On the Tampa Bay Lightning …
Joe Smith: Think that the Lightning will be able to address their blueline from a trade, but they will also consider free agent options. Karl Alzner is one free agent that could be available.
Joe Smith on the Tampa Bay Times: GM Steve Yzerman said he’ll look at free agency for a defenseman and maybe one or two wingers.
Sources saying the Lightning were one of many teams that contact Kevin Shattenkirk‘s camp yesterday.
Shattenkirk would definitely fit a need for the Lightning but he won’t come cheap. He made $4.25 million last season an will be looking for a big long-term deal.
The Lightning tried to trade for him at the deadline, but he nixed the trade. Not sure if that means he wouldn’t be interested this offseason.
Other UFAs the Lightning could look at are Karl Alzner and Cody Franson.
On the trade market the Lightning could look at Minnesota Wild defenseman Marco Scandella.
“You better be prepared to give more term and more money than you want on July 1,” Yzerman said. “Or you wait until after. Or you wait until after and you might miss out. It’s tricky. We’ve done a lot here to give ourselves a little bit of flexibility. We don’t want to put ourselves right back in the same position if we’re not confident that it’s really going to make a difference.”
Joe Smith on the Tampa Bay Times: GM Yzmerman is looking for defenseman and at least one top-nine winger. The Lightning have about $23 million in salary cap space with Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat to likely take up $10 million.
“We’ve got some spots on our roster. We’ve got some cap space,” Yzerman said. “We need to see if we can re-sign our own free agents, and we’ll focus on that. We’ll look into some of the players in free agency and see if we can address some of our needs that way. It’s going to be a busy week, but what we actually accomplish, I’m not sure.”
Yzerman said they’ll continue talks with Johnson and Palat but isn’t sure when it will get done.
UFA defensemen: Kevin Shattenkirk, Karl Alzner, Brian Campbell and Cody Franson.
UFA Forwards: Alexander Radulov, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Justin Williams, Sam Gagner, Jarome Iginla and Brian Boyle.
“There aren’t a lot of players out there,” Yzerman said. “So the players that are, are probably going to be paid pretty well.”
Tampa Bay Lightning – team page for rumors, trades, news, etc.