- Lightning center Anthony Cirelli left Thursday’s exhibition game early due to a lower-body injury and will be out at least one week, relays Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 24-year-old is coming off a quiet year offensively that saw him put up 22 points in 50 games last season.
Lightning Rumors
Tampa Bay Lightning Extend GM Julien Brisebois
Steve Yzerman may have built the foundation, but it was Julien Brisebois who put the finishing touches on a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion. For that, the Tampa Bay Lightning have awarded their general manager a much deserved extension. As first reported by TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, Brisebois has signed a new multi-year contract to remain in Tampa.
Brisebois is just 44 years old and already has one of the most impressive front office resumes in hockey. Brisebois was promoted to GM of the Lightning in 2018 after eight years as Assistant GM and GM of the club’s AHL affiliate, at first the Norfolk Admirals and then the Syracuse Crunch. Prior to joining Tampa Bay, Brisebois has worked for his hometown Montreal Canadiens for six years as a Director/Vice President of Hockey Operations and also as AHL GM. In addition to these two Cups with the Lightning, Brisebois oversaw Calder Cup titles with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2010 and the Admirals in 2012.
This extension should squash any remaining belief out of Montreal that Brisebois could take after his mentor Yzerman and return to his hometown team. With current Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin on an expiring contract this year, there was some hope from Habs fans that perhaps the historic team could poach Brisebois. Instead, he will stick with Tampa, which still has one of the most talented rosters in the NHL even after several key departures this off-season. The salary cap could continue to chip away at the Lightning core, but with Brisebois at the helm the team can rest easy that they are in good hands.
Yanni Gourde Could Return Ahead Of Schedule For Seattle Kraken
The Seattle Kraken could be getting a top-six fixture back in the lineup earlier than expected. General manager Ron Francis reported in his press conference today, on the opening day of training camp for the team, that Gourde’s recovery from injury was progressing “ahead of schedule,” meaning he could be back in the lineup earlier than the previously projected early-December return.
Gourde was Seattle’s selection from the Tampa Bay Lightning in this year’s expansion draft, and he was immediately expected to take on an increased role in Seattle. Serving as arguably the best third-line center in the league behind Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli, Gourde brings a hard-working, solid two-way game with 50-60 point upside. Widely projected as the team’s no. 1 or no. 2 center, it was revealed just days after the draft that Gourde would miss the first two months of the season after having shoulder surgery.
It should be noted that Gourde was indeed at Seattle’s first day of training camp today, albeit in a red non-contact jersey.
The 29-year-old (soon to be 30) Gourde is among one of the best undrafted talents in the NHL. He’s brought home the Stanley Cup in two of his four full NHL seasons, all with Tampa Bay. His rookie campaign in 2017-18 saw him elevated into a top-six role due to injury, and he didn’t disappoint. Despite being 26 years old at the time, his 25 goals and 64 points in 82 games was good enough to earn him some Calder votes, finishing sixth overall in voting for the trophy.
Seattle hopes that a healthy Gourde in a top-six role this season can offer similar production.
Cal Foote Will Miss Start Of Regular Season After Surgery
There have been several injury updates throughout the league today as training camps get underway and one of them came from Tampa Bay. GM Julien BriseBois told reporters, including Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link) that defenseman Cal Foote recently underwent surgery to repair a torn tendon in his finger. He’s expected to miss all of training camp plus the first two-to-four weeks of the season as a result.
The 22-year-old spent most of last season with the Lightning, playing in 35 games during the regular season although he didn’t suit up in the playoffs. The 14th pick in 2017, Foote was expected to push for a spot on the third pairing in camp and now that he’s waiver-eligible, his days in the minors were likely over. Instead, he’ll be on the outside looking in once the regular season gets underway next month.
The timetable for a return is noteworthy here. Tampa Bay is protected to have a roster that’s right up against the Upper Limit even with Brent Seabrook’s eventual transfer back to LTIR and it’s one that will be below the maximum size of 23. If Foote is expected to return within the first two weeks of the season, he won’t miss enough time to be eligible for LTIR; players need to be out for three weeks or ten games to qualify. If he’s projected to be out that long, they’ll be able to place Foote on there and bring up a replacement that carries roughly the same $850K AAV that he does.
