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Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Andreas Borgman, Chris Gibson

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have added an interesting young defenseman, signing Andreas Borgman to a one-year, two-way contract. Borgman became a Group VI unrestricted free agent this offseason because of his lack of NHL opportunity and had been playing in Finland.

Christopher Gibson has also signed a one-year, two-way deal with the team. He’ll serve as a depth goaltender for the system, but isn’t expected to challenge for NHL playing time after seeing only 14 appearances at the highest level throughout his career.

Borgman, 25, came over to play with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017 and actually suited up for 48 games right away. The undrafted Borgman ended up in the buried in the minor leagues, even after a trade to the St. Louis Blues this season. That led to the Group VI designation, but he’s still an interesting player to keep an eye on in the Lightning system.

Lightning Re-Sign Spencer Martin

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Minutes before the free agent period opens up, the Lightning have agreed to terms with one of their free agents, announcing the re-signing of goalie Spencer Martin to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will carry a $700K salary in the NHL.

Martin, 25, looked like a future NHLer when he made three appearances with the Colorado Avalanche back in 2016-17 at just 21, but has not seen action at the top level since. Instead, his AHL numbers have actually worsened over the years. Still, that experience makes him a serviceable depth option.

Don’t expect Martin to make an appearance in Tampa any time soon. The Bolts are set in net with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Curtis McElhinney, who suited up for every game this season and through the playoffs. Even if an injury should arise, new addition Christopher Gibson could very well get the call over Martin.

Detroit Red Wings Complete Loans, Sign Free Agents

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The Detroit Red Wings have been checking several boxes on their offseason to-do list today. First, the team has officially assigned Joe Veleno to Malmo of the SHL and have changed Moritz Seider’s loan from Mannheim of the DEL to Rogle of the SHL. These changes are important, as they signify full-season loans of two of the team’s top prospects. Veleno and Seider are expected to spend the entire 2020-21 season overseas, though the SHL season does usually end in March.

In a rebuilding year for the Red Wings, getting Veleno and Seider playing right away should be considered a benefit for their development. There is no clear schedule for the AHL at this point, and given that the NHL is targeting a January start date that should be considered the very earliest a minor league season could be held. The two first-round picks will instead get to play immediately and will have a full season in one of the best leagues in the world.

The team has also reached agreements with two of their restricted free agents, signing Adam Erne and Taro Hirose to one-year contracts. Both players were not included in yesterday’s qualifying offers, and now we know why. Erne and Hirose will both be back in the organization for at least one more year.

Hirose, 24, was signed out of Michigan State University in 2019 and made an impact down the stretch for the Red Wings, scoring seven points in 10 games. That level of production wasn’t carried into this year, but the entire Red Wings team was brutal and Hirose still did register plenty of offense at the minor league level. With an improved club and higher level of play, perhaps Hirose can still become an impact player for the team.

Erne on the other hand will likely never provide much offense at the NHL level, but can still serve a role as a depth option for the Red Wings this season. In 170 career games he has just 32 points, most coming with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19. Detroit GM Steve Yzerman knows Erne well from their time together with the Lightning and obviously feels he can still play a role in the organization.

Tampa Bay Lighting Sign Mitchell Stephens, Gemel Smith

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have completed some offseason business ahead of the second round, signing Mitchell Stephens to a two-year, one-way contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $737,500, and keeps Stephens from becoming a restricted free agent. The team has also inked Gemel Smith to a one-year, two-way contract.

Stephens, 23, is another example of the Tampa Bay “who needs first-round picks anyway?” approach that has worked so well for them in recent years. A second-round selection in 2015, the Lightning development team went to work on Stephens right away. In junior he was never an offensive star, but the 6’0″ center still found his way onto Team Canada at the World Juniors on multiple occasions because of his defense, polish and incredible work ethic.

By the time he came to the minor leagues, he was improved in all areas and ended up scoring 19 goals and 41 points in his first season with the Syracuse Crunch. Though he would have to deal with some injury problems afterward, Stephens was back succeeding this season and ended up playing 38 games for the Lightning.

It’s unlikely that Stephens will find his way into the Tampa top-six, but the team continues to churn out role players that can lengthen out their lineup with strong play for bargain-basement prices. With the team looking at trading core members like Tyler Johnson, it will be players like Stephens that allow them to stay competitive while they navigate the flat cap.

