Sportsnet is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lightning are on the verge of signing Ryan Callahan to a long-term extension.
In his piece linked to Sportsnet.ca, Chris Johnston notes that the deal "is believed to be in excess of five years and worth as much as $5.5-million per season."
This breaking news follows up on Eklund's report from two nights ago, in which he noted that Callahan and the Lightning were getting much closer to a deal. I took the opportunity to write about Callahan and the Lightning on that evening. I've included an excerpt below.
...I’m going to stray away from my objective reporting for a moment and qualify the rest of this blog by saying that I really, really like Ryan Callahan. The advanced stats tell me to be wary of signing him. The offensive numbers tell me to be wary of signing him. His age tells me to be wary of signing him. Still, I really, really like Ryan Callahan.Regardless of what the stats, numbers, and his age say, I’m of the belief that Callahan can be an important contributor for the Bolts moving forward. Obviously Jon Cooper sees something in this player. Obviously Steve Yzerman sees something in this player. On a roster loaded with young, raw offensive talent, maybe it makes sense to set aside a small percentage of the salary cap for those aforementioned intangibles.
Let’s put it this way – there are far worse influences to have around young players than Ryan Callahan.
While the fancy stats (and eye test, for that matter) clearly show that Callahan was more of a complementary piece than a creator on his line with Valtteri Filppula and Ondrej Palat, he was also quite effective. As Coach Cooper noted when he was acquired, Callahan brought something to the Bolts roster that was missing before. We can debate whether his ‘effectiveness’ is worth six million or five million or four million, but the bottom line is that he’s a serviceable player who brings desirable qualities to a roster. That’s worth something.
If the numbers quoted in Johnston's Sportsnet piece are correct, Lightning fans should be mighty happy with the work done by Steve Yzerman on this file. While nothing has been finalized as of writing time, it sounds like things are closing in on a done deal.
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.