Lightning To Extend Emil Martinsen Lilleberg On Two-Year Deal
The Tampa Bay Lightning are reportedly in agreement on a two-year, $1.6MM extension with defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg (X Link). The deal will carry an AAV of $800K at the NHL level and is set to begin a year from today.
Lilleberg made his professional debut in North America last season with the Lightning after coming over from IK Oskarshamn of the Swedish Hockey League. Since being drafted 107th overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2021 NHL Draft, the Norwegian defenseman had spent all of his professional career in the SHL as he scored three goals and 18 points over 93 games.
Lilleberg went on to tally five assists in 37 games for the Lightning over two separate call-ups throughout the regular season. He spent more time with the Lightning than not this year as he only collected 33 games with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, and scored two goals and 13 points in that time.
With Tampa Bay already having six NHL-caliber defensemen on the roster, and plenty of depth options still available on the free-agent market, Lilleberg should start the season in AHL Syracuse. Lilleberg should represent the top option to be called up if the Lightning’s blue line succumbs to injury at any point during the 2024-25 regular season.
Lightning Sign Jesse Ylönen, Two Others To Two-Way Deals
The Lightning are picking up winger Jesse Ylönen on a two-way contract, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports. He was non-tendered by the Canadiens yesterday, making him a UFA. They also inked veteran depth defenders Derrick Pouliot and Steven Santini to one-year, two-way pacts with $775K cap hits, per CapFriendly.
Ylönen, 24, has the greatest chance to crack the Tampa roster out of camp. The 2018 second-round pick struggled to produce with Montreal last season, limited to four goals and eight points in 57 games. But his minor-league numbers (32 points in 39 AHL GP in 2022-23) suggest greater offensive upside, something he may get the chance to showcase with many depth spots up for grabs in Tampa. He’ll compete for time with recent adds like Zemgus Girgensons and internal options like Mitchell Chaffee and Gage Goncalves.
Pouliot and Santini, meanwhile, are solely depth signings for AHL Syracuse, with the Lightning’s top seven defensemen already locked in. Pouliot, 30, remains a quality power-play option in the minors, suiting up in the Stars organization with AHL Texas last year. There, he recorded nine goals and 46 points in 64 games and earned a brief cup of coffee in the NHL with Dallas, where he went without a point in five games. Once a top-ten pick by the Penguins in 2012, he hasn’t stuck around as an NHL full-timer since 2018-19 with the Canucks.
Santini, 29, is a 6’2″ right-shot defender who’s changing NHL organizations for the second summer in a row. After a few years in the Blues’ pipeline, he spent last season on a one-year deal with the Kings, where he had 10 points and a +9 rating in 64 games for AHL Ontario. A second-round pick of the Devils in 2013, he has 123 games of NHL experience, mostly with New Jersey. He last suited up in the NHL for St. Louis in 2022-23, recording an assist in a four-game call-up.
Free Agent Rumors: Stamkos, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Stolarz, Ekman-Larsson, Grzelcyk, Martinez
The Devils are in the market for a top-six forward today, and they may end up as one of the finalists for Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes.
They’ll be one of many teams making Stamkos’ agent’s phone ring off the hook today. TSN’s Bob McKenzie also expects the Ducks, Hurricanes, Predators and Red Wings to make aggressive pushes for the future Hall-of-Fame forward.
A return to Tampa Bay is extremely unlikely for Stamkos, whose 555 career goals and 1,082 games played have all come in a Lightning uniform. They weren’t close to an extension as of last weekend, and their signing of top UFA left winger Jake Guentzel to a seven-year, $63MM deal this morning has all but completely boxed him out.
More from around the Eastern Conference amid an already busy morning:
- The Panthers are working hard on extensions for forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe as they become eligible to sign at 11 a.m. CT today, sources tell David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. They’ve already gotten one big piece of business done today by keeping Sam Reinhart away from the open market on an eight-year, $69MM deal, but Bennett and Verhaeghe are two crucial pieces of their top-six forward group that remain unsigned past next season. It’s unclear what these deals may look like, but Reinhart taking a considerable discount on market value to remain in South Florida is surely a good indicator that Panthers GM Bill Zito can get them locked into deals that won’t break the bank.