Smith meanwhile is already 26 but just had the best offensive season of his career with the Syracuse Crunch, potting 22 goals in 50 games. Originally a draft pick of the Dallas Stars, Smith has played in 83 NHL games in his career and will be strong depth in case of injuries next season.

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman To Participate In Draft Remotely

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The Detroit Red Wings are fortunate that the 2020 NHL Entry Draft has a consensus top-three and the team won’t be left scrambling by any surprises when they pick at No. 4 overall. That is because the man in charge, GM Steve Yzerman, won’t actually be in the war room to take control of the situation. Detroit has announced that Yzerman will participate remotely in the draft process as a precaution after coming into contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Luckily, the team reports that Yzerman has tested negative on multiple COVID-19 screenings and is not experiencing any symptoms. However, the team will keep their top executive away from the rest of their front office staff and scouts over both days of the draft. Yzerman will communicate with his staff electronically and will still be able to conduct trade calls with rival GMs.

Detroit should already know who they are taking with the fourth overall pick and will have all night and morning to decide on their second pick, No. 32, the first of the second round on day two. At some point though, Yzerman and company will be on the clock without their selection pre-set and will have to overcome the distance to make a pick. The Red Wings own ten picks in the 2020 draft, including five in Rounds Two and Three tomorrow.

Detroit Red Wings To Buy Out Justin Abdelkader

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Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman continues his cleaning of the team’s cap situation, this time placing Justin Abdelkader on waivers for the purpose of a buyout. Abdelkader has three seasons remaining on his contract, meaning the Red Wings will incur cap charges for the next six years. Those charges will look like this:

  • 2020-21: $1,805,556
  • 2021-22: $2,305,556
  • 2022-23: $2,305,556
  • 2023-24: $1,055,556
  • 2024-25: $1,055,556
  • 2025-26: $1,055,556

There was a time not too long ago when Abdelkader looked like exactly the kind of powerhouse winger that every team was looking for. In 2015-16 he scored 19 goals and 42 points while racking up 120 penalty minutes and 207 hits. A wrecking ball on the ice with a scoring touch around the net was extremely effective and it landed him a new seven-year extension during that season.

Unfortunately when you play that style, if the goal-scoring falls off you’re suddenly just an overpaid fourth liner. That’s basically exactly what happened to Abdelkader, who almost immediately struggled under his new contract. Since the start of the 2016-17 season he has scored just 26 goals in 259 games despite averaging more than 15 minutes a night. Only 15 of those have come at even-strength and Abdelkader failed to score a single goal in his 49 games during the 2019-20 season.

That’s not to say this move comes without a bit of surprise. The Red Wings are not in any sort of cap trouble and could have kept Abdelkader on the roster as an overpaid veteran presence. But Yzerman has a clear plan to sweep out all the bad money and install his own vision of the Red Wings.

With Abdelkader gone, Dylan Larkin is the only player in the organization signed to a one-way contract through the 2022-23 season. Every other contract is either an entry-level deal or will expire by the summer of 2022. That freedom will allow Yzerman to do anything he wants to the roster, likely relying on the draft-and-develop strategy that served him so well in Tampa Bay.

Tyler Johnson Working With Tampa Bay On Potential Trade

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When you win the Stanley Cup in the NHL, it usually comes at a cost. The core of your team is often broken up immediately afterward thanks to the salary cap system, or depth players are sacrificed to try and pay the next wave of talent. That’s exactly what is happening in Tampa Bay, where the Lightning are being forced to make tough decisions on some of their veteran players.

Tyler Johnson, an excellent soldier for the team over the last decade, is one of the names most likely to be traded in the coming days, even despite the full no-trade clause he holds. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Johnson has given the Lightning several teams that he would accept a trade to and that there is a good amount of communication between GM Julien BriseBois and the player’s camp.

Johnson, 30, has four years left on his current contract and carries a $5MM cap hit. The versatile forward has seen his role in the Tampa Bay offense diminish over recent years and averaged just 14:33 a night this season. That’s not to say his skills have disappeared though. Remember, Johnson once tied for the team lead in scoring with 72 points in a single season and in 2018-19 he scored 29 goals. That $5MM price tag might be too expensive for the Lightning in his current role, but he could still be a useful player around the league.