While there were some injuries from the playoffs for Tampa Bay, Foote is the only Lightning player expected to miss the start of the season. In a pair of other tweets, Smith notes that defenseman Victor Hedman has fully recovered from his meniscus surgery while winger Alex Killorn is still rehabbing from his broken fibula but is expected to be ready for opening night.
Simon Ryfors Chose Tampa Bay Over Four Other NHL Offers In The Spring
- Tampa Bay’s signing of Simon Ryfors back in May largely went under the radar but Joe Smith of The Athletic notes (subscription link) that a total of five teams offered the undrafted forward an entry-level contract for 2021-22. The 24-year-old ultimately chose to sign with the Lightning and with the departures they had up front this summer, Ryfors could have a chance to break camp with the big club or be one of the first recalls from AHL Syracuse. He had 25 goals and 20 assists in 51 games last season with Rogle of the SHL.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Tampa Bay Lightning
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2021-22 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Current Cap Hit: $88,365,955 (over the $81.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
None projected to play with some regularity at the NHL level this coming season.
One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level
G Brian Elliott ($900K, UFA)
F Mathieu Joseph ($737.5K, RFA)
F Pat Maroon ($900K, UFA)
F Ondrej Palat ($5.3MM, UFA)
D Jan Rutta ($1.3MM, UFA)
After a few quieter years, Palat had a strong bounce-back campaign in 2020-21, finishing second in team scoring and producing at a top-line rate for the first time in a while. That made him a viable candidate for Seattle to pick in expansion although they opted for Yanni Gourde instead. Palat will be 31 when he signs his next deal which means a long-term pact is likely off the table but a medium-term one around this is likely. If he wants to stick around, GM Julien BriseBois may push for something a little lower. Maroon has signed for cheap the last few years and as long as he has a chance to win, he’ll probably keep taking those types of contracts. If not, that spot will be filled by someone else willing to play for close to the minimum. Joseph stands out as a viable offer sheet candidate next summer; assuming he has a good season, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to afford to keep him and re-sign Palat. If a team thinks he’s worthy of a bigger role and wants to pay him for it, that could put the Lightning in a bit of a bind.
Rutta has been a serviceable player on the third pairing since joining them in 2019 and if that continues, he could be in line for a small raise. That said, this feels like a spot for Tampa to try to go a little cheaper to free up some flexibility.
Last year was a tough one for Elliott in Philadelphia which significantly hurt his value heading into free agency. That, combined with Tampa Bay needing a cheap replacement for Curtis McElhinney, made for a good combination here. At this stage of his career, he’ll be going year-to-year on his next contracts so how he fares this season will determine if he has a chance of getting back towards that higher echelon of backups in terms of salary.
Two Years Remaining
F Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ($1MM, UFA)
D Erik Cernak ($2.95MM, RFA)
F Anthony Cirelli ($4.8MM, RFA)
F Ross Colton ($1.125MM, RFA)
D Cal Foote ($850K, RFA)
F Alex Killorn ($4.45MM, UFA)
F Corey Perry ($1MM, UFA)
D Mikhail Sergachev ($4.8MM, RFA)
Things may not have looked too bad after the last group but that starts to change here with several young players expiring after this time. Cirelli is coming off a quiet year but produced at a much better level the previous two seasons. Even if not, his qualifying offer will check in at $5.76MM (120% of his AAV) so a raise is coming. Killorn has been a reliable secondary scorer for several years but with the RFAs on this list, it certainly looks like their raises will squeeze him out; with prices for secondary scoring dropping a bit lately, Killorn may be looking at a small dip if he continues to hover around the 40-point mark. Colton is in line for a bigger role next season following a strong showing in the playoffs which likely has him on a trajectory for a bigger deal as well. Perry and Bellemare are quality veterans who can anchor the fourth line or move up in a pinch; both likely left money on the table to go to the Lightning which is something that can be said for quite a few others on their team.