- TSN’s Darren Dreger adds the Panthers are also trying to re-sign UFA netminder Anthony Stolarz, but they have some competition. The Blackhawks and Maple Leafs are also in the mix for the veteran’s services. While a career backup, he’s one of the best options on the market in a UFA class devoid of starters. He was electric when used in Florida last year, posting a .925 SV% and 2.03 GAA in 27 appearances.
- After making Chris Tanev‘s six-year deal official, expect the Leafs to add another veteran blue liner in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dreger says. OEL is coming off a Stanley Cup win in Florida after putting up 32 points in 80 regular-season games, averaging 18:24 per night. He’d likely anchor a third pairing in Toronto on the left side behind Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe.
- The Penguins are among the teams linked to defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reports. Grzelcyk is likely on his way out of Boston after spending the entirety of his eight-year, 445-game career there. He had 11 points and a +13 rating in 63 games last season while logging 17:36 per night.
- Alec Martinez could continue his NHL career with the Blackhawks on a one-year deal, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie. The three-time Cup winner fell down the Golden Knights’ depth chart last year, limited to 55 games due to injuries and healthy scratches. He still managed 17 points, though, his most offense in three years, but had a -2 rating while averaging 19:03 per game.
Lightning Sign Jake Guentzel To Seven-Year Contract
The Lightning have taken our No. 1-ranked UFA off the board. After acquiring his signing rights from the Hurricanes yesterday, they’ve locked in left winger Jake Guentzel on a seven-year, $63MM deal ($9MM cap hit), per a team announcement.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic has the full breakdown of the deal:
2024-25: $1MM base salary, $12.26MM signing bonus, no-move clause
2025-26: $1MM base salary, $8.95MM signing bonus, NMC
2026-27: $3.96MM base salary, $4MM signing bonus, NMC
2027-28: $1MM base salary, $6.96MM signing bonus, NMC
2028-29: $1MM base salary, $6.96MM signing bonus, 10-team trade list
2029-30: $1MM base salary, $6.96MM signing bonus, 10-team trade list
2030-31: $1MM base salary, $6.96MM signing bonus, 10-team trade list
While many had questioned Guentzel’s value after spending nearly all of his eight-year NHL career stapled to Sidney Crosby‘s wing in Pittsburgh, a trade deadline deal to Carolina proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he’s a top-flight first-line talent in his own right. The 29-year-old has averaged more than a point per game over the last six seasons, totaling 189 goals, 221 assists and 410 points in 398 games since his breakout 40-goal campaign with the Penguins in 2018-19.
Carolina acquired Guentzel at the trade deadline, hoping to get him signed to an extension as he hurtled toward free agency, but it wasn’t in the cards. Guentzel’s initial ask was a reported eight-year, $64MM deal ($8MM AAV), something the Hurricanes weren’t willing to meet until too late in the process, LeBrun said last week. He was excellent down the stretch while alternating between Carolina’s top two forward lines, ending the year with eight goals and 17 assists for 25 points in 17 games with a +16 rating. Playing mostly alongside Sebastian Aho in the playoffs, Guentzel continued his reputation as a strong playoff performer with four goals and five assists in 11 contests.
A third-round pick of the Penguins in 2013, Guentzel played a key role in the second of the Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2017. He led the league in playoff goal-scoring as a rookie, lighting the lamp 13 times in 25 games – five of which were game-winners.
It’s clear that Lightning GM Julien BriseBois is banking on Guentzel being a more expensive yet more sustainable long-term replacement for Steven Stamkos. Their longtime captain is expected to find a new home on the open market today after failing to come to terms on an extension.