Of course, if the Lightning had a choice, they would probably simply keep Johnson in the fold. But after winning a Stanley Cup they are in a very tight salary cap situation with more than $76MM committed for just 15 players. One of the biggest causes of that salary squeeze is Andrei Vasilevskiy’s new extension, which kicks in for the 2020-21 season and sees his cap hit jump from a reasonable $3.5MM to a whopping $9.5MM. The 2019 Vezina winner is certainly worth his big ticket, but extensions like that make it difficult to keep the depth over the rest of the roster.

The Lightning also have Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and others to re-sign as restricted free agents this offseason, a group that could take up more than $10MM even on simple bridge deals. Moving money out is imperative for BriseBois and it looks like it will start with Johnson.

Offseason Keys: Tampa Bay Lightning

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The offseason is now upon us with the Stanley Cup being awarded last week.  Having covered all of the teams that missed the postseason or were eliminated before the Stanley Cup Final, let’s take a look at the teams in that final matchup.  After covering the Stars on Sunday, we wrap up our annual series with the Lightning.  The full series can be found here.

After being swept by Columbus last season, no one really knew what to expect from Tampa Bay this year.  Sure, on paper, they were just as strong as ever but look where that got them the year before.  GM Julien BriseBois added some sandpaper and some veteran defensemen and it worked out perfectly as they took out the Blue Jackets, Bruins, Islanders, and Stars to take home the title.  After a few days of celebration, it’s all about tearing things down as the key to their offseason is simply freeing up cap space while keeping as much of the roster intact as they can.  Not surprisingly, each of the following keys revolves around that one element.

Navigate Trade Protection

There are some teams that rarely hand out any form of trade protection.  Tampa Bay is not one of them.  Of their seven highest-paid forwards, only one doesn’t have the ability to at least block a trade to some teams and that’s Brayden Point because he’s simply too young to have one.  On defense, their top-three paid players have either a full no-trade clause or a full no-move clause.  One advantage of being in the market they’re in is no state taxes which has allowed the Lightning to sign some of those players below market value.  The trade-off, however, is players getting some security in the form of trade protection.

Let’s look at their cap situation quickly.  At the moment, they have just over $76MM in commitments to 16 players for next season.  However, they have several key restricted free agents to re-sign and have to fill out the rest of their roster as well.  One, if not two, high-salaried players will need to go.  Here’s the listing of their veterans making $4MM or more and their trade protection:

F Nikita Kucherov – $9.5MM through 2026-27, NMC
G Andrei Vasilevskiy– $9.5MM through 2027-28 (too young for trade protection yet)
F Steven Stamkos – $8.5MM through 2023-24, NMC
D Victor Hedman – $7.875MM through 2024-25, NMC
D Ryan McDonagh – $6.75MM through 2025-26, NTC
F Brayden Point – $6.75MM through 2021-22 (too young for trade protection yet)
F Ondrej Palat – $5.3MM through 2021-22, NTC
F Yanni Gourde – $5.166MM through 2024-25, NTC
F Tyler Johnson – $5MM through 2023-24, NTC
F Alex Killorn – $4.45MM through 2022-23, 16-team NTC

Trying to convince one (likely two) of these players to waive their trade protection to leave a Cup-winning team to go somewhere where the tax situation may not be as favorable is where BriseBois finds himself right now.  This is something that’s going to be much easier said than done in this cap environment.

Avoid Offer Sheet Risk

There are two notable restricted free agents that Tampa Bay has to try to re-sign with their limited cap space in defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and center Anthony Cirelli.  With their cap situation and limitations on moving money with all of the trade protection in place, both players are prime offer sheet targets if someone wants to try to force their hand.

Sergachev has been steady offensively in his three seasons with the Lightning and wasn’t asked to jump into a big role right away.  This allowed him to slowly develop his defensive game and the results were certainly promising this season.  He had a career-best 10 goals during the regular season while logging more than 20 minutes a night for the first time.  In the postseason, he chipped in with 10 more points and saw his playing time jump up to more than 22 minutes a game.  He’s already a top-four defender and at 22 years of age, there is still plenty of room for continued improvement.  Sergachev is someone that should be a fixture on their back end as long as they can afford to keep him.

Meanwhile, Cirelli had a breakout year offensively with 16 goals and 28 assists in 68 games but that’s not the only reason he’ll be highly coveted.  The 23-year-old has already become a high-end defensive player and finished fourth in Selke Trophy balloting this season.  The various injuries throughout the season gave Cirelli a chance to showcase himself as a top-six forward and he made the most of it, sending notice around the league that he’s ready for that role on a full-time basis.  Assuming Stamkos shifts to the wing more permanently next season, the Lightning should be able to give him that spot.