Sergachev has established himself as a quality piece on the second pairing and at 23, there’s still room for growth. He’s on the same contract as Cirelli so a higher qualifying offer will be coming in the 2023 offseason and likely a bigger deal than that. Cernak doesn’t light up the scoresheet but as a top-four right-shot defender, he’s going to be in line for a significant raise beyond his $3.54MM qualifier as well. If Foote is able to establish himself as a full-time player by the time his deal is up, doubling his AAV or more isn’t out of the question either. Big raises are coming from this group.
Three Years Remaining
F Alex Barre-Boulet ($758K, UFA)
D Zach Bogosian ($850K, UFA)
D Brent Seabrook ($6.875MM, UFA)
F Steven Stamkos ($8.5MM, UFA)
Stamkos is going to be one of the more interesting contracts for Tampa Bay to handle. He’ll be 34 when it starts so he should still have a few good years left in him but with the anticipated higher costs from their RFAs in the last group, it’s quite difficult to see them being able to afford a market-value contract for their captain unless there’s a significant contract moved out by then. Injuries have limited his usefulness lately and if that trend continues, his value will dip considerably. Barre-Boulet isn’t too established at the NHL level yet but he has scored in junior and in the minors and won’t need to do much to live up to a near-minimum contract. Assuming he produces – a reasonable one to make – this could be a nice value contract for them.
Bogosian also should be a value contract but is on the opposite side of his career. He could have gotten more elsewhere or even going year-to-year but opted for some stability with a chance to win.
Seabrook was acquired as part of the Tyler Johnson trade but his playing days are already over. He’ll return to LTIR next season.
Poll: Are The Montreal Canadiens A Playoff Team In 2021-22?
After making it all the way to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, losing in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens have had one of the most interesting offseasons of any team. That much roster turnover is unusual for a team that made it that far in the playoffs, but a decent portion of it has been out of their control.
A good portion of Montreal’s starting 12 forwards will look different next season. Gone down the middle are Phillip Danault, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Eric Staal. Dvorak will attempt to replace Danault’s shutdown role with a little more offensive touch but less defensive prowess. Kotkaniemi’s third-line role is likely to be replaced by another young center, most probably Jake Evans. Staal’s fourth-line role will likely be comprised of a more defensive-minded pivot in Cedric Paquette. Their group of wingers will look different too, losing out on Tomas Tatar’s two-way play in favor of a power-play specialist in Mike Hoffman. Gone is veteran Corey Perry in the bottom six, being replaced by another veteran presence in Mathieu Perreault.
The team’s defense faces the loss of the team’s captain in Shea Weber. His injury will keep him out for at least this entire season and puts the rest of his career in jeopardy. His absence will be replaced by committee, as youngster Alexander Romanov and new addition David Savard should see more minutes. The left side stays relatively constant from last season, and overseas addition Chris Wideman could challenge for some games as well.
A tandem of Carey Price and Jake Allen returns after a successful regular season campaign.
However, a team that barely squeaked into the playoffs last season returns with some question marks. Full seasons of Jonathan Drouin and Cole Caufield help boost the team, but downgrades from Danault to Dvorak and Tatar to Hoffman raise near-negating doubts. The success of youngsters like Evans and Romanov will be crucial if Montreal wants to make a return to the playoffs in 2022, and they’ll need repeat performances from players such as Jeff Petry and Josh Anderson.
So the question to you, PHR readers, is this: has Montreal done enough this offseason to yield a playoff team in an increasingly competitive Eastern Conference? Make your voice heard below:
Do The Montreal Canadiens Make The Playoffs In 2022?
Yes, just barely
42.53%
(911 votes)
No, just miss
31.09%
(666 votes)
Yes, 100+ point season
13.68%
(293 votes)
No, bottom-tier team
12.70%
(272 votes)
Total Votes: 2,142
Mobile users, click here to vote!
Ben Thomas Signs In Sweden
After grinding through several seasons in the minor leagues, Ben Thomas finally got his chance during the 2020-21 season. The defenseman played in five games for the Tampa Bay Lightning, finally reaching the NHL for the first time. Despite finally making it to the top, Thomas’ 25th birthday passed in May, meaning he became a Group VI unrestricted free agent when the offseason hit.