In Tampa, Guentzel could form one of the most terrifying top lines in the league alongside Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. Kucherov is coming off a 100-assist, 144-point campaign that won him the second Art Ross Trophy of his career, while Point has hovered around the 50-goal mark for the past two seasons.
The Lightning have $7.5MM in projected cap space remaining for 2024-25 after the Guentzel signing, per CapFriendly. They still have six open roster spots, including newly acquired RFA defenseman J.J. Moser.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Lightning Nearing Extension With Victor Hedman
According to Kevin Weekes of ESPN, the Tampa Bay Lightning are nearing a contract extension with all-star defenseman Victor Hedman. The news comes shortly after the report indicating that Jake Guentzel will be signing with the organization after the team traded for his signing rights earlier this afternoon. Because he is already signed to a contract in Tampa Bay, Hedman will have to wait until tomorrow to sign a new agreement.
Hedman is set to wrap up his current eight-year, $63MM extension after the 2024-25 NHL season concludes, and would have become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career at 34 years old. With an average annual value of $7.875MM since the start of the 2017-18 NHL season, there is an argument to be made that Hedman has been playing on a bargain of a contract for some time.
Over the life of his current contract, Hedman has appeared in 503 regular season games for the Lightning while scoring 91 goals and 427 points. The Lightning have made the postseason in each year of the deal while Hedman has assisted the team with 17 goals and 80 points over those seven years. Hedman has also won one Norris Trophy, one Conn Smythe Trophy, and two Stanley Cup rings in hardware.
The former second-overall pick can still be counted on to log heavy minutes on the ice but may see his workload increase after the team parted ways with defenseman Mikhail Sergachev on the second day of the 2024 NHL Draft. Hedman appeared to handle the workload fine with Sergachev out for much of the regular season this past year but it will be interesting to see if he can keep up that fortitude over the life of the expected extension.
The full terms of the deal will likely break tomorrow and it will be interesting to see how long the Lightning go on a Hedman extension. The team was recently willing to give a similarly-aged Steven Stamkos an eight-year agreement to keep the AAV down towards a team-friendly level.
Lightning Reportedly Reach Contract Agreement With Jake Guentzel
According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms on a contract with pending UFA forward Jake Guentzel. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed and may take until tomorrow to fully develop. The news comes a few hours after the Lightning acquired Guentzel’s rights from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
The reported deal will likely check in at an eight-year term with the Lightning owning enough cap space to give Guentzel nearly $10MM annually. Because the team acquired Guentzel’s signing rights earlier today, Tampa Bay became the only team able to sign Guentzel to an eight-year contract. If Guentzel made it to free agency tomorrow, the Lightning would have only been able to offer him a max of seven years — the same as all other suitors.
After being acquired by the Hurricanes at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Guentzel proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he could thrive without playing next to Sidney Crosby. However, by inking a contract with the Lightning, Guentzel may arguably have better linemates. The team will likely start him next to Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point on the top line, with the former finishing up a season in which he led the league in assists and points.
Guentzel will land in Tampa Bay having already played 520 regular season games at the NHL level while scoring 227 goals and 491 points through eight years. Largely known for his postseason contributions; Guentzel is a one-time winner of the Stanley Cup as he’s scored 38 goals and 67 points in 69 career games in the playoffs. After being knocked out in the first round of back-to-back postseasons, the Lightning will surely be looking for Guentzel to help turn around the team’s most recent fortunes.
Depending on the financial terms of the agreement, the contract between Guentzel and the Lightning organization may have some collateral damage. With longtime captain Steven Stamkos hitting the free agent market tomorrow, Tampa Bay may not have the cap flexibility to re-sign him after all.
Lightning Acquire Lukas Svejkovsky From Penguins
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins have swapped depth forwards, with Pittsburgh receiving Bennett MacArthur and Tampa receiving Lukas Svejovsky (Twitter link).
