Holtby knows after this season he could be chasing a Cup with another team
Tom Gulitti of NHL.com: Goaltender Braden Holtby will be trying to win another Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals, but he knows that he could be playing elsewhere next season. The flat cap may not give the Capitals enough space to re-sign him.
“My focus right now is to win a championship, and moving forward is to find the next best place to win a championship with,” Holtby said. “Hopefully it’s here, hopefully everything works out, but you never know. So right now, you live in the moment and we have an exciting opportunity to have some fun.”
Holtby said he never thought out about opting out of the season. Coach Todd Reirden has said that Holtby will be their starting goaltender. Ilya Samsonov hasn’t practiced in Phase 3 yet.
The Tampa Bay Lightning definitely have their work cut out for them this offseason
Joe Smith of The Athletic: The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to have their work cut with the salary cap remaining at $81.5 million next season. They have 15 players under contract at $76.1 million. Restricted free agents Mikhail Sergachev and Anthony Cirelli are in line for salary increase.
To keep their core together, GM Julien BriseBois is going to have to move out salary.
Defenseman Erik Cernak also needs to be re-signed. They’ll also likely look to re-sign RFAs Mitchell Stephens, Alex Volkov, and maybe Carter Verhaeghe. Maybe they could convince Pat Maroon to take another friendly deal.
Sergachev doesn’t have salary arbitration rights and they could settle on a two-year bridge contract. This would allow them to go bigger on the next deal when the cap will start to increase a bit and a new U.S. TV deal kicks in.
Cirelli also doesn’t have arbitration rights and they could look at a bridge deal as well. estimates a three-year deal at $4.5 million per.
Cernak could look at one- or two-year deal at around $2.5 million.
Maroon will likely get more money in free agency than the Lightning can offer. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk would like to come back next season and has said he’d take less money and a shorter-termed deal. Jan Rutta has played well with Hedman and they could look to re-sign the UFA if they have the space.
Alex Killorn is the top trade candidate to clear out salary. He has three years left at $4.45 million. His no-trade clause changes to a 16-team no-trade this offseason. Killorn is from Quebec and would the Montreal Canadiens be interested for a second-round pick? Could the Lightning get a first-round pick from someone?
Yanni Gourde, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat all make over $5 million and have full no-trade clauses.
Cedric Paquette has a year left at $1.65 million could also be dealt.