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Brian Elliott Expected To Retire, Joins Blues Front Office

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Veteran netminder Brian Elliott appears to be calling it a career after 16 seasons. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong told reporters today that the team has hired Elliott in a goalie development and scouting role, all but confirming that his playing days are over (via Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

Elliott last played in the NHL with the Lightning in 2022-23. He was not re-signed by the club and became an unrestricted free agent, not suiting up at all during the 2023-24 campaign.

After being selected by the Senators in the ninth round of the fabled 2003 draft, Elliott embarked on a star-studded stint at the University of Wisconsin. He backstopped the Badgers to the 2006 national championship while being a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to the top player in the NCAA. He turned pro with Ottawa after his college career came to an end, later making his NHL debut in 2007-08.

That was the last we saw of “limited” NHL action for Elliott, who broke onto the Sens’ roster full-time in 2008-09 as part of a rotation with Alex Auld and Martin Gerber. He didn’t earn any Calder Trophy love that year, but he did put up solid numbers with a 16-8-3 record, .902 SV% and 2.77 GAA in 31 showings for Ottawa.

Elliott took over as the Sens’ starter in 2009-10 and continued to hold the role into the 2010-11 campaign, but his level of play dipped. While it didn’t matter much behind the Senators’ underpowered offense of the early 2010s, his .894 SV% that year was far below average for the time. Shortly before the 2011 trade deadline, Ottawa sent him packing to the Avalanche in a one-for-one swap for Craig Anderson, one that would pay off handsomely for the Sens.

Unfortunately for Colorado, Elliott’s stay in Denver was brief. He won just two of his 12 games down the stretch while posting a .891 SV%, leading the club to let him walk as a free agent that offseason.

Armstrong, then in his early days at the helm of the Blues, quickly turned him into one of the best value signings in club history. After signing a one-year, two-way deal, Elliott cracked the Blues’ roster as the backup to Jaroslav Halák. He didn’t stay the backup for long, though. He forced his way into true tandem action with Halák that year thanks to his league-best .940 SV% and 1.56 GAA in 38 appearances, helping the duo take home the Jennings Trophy. Individually, Elliott also finished fifth in Vezina voting, one of two times he’d earn consideration for the award.

Elliott spent the next four years in St. Louis, making 164 starts and 17 relief appearances. He compiled a sparkling 104-46-16 record behind one of the league’s better teams in the mid-2010s, boasting a .925 SV%, 2.01 GAA and 25 shutouts in a Blues uniform. The team made the playoffs each season he was there, including a run to the Western Conference Final in 2016, in which Elliott had a .921 SV% and 2.44 GAA in 18 postseason games.

The Blues had the younger Jake Allen waiting in the wings, though, and deemed Elliott expendable after a solid run. They dealt him to the Flames for a pair of draft picks – one of which became Jordan Kyrou – putting a bow on his time in St. Louis.

Elliott’s lone season in Calgary was the beginning of his decline. He wasn’t bad, but his .910 SV% was only around league-average for the time and was far south of his level of play with the Blues. The Flames let him walk to free agency the following summer, where he signed a three-year deal with the Flyers that yielded similarly mediocre results. In fact, in his seven years of service with Calgary, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay after the Blues traded him away, Elliott only had one above-average season. That came in limited action as a backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy with the Bolts in 2021-22, putting up a .912 SV% and 2.43 GAA in 19 appearances.

After struggling with a .891 SV% in his second and final season in Tampa, though, it wasn’t a surprise to many to see the now 39-year-old Elliott out of the league this season. Now 39, he likely wraps up his career with a 279-167-54 record, 45 shutouts, a 2.57 GAA, and .909 SV% in 543 regular-season games. He also had a 17-26 record and .904 SV% in 48 playoff games.

PHR congratulates Elliott on a lengthy stint at hockey’s top level and wishes him the best as he takes his next steps in the sport.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Lightning Re-Sign Gabriel Fortier To Two-Way Deal

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The Lightning have re-signed forward Gabriel Fortier to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced today. PuckPedia reports the deal carries a cap hit of $775K and boasts an AHL salary of $100K with a $150K guarantee.

Fortier, 24, will reprise his role as a solid depth piece for the club in AHL Syracuse next season. While he has parlayed a second-round choice by the Lightning in 2018 into a solid professional career within the organization, he hasn’t seen much NHL time. He’s got 11 games to his name, 10 of which came in the 2021-22 season. His last NHL appearance was over a year and a half ago, coming on October 15, 2022.

He does have a goal and -2 rating in those games, along with 14 shots. The 5’10” Quebec native was a solid producer in junior hockey with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL, but his offensive production in the AHL has been stagnant at best over the past four seasons. Fortier set a career-high in goals (14), points (30), and games played (72) with Syracuse in 2021-22 and hasn’t managed to elevate his production above that of a middle-six AHL forward. Last season, he scored 13 goals and 26 points in 62 games for the Crunch, adding a goal and four assists in eight playoff games.

Fortier, who was set to become a restricted free agent, will remain under consideration for brief NHL recalls next season but appears unlikely to challenge for a spot out of camp. He was placed on waivers to begin last season and cleared, spending the entire season on the Syracuse roster.

