to Bishop's agent about a possible contract extension, something Calgary would like to get done if they are going to make any sort of move on Bishop, who has one year left on his current deal that carries a $5.95 million salary cap hit.
All of this comes under the backdrop of what is going to happen with captain Steven Stamkos. The window for potential unrestricted free agents to speak to other teams opens on Saturday. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman has stated that he would like to find some clarity on the situation regarding Stamkos by this weekend.
At this point, I just don't see Tampa Bay trading Stamkos' rights to another team. Anything can happen, but it's hard to see another team given up assets to make this work, plus the factor of the full no-move clause that would require Stamkos to approve of any such deal.
My guess is that Yzerman still wants to get Stamkos signed, but it has to be under a decent team-friendly cap number because of all the players that still need to deals, specifically Nikita Kucherov who might command north of $6 million on a new deal (and it could be higher if a team chooses to throw an offer sheet at Kucherov).
Hard to see a last-minute deal taking place at this point, and it seems that Stamkos is set to reach the open market at the age of 26 unless something drastically changes.
If Bishop is moved before July 1, maybe it changes the equation a little bit as it would open up salary cap space to possibly push Tampa Bay a little bit closer to what Stamkos might be seeking (which would still be less than he would get on the open market)
Stay tuned, I get the feeling the Lightning are just getting started on their weekend work.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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