Former Ottawa Senators forward Erik Condra has signed a three-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning:
Erik Condra three-year deal at 1.25 M per-year. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) July 1, 2015A versatile winger who can help the Lightning's weak penalty killing unit, Condra scored nine goals and 23 points in 2014-15. The addition of Condra likely means that Brenden Morrow, who is an unrestricted free agent, won't be back in Tampa next season. It would be hard to describe the Condra-for-Morrow swap as anything but an upgrade.
As far as value signings go, this Condra deal really looks to be the cream of the crop. The $1.25MM price tag is hardly unmanageable for this Tampa Bay squad, even if the three-year term might sound long for a fourth line forward. Condra is the type of player savvy teams need to be looking for in today's cap world. While his goals/assists splits scream fourth line, his ability to drive possession at a very good rate makes him a valuable piece.
This signing doesn't come as much of a surprise. Tampa was widely believed to be the frontrunner in the Condra "sweepstakes," simply because their coach has a prior relationship with the player:
This seems like a good time to remind everyone that Erik Condra was an usher at Jon Cooper's wedding.
— Ian Mendes (@ian_mendes) July 1, 2015The bottom line here is that Tampa improved its bottom-six by signing a possession-driving winger to an affordable deal. That's great news for Lightning fans, and a solid bit of work by Steve Yzerman.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.