He spent this season on a two-way deal carrying a $775K cap hit with a $100K minors salary and $125K guarantee. The extension marks a raise of at least $50K, considering he didn’t spend any time on the NHL roster in 2023-24.

Of the Lightning’s 2018 class, only Fortier and Cole Koepke have played NHL games for the club. Netminder Magnus Chrona was a fifth-round pick, but his only NHL experience has come with the Sharks. He’s the second member of the 2018 second round to sign a deal today, joining Flyers defenseman Adam Ginning.

Fortier becomes the 34th player under contract for the Lightning next season. In the likely event he plays fewer than 69 regular-season games, he’ll reach UFA status early next summer via Group VI designation.

Buyout Candidate: Conor Sheary

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While the Lightning are the most successful franchise of the last 10 years, back-to-back first-round losses have them at risk of slipping into mediocrity. That’s exacerbated by a salary cap crunch this summer that, if not handled with care, could result in the loss of captain Steven Stamkos to free agency.

General manager Julien BriseBois has no intention of letting his team slip out of contention anytime soon. He’s already made one move to fill out his roster this summer, re-acquiring Stanley Cup champion defenseman Ryan McDonagh from the Predators shortly after both teams were eliminated from the playoffs.

Aside from Stamkos and future Hall-of-Famer Victor Hedman, the Bolts have much of their core signed long-term. Erik Černák, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev are all signed through at least 2030 with cap hits north of $5MM. Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy have matching $9.5MM cap hits through 2027 and 2028, respectively. While it could likely change as the salary cap rises, none of them are significant bargains for what they’ve contributed the past couple of seasons, aside from Kucherov and Point.

The salary cap jumping to $88MM next season does offer BriseBois some much-needed flexibility, but they do still have just $5.335MM in projected space with at least three roster spots to fill if they want to have any sort of in-season wiggle room. Even with a significant discount, that’s likely not enough to sign anyone other than Stamkos, posing an obvious issue.

Tampa doesn’t have a recent history of buyouts, but it could be a decent last-ditch way to shed ill-advised cap hit allocation. In a piece for The Athletic on Monday, Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance name Lightning winger Conor Sheary a player to watch as the first window to buy out players, which opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends, approaches.

[RELATED: 2024 Key Offseason Dates]

Often a strong secondary scoring threat throughout a 500-plus game career with the Capitals, Penguins and Sabres, Sheary became a UFA last summer. BriseBois pounced, hoping to add a cost-effective top-nine scoring option while inking him to a three-year, $6MM deal ($2MM AAV) with trade protection. The 32-year-old flamed out in Tampa, though, limited to just four goals and 15 points in 57 games on the year after scoring double-digit goals for the last seven years. He was a frequent healthy scratch near the end of the regular season and didn’t play at all in their first-round loss to the Panthers.

Sheary’s role was limited under head coach Jon Cooper. His 11:06 average time on ice was the lowest since his rookie season. There’s likely some bounceback potential there, as indicated by his career-low 8.0% shooting rate, but the risk of him declining further isn’t one the cap-strapped Lightning can afford to take.

Trading him and removing the final two years of his contract would be ideal, but a 16-team trade list complicates things. A buyout would at least reduce his cap hit from $2MM to $583K next season, opening up an additional $1.417MM in space, per CapFriendly. That’s easily enough to add a cost-effective depth option on the UFA market and opens up additional flexibility for a Stamkos extension.

The rest of the buyout isn’t awful, either. It would carry a $1.083MM hit in 2025-26, still saving the Bolts over $900K in the final season of his deal, before a sub-league minimum penalty of $583K in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Jon Cooper To Coach Canada At 4 Nations Cup And 2026 Olympics

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Lightning head coach Jon Cooper will have some extra duties coming his way in the near future.  In his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link), Pierre LeBrun reports that Tampa Bay’s bench boss is expected to be named as Canada’s head coach for the upcoming 4 Nations Cup as well as the 2026 Olympics.  LeBrun adds that Hockey Canada considered having a separate head coach for each event but, like the United States with Mike Sullivan, has ultimately settled on having the same one for both.  Cooper has coached internationally at three events in the past.  He was Canada’s head coach at the 2017 Worlds, coached Team North America at the World Cup that same year, and was an assistant for the U.S. at the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament.

Hugo Alnefelt Plans To Return To North America

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  • Just over a month ago, it was reported that goaltending prospect, Hugo Alnefelt, would be leaving the Tampa Bay Lightning organization for an opportunity in his native Sweden. In an interview with Martin Jansson of HockeySvierge, it does not appear Alnefelt will be home for good, as he envisions returning to North America at some point. The 23-year-old goaltending prospect was quoted, “It’s hard to know if you’re ready or not and I don’t know if you can really be ready if you do something you’ve never tried. But there is absolutely nothing I regret that I went over so early. The plan now is not to be at home for good, it is to develop and take the step back“.