Even defenseman Erik Cernak could be someone that’s targeted.  He doesn’t have the best of offensive numbers but if there’s a team that wants him in their top four, Tampa Bay may be hard-pressed to match.  Talks for offer sheets can begin on Friday so freeing up that cap space is something they’ll want to do sooner than later if they can in order to give themselves a bit of leverage in talks with their youngsters.

Plan Ahead For Point

Point’s three-year deal last offseason gave the Lightning some short-term flexibility and to their credit, they made the most of it, utilizing that space to add several key depth players that helped them win the Stanley Cup.  But he’ll be eligible for a new deal starting next offseason and if an extension can’t be reached, he’ll enter the 2022 offseason one year away from UFA eligibility.

Needless to say, that’s not a spot that they’re going to want to be in with him.  Getting an early extension done will be a top priority a year from now but for them to be able to afford it (it should check in close to Kucherov’s price tag), they’re going to have to free up some cap room to have three players making that much money.

That’s something that BriseBois will have in mind as he tries to navigate this tricky salary cap situation.  There are two windows to try to open up cap space for.  One is to simply be in compliance for next season but there will be even more motivation to try to clear out players signed beyond 2021-22 to give them the space needed to lock up Point as early as a year from now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Arizona Coyotes Hire Darryl Plandowski

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You may have never heard of Darryl Plandowski, but a lot of his work just resulted in a Stanley Cup. Serving as the Tampa Bay Lightning assistant director of amateur scouting under legendary scout Al Murray, Plandowski was integral in helping build a roster that had plenty of homegrown talent. He was only named to that position in 2019 but had previously spent over a decade as the team’s head amateur scout.

Now, Plandowski is headed to the desert. The Arizona Coyotes have announced his hiring as the team’s new director of amateur scouting. New GM Bill Armstrong released a statement on the move:

We are very pleased to add another Stanley Cup Champion to our organization. Darryl is an excellent talent evaluator and his fingerprints are all over the Tampa Bay Lightning roster. We are thrilled to have him lead our amateur scouting department.

Notably, the Coyotes do not have have a pick in the first three years of this year’s draft thanks in part to discipline handed down for scouting violations. If they don’t move to acquire some higher picks, they’ll have to find some hidden gems in the later rounds. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s hard to not want to emulate an organization like the Lightning. Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reports that Plandowski will not be working at this draft for the Coyotes in an agreement with the Lightning, but you can see how he, Murray, and the rest of the Lightning have found talent outside the first round in the past.

Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Anthony Cirelli, Ondrej Palat, Cedric Paquette, and many other names being engraved in the Stanley Cup were Tampa Bay picks outside of the first round, with Palat, in particular, being an incredible late-round steal. Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson weren’t even drafted at all but have become key contributors for the team.

Obviously, there is more work to be done to right the ship in Arizona, but bringing in proven talent evaluators is an important step.

Detroit Red Wings Will Not Re-Sign Jimmy Howard

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Though it may not come as much of a surprise at this point, Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman confirmed today that the team will not be extending a contract to pending free agent goaltender Jimmy Howard. The team instead will be looking for a new goaltender on the free agent market, according to Nick Cotsonika of NHL.com.

Howard, 36, has never known a professional organization other than the Red Wings, a team he debuted for back in 2005. Selected 64th overall in 2003, the young netminder quickly became a top prospect and by the age of 25 was Detroit’s full-time starter. Over the years he has appeared in 543 regular season games for the team, posting a 246-196-70 record.

That record would look a lot better if it weren’t for 2019-20. Incredibly, Howard won just two of his 27 starts this season, posting a 2-23-2 record behind the worst team in the NHL. His .882 save percentage was a legitimate part of that poor performance and will be a tough number to bring up in negotiations should he try to continue playing elsewhere.

At the moment it seems like he does, after telling Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News in June that he wants to keep playing in order to prove that he is better than the numbers he put up. He was clear about his desire to stay in Detroit at that point, but also knew that a new contract with the Red Wings was unlikely.

In a market flooded with capable goaltenders, Howard may have to sell himself pretty hard to a new organization. He’ll become a free agent on October 9.

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