Hockey Canada Adds Julien BriseBois, Kyle Dubas For 4 Nations Face-Off, Olympics
Hockey Canada has added Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois and Penguins GM Kyle Dubas to its management group for both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics, they announced today. BriseBois will serve as an assistant GM, while Dubas will serve as director of player personnel.
For the 4 Nations Face-Off next February, BriseBois and Dubas round out a management group that already includes Bruins GM Don Sweeney and Stars GM Jim Nill, the latter of whom is serving as an associate under Sweeney. The following year, they’ll join Nill and Sweeney for the Olympics, who are serving as assistant GMs under Blues GM Doug Armstrong for the event.
BriseBois, 47, receives his first call to the Canadian national team in any capacity. The longtime Lightning exec has served as Tampa’s GM since 2018, meaning he was at the helm for both of their Stanley Cup wins in 2020 and 2021. Before taking over the top hockey ops position, he’d served as an assistant GM in Tampa while managing their AHL affiliate from 2010 to 2018. His first job in the NHL came with the Canadiens, where he served as their director of hockey operations and later VP of hockey operations from 2003 to 2010 under GM Bob Gainey.
Dubas, 38, is also inexperienced on the international stage, but he does have one tournament under his belt as an assistant GM. He was part of the Canadian front office at the 2024 World Championship, building a squad that reached the bronze medal game but lost to Sweden. It was Canada’s first time without a medal at the Worlds since 2018.
The Ontario native is coming off his first season as GM and president of hockey operations of the Penguins. Before that, he’d served in the Maple Leafs front office since 2014, first as an assistant GM before taking over the top job in 2018.
Lightning Sign J.J. Moser To Two-Year Contract
2:52 PM: The Lightning have confirmed the signing via a public announcement.
9:18 AM: After electing for salary arbitration on July 5th, defenseman J.J. Moser and the Tampa Bay Lightning have reportedly agreed on a new contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the team has signed Moser to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $3.375MM.
According to the report from Friedman, Moser will make $2.7MM during the 2024-25 season and $4.05MM in 2025-26. It will be a significant raise over Moser’s previous contract where he averaged $887K during his entry-level contract.
It will be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy Moser after acquiring him as a part of the package for defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a draft-day trade with the Utah Hockey Club. During a three-year stint with the Arizona Coyotes, Moser quickly became a part of the team’s top four after making his NHL debut in the 2021-22 NHL season.
Over 205 regular season games with the Coyotes, Moser scored 16 goals and 72 points while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. Moser played in nearly all situations in Arizona and showed flashes of being an effective two-way defenseman but did have some shortcomings on the defensive side of the puck. According to HockeyReference, Moser produced an expected +/- of -35.6 throughout his tenure in the desert — coming out to an average of nearly -12 each season. Additionally, Moser averaged an on-ice save percentage in all situations of 89.5% over his first three seasons, but some of the blame could be shared with a subpar Arizona defensive core.
With Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh expected to receive a bulk of the minutes on the left side of Tampa Bay’s blue line crew, Moser should get bumped down to a bottom-pairing role with the Lightning. Although his salary for next year is right on par with a bottom-pairing defenseman, his 2025-26 salary will become a bit rich if Tampa Bay decides to keep him in a similar role.
J.J. Moser Files For Arbitration
Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and originally produced by the National Hockey Leaguer Players’ Association, 14 players have elected for salary arbitration this summer. The deadline for team-elected arbitration is tomorrow. Friedman also notes the arbitration hearings will happen between July 20th and August 4th. To add context, not every one of these players will appear for a hearing with their respective teams as they may continue to negotiate on a new contract. However, each player who elects for salary arbitration is now prohibited from negotiating with other teams or signing an offer sheet. Here is a list of the players that have elected for arbitration:
F Beck Malenstyn (Buffalo Sabres)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo Sabres)
F Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes)
D Jake Christiansen (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Joe Veleno (Detroit Red Wings)
D Spencer Stastney (Nashville Predators)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders)
D Ryan Lindgren (New York Rangers)
D Ty Emberson (San Jose Sharks)
D J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)
F Connor Dewar (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Lightning Sign Cam Atkinson
The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed veteran forward Cam Atkinson to a one-year, $900K contract. Atkinson was bought out of the final year of his deal with the Philadelphia Flyers ahead of free agency, leaving him open to sign with any club.
Tampa Bay continues their streak of eye-raising signings by inking one of the market’s oldest names. Atkinson, 35, struggled to hold onto his groove with the Flyers last season, managing just 28 points in 70 games and earning multiple healthy scratches in the second half of the year. It was a far fall for the acclaimed NHL veteran, especially considering he posted 23 goals and 50 points in 73 games in 2022-23.
But despite recent struggles, Atkinson will be remembered for his years of success with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Atkinson served a prominent top-line role for the Blue Jackets throughout much of the 2010s, routinely challenging the 50 or 60-point mark, on the back of consistent 20-goal scoring. He had a career year in 2016-17, when he managed 35 goals and 62 points in 82 games, only to follow it up with 41 goals and 69 points in 80 games two years later.
Atkinson’s career seems to be on the downswing after a rough year with the Flyers – but his deal in Tampa Bay is certainly low-risk, high-reward. For less than $1MM, the Lightning have added a veteran forward and tremendous goal-scorer. Atkinson could be set for a prime role in the team’s middle-six, where linemates like Brandon Hagel or Anthony Cirelli could help bring his game to the heights it was sat at. That will certainly be what Tampa Bay hopes for, as they look to make up for the absence of franchise legend Steven Stamkos with the additions of Jake Guentzel and Atkinson.
