Best fits for some of the remaining UFAs
Sean O’Leary and Josh Wegman of theScore: Looking at 10 of the remaining unrestricted free agents and their best fits.
Vladimir Tarasenko – Ottawa Senators
Patrick Kane – Buffalo Sabres
Tomas Tatar – Nashville Predators
Matt Dumba – San Jose Sharks
Jonathan Toews – Edmonton Oilers
Jesse Puljujarvi – Arizona Coyotes
Denis Gurianov – Calgary Flames
Ethan Bear – Anaheim Ducks
Pius Suter – Vancouver Canucks
Max Comtois – Minnesota Wild
NHL Rumors: Logan Cooley, Montreal Canadiens, and the top remaining UFAs
The Lightning have little cap space but a buyout window opened up
Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times: The Tampa Bay Lightning had cap issues and had to let some free agents walk. Some players were traded to recoup some missing draft capital.
The Lightning signed Conor Sheary, Luke Glendening and Josh Archibald for about $3.6 million to help their bottom-six and defensive play.
Lightning GM Julien BriseBois.
“Offense is very expensive. Guys that put up points get paid, but players that are really good defensively and help you win hockey games, sometimes they’re somewhat undervalued by the market. So, we kind of focused on those guys improving the defensive ability of our bottom six. And that was the philosophy behind how we attacked the offseason.”
They still need to re-sign RFA forward Tanner Jeannot, who has filed for salary arbitration. The Lightning have about $3 million in cap space remaining. Would expect that the Lightning try to sign him to a two- or three-year deal.
The Lightning do have another buyout window opportunity. GM BriseBois said it’s unlikely that they would be able to sign anyone over $1 million.
Salary Cap Was Big Winner of NHL Free Agency
“I don’t have anything imminent, but we’re always on the lookout,” BriseBois said. “If something comes up that makes sense either via trade or free agent, there is a second buyout window. We will see if something comes of that. But we might also go with the guys we have right now, and we’re fine. If we do that, we still have all those great players.”