MacArthur, 23, spent the season in the ECHL, totaling 32 points through 55 games. It was his second year in the league, after playing through his first pro season to the tune of 28 points in 53 games last year. Tampa signed MacArthur as an undrafted free agent in 2022, following the end of his season with the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan. MacArthur only played in parts of three seasons in the QMJHL, though he always found his way to strong scoring, recording 42 goals and 77 points in 54 games during his final year in the league. He’ll spend the final year of his entry-level contract pushing for a consistent role in the AHL, before setting his sights on the Penguins roster.
Meanwhile, Svejovsky, 22, was drafted by Pittsburgh in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, after a strong year in the WHL. He went on to play two more seasons in the WHL, potting 76 points in 57 games in his final year. Svejovsky totaled a stout 162 points in his 196 career WHL games – seeming like a potentially lucrative prospect for Pittsburgh when he signed his entry-level contract in 2022. But Svejovsky had a slow start in pros, with just 15 points in 47 AHL games last year followed by four points in 19 games this year. Those low totals contributed to Svejovsky’s move to the ECHL partway through this year. He was able to rediscover his spark in the third-tier pro league, scoring 37 points in 30 games. That should be enough to earn him a move back to the AHL, though he’ll have to keep up his scoring if he wants to push any higher.
Lightning Acquire Rights To Jake Guentzel
The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired the rights to pending free agent Jake Guentzel from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Tampa’s 2025 third-round pick (Twitter link).
Never ones to be subtle, it seems Tampa is taking their cap squeeze into their own hands – ending speculation about all-time Bolt Steven Stamkos, who is expected to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his 16-year NHL career on Monday. In response, Tampa has taken a page from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ book – moving assets to give them a head start in negotiating with one of the market’s top free agents.
This is Guentzel’s second move in the last four months, after joining the Carolina Hurricanes for a king’s ransom at the Trade Deadline. To get Guentzel, the Hurricanes had to give up NHL winger Michael Bunting; prospects Vasili Ponomarev, Ville Koivunen, and Cruz Lucius; and the 2024 second-round draft pick used to select Harrison Brunicke. But Carolina certainly got what they paid for – with Guentzel transitioning seamlessly from the role of Sidney Crosby‘s sidekick to standalone star beautifully. He recorded eight goals and 25 points in 17 regular season games with the Hurricanes, bringing his season total up to 30 goals and 77 points in 67 games – a 95-point pace across 82 games. What’s more, Guentzel held true to his claim as a fantastic playoff performer, ranking third on the team with nine points in 11 postseason games.
Guentzel scored at the highest pace of his career this season, even despite the midyear change of scenery. And yet, it’s hard to call it a breakout year – with Guentzel having recorded 40 goals in both the 2019 and 2022 seasons, finishing with 76 and 84 points in the respective years. But he did prove he can maintain, and maybe even improve upon, his scoring in colors other than black and gold.
That’s incredibly encouraging for Tampa Bay, who will soon be without the 40 goals and 81 points that a 34-year-old Stamkos managed this year. It was Stamkos’ third-straight season of 80-or-more points – adding 40 goals in two of those years. He’s shown no signs of slowing down, bouncing back well from injury-marred seasons in 2020 and 2021. Stamkos will be entering unprecedented territory when he hits the open market, and while it’s hard to gauge what price, term, or role he could be looking for, there’s no doubting that his new team will be landing one of the league’s perennial goal-scorers.
Meanwhile, the Lightning should have plenty of room to find Guentzel a contract he’s happy with – after moving Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club and Tanner Jeannot to the Los Angeles Kings. That opened up over $11MM in cap space, bringing Tampa’s breathing room up to $16.5MM. They will have to stay mindful of their spending, though, with star defenseman and probable new captain Victor Hedman becoming eligible for an extension on Monday. He’ll play through the last year of his $7.875MM cap hit this season, and stand for a hefty raise on what will likely be the last contact of his career. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois has made sure to mention Hedman’s next contract right alongside the Stamkos speculation – showing how much importance the team is placing on not losing multiple pillars.