Now, Thomas is set for a new challenge. The minor league veteran is heading to Sweden to join Leksands IF in the SHL, signing a one-year contract.
Originally selected in the fourth round in 2014, Thomas suited up more than 300 times for the Syracuse Crunch, getting to the Calder Cup Finals in 2017. He had nine points in 16 games this season for Syracuse but was unable to record an NHL point in his short stint with Tampa Bay. There’s no doubt that he’s still young enough to make a return to North America at some point in the future, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll ever get another crack in the NHL.
For now, he’ll be testing himself on a whole new level, but Leksands is also hoping to continue his development and take him even further in his career.
Ben Thomas Drawing Interest In Sweden
Defenseman Ben Thomas was finally able to crack the NHL this season, skating in five games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in his fifth pro season. However, it was too little too late in terms of NHL experience, as Thomas qualified for Group 6 unrestricted free agency. Yet, it seems as though the interest overseas is greater than any NHL interest that Thomas may have hoped for. Swedish source Expressen reports that the SHL’s Leksands IF has been negotiating with Thomas as they seek a top pair defenseman.
Thomas, 25, was a fourth-round pick of the Lightning in 2014. A productive two-way defenseman in the WHL, Thomas largely translated that ability to the AHL, recording 16+ points in each of his first four seasons with the Syracuse Crunch. However, he took a big step last season, recording nine points in only 16 games, not to mention a +8 rating. After years of being the “next man up” that never actually got called up, Thomas finally earned his chance with five games with Tampa Bay. While he was held scoreless, Thomas contributed defensively and his other underlying numbers were strong in the small sample size. His play across both leagues was at least enough to garner attention from overseas.
Expressen notes that Leksands is actually looking for two top defensemen and have talked to several former NHLers in addition to Thomas. This includes Anton Lindholm, who recently signed in the KHL, and Gustav Olofsson, who like Thomas played on NHL contracts last season. Joe Morrow and Matt Donovan are also in the mix. With a number of notable names on their list of candidates, it is clear that Leksands is serious about adding talent to the blue line. It also stands to reason that Leksands push to sign Thomas, described as “extensive”, could also be drawing the attention of other SHL contenders. Perhaps the opportunity in Sweden, both financially and role, is actually attracting Thomas away from a two-way NHL contract.
Tampa Bay Lightning Avoid Arbitration With Ross Colton
7:00 PM: The Lightning have officially announced the contract.
1:30 PM: The Tampa Bay Lightning have locked up the player who clinched their recent Stanley Cup, signing Ross Colton to a two-year contract. The deal is worth $1MM in 2021-22 and $1.25MM in 2022-23, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Colton was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on August 16 that will no longer be required.
Colton, 24, scored the Cup-winning goal for the Lightning a month ago, tapping home a backdoor pass from David Savard. The young forward is another example of Tampa Bay’s strong development system, going from a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft to a regular in the NHL lineup this season. In 30 regular season games as a rookie, Colton managed to score nine goals and 12 points. That goal pace likely won’t continue right away, but just the fact that the team has turned another mid-round pick into an NHL player is a win for the organization.
He didn’t really come out of nowhere though, as Colton found success in each of his years at the University of Vermont before starring for the Syracuse Crunch. In 2019-20 he registered 42 points in 62 games for Syracuse, throwing himself into the mix for a call-up if the Lightning ever needed a versatile player. The fact is that Colton has made himself a valuable player by being able to play center or the wing, score with the top-six, or check with the bottom-six.
Given the fact that Tampa Bay has been forced to watch Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman leave this summer, there should be even more minutes on the table for Colton this season. While it’s not certain how things shake out, he should get quite the opportunity with the defending champs.
For the Lightning, they have now finished their restricted free agent negotiations and can focus on preparing for the regular season. The team is technically over the salary cap right now, but can move Brent Seabrook’s contract to long-term injured reserve when necessary. It appears as though the offseason work is done, but never count out GM Julien BriseBois.