Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman announced today that his team has signed goaltender Ben Bishop to a two-year contract extension.
Bishop, who was a Vezina finalist in 2013-14, set the franchise record for wins in a single season with 37. The new deal will keep him with the Bolts for at least the next three seasons, as he is entering the final year of his current deal which carries a cap hit of $2.3MM.
The new contract will pay Bishop an average of $5.95-million per year in both 2015-16 and 2016-17. While some may believe that the dollar value on the deal is a little bit high, it's worth mentioning that the short term nature of the pact helps to mitigate any risk. That plus the fact that Bishop is poised to be one of the league's elite goaltenders for years to come helps to make this deal a great one.
I'll have a full blog on this extension tomorrow.
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Following up on the blogs written by Todd Cordell and Travis Yost regarding the Metropolitan Division, I thought I would take the time to draft up some initial predictions for the Atlantic Division. There’s been a fair bit of player movement in the Atlantic, and specifically with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Remember that these are just initial thoughts based on the current look of each roster and organization. Things can still change prior to training camp and the regular season opener.
1) Boston Bruins A lot has been made of the Bruins’s cap crunch and the moves they’ve had to make to stay compliant. While losing Jarome Iginla will certainly hurt, I’m not sure it’s enough to knock the Bruins out of the top spot.
Any team that boasts players like Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, and Tuukka Rask at forward, defense, and in goal respectively is bound to be more than competitive. In my opinion the Bruins are still the class of the Eastern Conference.
2) Tampa Bay Lightning There’s a large contingent of commentators who are predicting that the Bolts will win the division. As you can see here, I’m not one of them. I like a lot of the moves the Bolts made this offseason, specifically the trade for Jason Garrison and the signing of Anton Stralman. Those moves plus the continued development of the team’s young core should put Tampa in a playoff spot come late April.
I’d probably have the Bolts at number one if they had shown any ability to compete with the Bruins last season. If you look back on last season’s matchups between Boston and Tampa, you’ll see that the Bruins were thoroughly dominant. I don’t think the Bruins’s loss of Jarome Iginla changes that this year. There were small stretches in which the Bolts looked decent, but they never looked great against the big, bad Bruins. Maybe things will be different this season, but I’m just not sure.
3) Montreal Canadiens Carey Price gets the Canadiens into the conversation every year. Despite being a mediocre possession team last season, Montreal was able to secure the Atlantic Division’s final playoff spot. I expect them to do that again this season. The difference is that I also expect the skaters to be better. The young players will take a step forward, P.K. Subban will continue to be P.K. Subban, and the core will build on what was a very successful 2014 playoff run.
Bonus points to Marc Bergevin for turning Danny Briere into P.A. Parenteau. Say what you want about the ‘character’ and ‘heart’ that Briere brings, but the fact is that Parenteau is the far better player in that deal.
If Michel Therrien coaches like he did in the playoffs, rather than how he coached in the regular season, I like Montreal’s chances to perhaps even finish higher than third in the division. There’s a lot to like about what’s going on in Montreal. That new Subban deal is nice, too.
4) Detroit Red Wings Plenty of people are picking the Red Wings to miss the playoffs. I’m not one of them. While it’s true that some of their competition has gotten stronger this offseason, it’s also true that Detroit isn’t likely to deal with the same injury issues that plagued them last season. A healthy core combined with the further development of young players like Tomas Tatar, Danny DeKeyser and Gustav Nyquist, among others, should be enough to get Detroit into the playoff picture for yet another season. Having Mike Babcock behind the bench doesn’t hurt either.
5) Florida Panthers Do I think the Panthers will make the playoffs? No. Do I think they’ll be in the conversation until season’s end, though? Absolutely. A full year of Roberto Luongo will be enough to keep the Panthers competitive. Combine that with the addition of Aaron Ekblad, the continued maturity of Aleksander Barkov, and a potential bounce back year for Jonathan Huberdeau, and I like Florida’s chances to surprise a lot of people.
While they did make some questionable moves this offseason (I’m looking at you, Dave Bolland signing), the Panthers also added a nice veteran piece in Jussi Jokinen. Florida is building something special, and I think this is the year that the pieces start coming together.
6) Ottawa Senators Say what you want about Jason Spezza, but his loss will likely hurt the Senators. Having Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris, Clarke MacArthur, Bobby Ryan, and the cast of characters around them should net Ottawa a solid chunk of wins, but I don’t think it’s enough to get them into the playoff picture.
Either Robin Lehner or Craig Anderson would have to be spectacular for the Senators to jump into the Atlantic Division’s top three. Neither was last season. And I’m not sure that either will be this year.
7) Toronto Maple Leafs Until Randy Carlyle is gone, I don’t see much improving for the Maple Leafs. As I’ve said numerous times, the roster is more than fine. It’s actually quite good. The system employed by the coach, on the other hand, is essentially an anchor. The Leafs are a dreadful possession team (29th ranked FF% at 5v5 close in 13-14), and it showed as they tumbled out of the playoff picture in 2014. Even an all-world Jonathan Bernier won’t be enough to salvage things with Carlyle at the helm.
The hiring of Kyle Dubas was a great step in the right direction. The William Nylander pick was as solid as any made at June’s draft. I’m not sure those things enough to mitigate the disaster that is Carlyle’s system. As it stands right now, I just don’t think the Leafs are going to be very good. That all changes if and when Carlyle is relieved of his duties. Should that happen early enough in the year, the Leafs could and should be a playoff team.
8) Buffalo Sabres Tim Murray made a number of decent moves this offseason, but I don’t think he’s fooling anybody. The Buffalo Sabres are in the ‘tank for McDavid’ mode right now. The losses will pile up, but you likely won’t see Buffalo’s front office complaining about it.
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So, there you have my first round of predictions. I’ll likely update this list once training camp is over, the pre-season is in the books, and rosters are finalized. Note that these are definitely subject to change, as noted specifically in the blurb on Toronto. The Atlantic is going to be fun this year.
Post your initial predictions in the comments section!
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.