Minor Free Agent Signings: Atlantic Division
With over 180 deals signed during the first day of free agency yesterday, some smaller names may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Here’s a list of names that have inked two-way deals with Atlantic Division clubs since the market opened yesterday, per CapFriendly. Some of these may have been included in our main coverage yesterday, while others went under the radar. All contracts carry the league-minimum $775K cap hit unless stated otherwise). Those listed here are likely to begin 2024-25 with each team’s AHL affiliate.
Boston Bruins
F Cole Koepke (one year)
D Jordan Oesterle (two years)
D Billy Sweezey (two years)
F Riley Tufte (one year)
F Jeffrey Viel (one year)
Buffalo Sabres
F Joshua Dunne (two years)
F Mason Jobst (one year)
F Brett Murray (one year)
D Jack Rathbone (one year)
G Felix Sandström (one year)
Detroit Red Wings
F Sheldon Dries (two years)
F Joe Snively (one year)
Florida Panthers
F Rasmus Asplund (one year)
Montreal Canadiens
none
Ottawa Senators
D Jeremy Davies (one year)
F Hayden Hodgson (one year)
F Garrett Pilon (two years)
D Filip Roos (one year)
Tampa Bay Lightning
D Derrick Pouliot (one year)
D Steven Santini (one year)
F Jesse Ylönen (one year)
Toronto Maple Leafs
none
Lightning Sign Victor Hedman To Four-Year Extension
The Lightning have signed franchise defenseman Victor Hedman to a four-year contract extension worth $8MM per season, the team announced today. The deal kicks in beginning in 2025-26 and will keep him in Tampa through 2028-29.
The extension is signing-bonus heavy and carries a full no-move clause, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports.
Hedman and the Lightning were headed toward unrestricted free agency next summer, a fate both surely wanted to avoid after watching longtime captain Steven Stamkos depart for the Predators yesterday. Notably, Hedman’s extension is the exact same length and total value as Stamkos’ deal in Nashville. The new deal is a slight raise on his $7.875MM cap hit, which remains in effect for 2024-25 as he plays the final season of the eight-year, $63MM extension he signed in Tampa back in 2016. Hedman, 33, will now be 38 years old when his contract runs out.
Hedman, drafted second overall in 2009, remains Tampa’s undisputed top blue liner and is arguably the second-best talent in franchise history behind Stamkos. They don’t win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021 without the 6’7″ Swede, who was crowned the Conn Smythe winner the first time around. He was a Norris finalist in every season from 2016-17 to 2021-22 (winning in 2017-18), a span in which he recorded 85 goals, 289 assists, 374 points and a +117 rating while averaging 24:34 across 428 games played.
Two years ago, however, it looked like Hedman’s decline might have started early. 2022-23 was a rough campaign for him on both sides of the puck, with his 0.64 points per game checking in as his worst offensive showing in seven years and his 50.1 xGF% at even strength running surprisingly mediocre despite over 60% of his zone starts coming in the offensive end.
He had a nice rebound campaign last season, though, erupting once again for 76 points (13 goals, 63 assists) in 78 games with a +13 rating. Hedman has also stayed relatively healthy as he ages, never missing more than six games in a season for the past four years. That’s a good sign for their highest-paid blue liner, who will be relied upon heavily next season to anchor a new-look defense that’s seen Ryan McDonagh re-acquired after two years away and Mikhail Sergachev swapped for J.J. Moser in a larger deal with Utah.
It’s the second big-money move from the Lightning in the past two days. They found Stamkos’ pricier but younger replacement, acquiring top free agent left wing Jake Guentzel‘s signing rights from the Hurricanes and promptly inking him to a seven-year deal worth $9MM per season. Clearly, GM Julien BriseBois has no intention of letting the Bolts slip out of championship contention anytime soon, doing well to replenish their roster this past week with younger and, in some cases, more cost-effective talent. But keeping Hedman around was always a priority, too, and he becomes the overwhelming favorite to succeed Stamkos as captain this season.
Hedman’s marginal increase on his current deal means the move doesn’t have much of an impact on their long-term salary cap picture. They do still have one big-ticket item to check off their list this summer, though. Moser remains an unsigned RFA, and they’d surely prefer to get him inked to a new deal before he can file for arbitration. It shouldn’t be too big of a hassle, as the Lightning still have $6.65MM in projected cap space remaining with five open roster spots, per CapFriendly.
With Sergachev out and McDonagh and Moser in, Hedman joins Erik Černák as the only Tampa defenseman signed past 2025-26. They have considerably more long-term stability at forward, with Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point all locked up through the end of the decade.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Lightning Sign Zemgus Girgensons To Three-Year Deal
The Lightning have signed forward Zemgus Girgensons to a three-year deal worth $2.55MM ($850K per season), per a team release. It’s Girgensons’ first NHL stop outside of Buffalo, where he spent the first 10 seasons and 688 games of his career.
Girgensons, now 30, will help replenish some of the forward depth the Lightning lost today at an extremely reasonable cost-controlled deal to boot. The 6’2″ Latvian will likely slot into a fourth-line role in Tampa, potentially skating on the wing alongside Luke Glendening and Jesse Ylönen, another one of Tampa’s UFA pickups today.
A decent middle-six checking forward with flexibility at center in his younger days, he’s slipped to fourth-line status in Buffalo the last two years. 2023-24 marked his first season without reaching the 10-goal mark since 2018-19, limited to eight goals and 14 points in 63 games. His 11:51 average time on ice was also a career-low, and it’s hard to imagine him earning much more with the Bolts with others like Mitchell Chaffee, Michael Eyssimont and Conor Sheary providing a bit more offensive upside at the moment.
Girgensons will now remain in Tampa through the 2026-27 season in his depth role, and could be buried in the minors without penalty if he declines past the point of being an NHL regular.
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.