Steven Stamkos To Hit Unrestricted Free Agency, Lightning To Pursue Jake Guentzel
By trading away defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and forward Tanner Jeannot earlier this afternoon, the Tampa Bay Lightning have $11.165MM more to work with this summer than they did 24 hours ago. Much of the early conjecture perceived the cap-clearing moves as the Lightning making a concerted effort to keep captain Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay for the rest of his career.
We now know that is not the case as the Lightning never increased upon their original eight-year, $3MM AAV extension offer to Stamkos, as Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports confirms that the star forward will reach the free agent market for the first time in his career on Monday. In a clear case of pivoting away from their captain, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes Tampa Bay made their moves today to pursue Jake Guentzel once free agency opens up on July 1st (Article Link).
Before eventually signing his most recent eight-year, $68MM extension with the Lightning, Stamkos was poised to be the hottest name on the free agent market heading into the 2016-17 NHL season. Despite never hitting the open market, the Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs were all interested in signing Stamkos nearly a decade ago. However, with Stamkos signing his contract on June 29th, 2016, he was prohibited from negotiating with any other team.
This time, Stamkos will earn the ability to talk to all 32 teams before finally deciding on his future. The Nashville Predators have been the most heavily linked to Stamkos so far, but the New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, Red Wings, and Utah Hockey Club, among others, will all have interest in signing the star player. This does not count out the Lightning organization either as they will be in contact with Stamkos and his camp in the coming days.
On the other side of the report, the Lightning join the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Canucks as teams that are pursuing Guentzel this summer. The 29-year-old winger is coming off a season that saw him score 30 goals and 77 points in 67 games with 25 of those points coming in 17 games with Carolina after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins. In the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, Guentzel continued as a strong performer as he registered four goals and nine points through 11 games.
If Tampa Bay can sign Guentzel once free agency opens on July 1st, they will potentially start the 2024-25 NHL season with the best first line in the league. Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov are in no danger of losing their spots on the team’s first line — and adding Guentzel to it will have opposing teams scrambling to match up against it.
Both players’ situations will unfold over the next 48 hours but one item remains clear. After bowing in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs two years in a row, the Lightning are not afraid to make tough decisions to extend their contention window.
Kings Acquire Tanner Jeannot
The Los Angeles Kings have acquired forward Tanner Jeannot from the Tampa Bay Lightning, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic (Twitter link). In return, Tampa receives Pick 118 in this year’s draft and L.A.’s second-round pick in 2025, per Tracey Myers of NHL.com (Twitter link). The move has since been confirmed by the team.
This trade quickly succeeds Mikhail Sergachev‘s move to the Utah Hockey Club. The two moves combine to free up $11.165MM in cap space, massively supporting Tampa’s pursuit of franchise centerman Steven Stamkos. It also quickly succeeds Tampa’s acquisition of Jeannot, which came ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, with the Lightning acquiring the winger for Callan Foote and one pick in each of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth rounds.
Jeannot recorded 24 goals, 41 points, and 130 penalty minutes in his rookie 2021-22 season with the Nashville Predators. But he’s struggled to find that same spark since, totaling just eight goals and 18 points in 75 games with Tampa Bay between last season and this season. With the Lightning facing a cap crunch that may cost them the face of their franchise, they’ve been forced to accept defeat – winning back less than half of the assets they gave up for Jeannot.
But while the trade may illicit soul searching on Tampa’s end, it stands as a low-cost, high-upside move for the Kings. Jeannot carries a low-stakes $2.665MM cap hit – setting him up well to fill the girtty, high-energy bottom-six forward role left open by Carl Grundstrom‘s trade to the San Jose Sharks. The Kings have used Grundstrom’s grit to good effect, and could be getting a more dynamic iteration in Jeannot, who shows much more drive down the ice and confidence on the puck. Los Angeles will be searching for any boost they can receive after a middling 2023-24 campaign, though the gritty style that’s led Quinton Byfield to success could also be exactly what Jeannot needs to rediscover his groove.