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Lightning Plan To Qualify Waltteri Merela

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Yesterday, Lightning restricted free agent forward Waltteri Merela signed a one-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss National League. The Lightning reportedly wanted Merela to return to the organization (as per Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times) but couldn’t offer him the guaranteed money that he could get abroad because of their need to keep salary cap flexibility. The Lightning plan to make Merela a qualifying offer to retain his NHL rights until he is 27.

Lightning RFA Waltteri Merela Signs In Switzerland

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After one season in the Lightning organization, forward Waltteri Merela is headed back overseas. The Finnish winger has signed a one-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss National League, per a team announcement.

Merela, 25, is a pending restricted free agent. Tampa can retain his NHL rights until July 1, 2026, by issuing him a qualifying offer before the June 30 deadline.

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois signed Merela as an undrafted free agent a little over a year ago, inking him to a one-year, two-way deal with an $870K cap hit. The 6’2″ right wing had been a two-way force in his native Finland in the preceding years, capping off his 2022-23 season with 14 points in 14 playoff games for Tappara as he helped the club win back-to-back Liiga championships.

Merela then made the Bolts out of camp, and while it wasn’t a huge surprise, he was far from a lock. While that indicated Tampa may have found a diamond in the rough, Merela struggled to produce, logging just one goal through 19 games before being sent to AHL Syracuse for the majority of the season. He wasn’t much of a factor possession-wise in his fourth-line minutes, posting a -2 rating and average shot attempt numbers while averaging 9:49 per game.

On the farm in Syracuse, Merela performed much better, potting 15 goals and 34 points in 55 games. Still, without a dedicated path back to NHL minutes with the Lightning next season, it’s unsurprising to see him try his luck overseas again. He’s still young enough that an NHL return may be in the cards someday.

Merela joins a Bern roster next season with a handful of former NHL talent, including Dominik Kahun and Patrik Nemeth.

Lightning Sign Declan Carlile To Two-Year Extension

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3:15 p.m.: Carlile’s deal carries a $775K base salary in both seasons, which will serve as his cap hit. He’ll earn $100K in AHL salary with a $150K guarantee next season, increasing to a $250K AHL salary with a $350K guarantee in 2025-26.

The Lightning have signed defenseman Declan Carlile to a two-year, two-way extension, per a team announcement Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Carlile, 24, made his NHL debut this season on Jan. 4 against the Wild, posting a +1 rating, one hit and two blocks in 11:27 of ice time. It remains his only major-league appearance to date.

The Bolts picked up the undrafted blue liner as a free agent signing out of Merrimack College in 2022, and his entry-level contract was set to expire this summer. He’s spent nearly all of the past two seasons on assignment to AHL Syracuse, where he finished second in scoring among defensemen this season with 27 points (seven goals, 20 assists) in 61 contests. He also added a goal and four assists in eight playoff games as the Crunch were eliminated in the North Division Finals by the Cleveland Monsters.

He’ll now remain in the Tampa Bay organization through the 2025-26 season. He’ll be a restricted free agent upon expiry, but he’ll be eligible to reach unrestricted free agency early via Group VI status if he plays fewer than 80 career NHL games by the time the extension runs out.

In the likely event that Carlile doesn’t crack the Bolts’ opening night roster, they won’t need to place him on waivers to return him to Syracuse to begin next season. He has one season and 69 NHL games played remaining until he loses his waiver exemption, meaning they would need to waive him to begin 2025-26 if he’s cut from training camp.

Ilya Usau Signs With KHL’s Dinamo Minsk

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Ilya Usau has signed with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, the team announced. The move comes more than a week after he was placed on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination by the Lightning.

James Mirtle of The Athletic reported at the time that Tampa’s release of Usau was likely a precursor to his return to the KHL. It wasn’t clear where he’d be signing, but it’s a surprise to no one to see the Belarus native return home. The 6’1″ pivot is the second signing from North America that Minsk has made this week, joining minor-league veteran defender Xavier Ouellet.

Usau, 22, has spent the last two years playing for the Lightning’s primary minor-league affiliate, the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Undrafted, he signed with the Lightning as a free agent in March 2022 after a breakout season with Dinamo that saw him record nine goals and 26 points in 40 games while also representing Belarus at that year’s Olympic qualifiers.

His results with the Crunch were middling and failed to ever thrust him into consideration for an NHL recall. Over 99 appearances since 2022-23, Usau managed 11 goals and 30 points with a +1 rating. He played only 42 out of the Crunch’s 72 regular-season games this season, recording seven goals and seven assists, and did not play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Had Usau honored the final year of his entry-level contract next season, there was a strong chance he would have been non-tendered by the Lightning next summer and become an unrestricted free agent anyway. Instead, he gets to return home a year early in hopes of re-establishing himself as a professional regular. He’s still young enough that he may earn consideration as an international free agent signing again down the line, but don’t expect to hear his name in NHL circles for a while unless a massive breakout season arrives.

Afternoon Notes: Jeannot, Parekh, Bourque

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Winger Tanner Jeannot is once again facing trade rumors, as the Tampa Bay Lightning look to clear enough cap space for a serviceable off-season. The team is facing the loss of their franchise player Steven Stamkos with just $5MM in cap space – not nearly enough to afford the services of the future Hall-of-Famer. That could push them to try and move Jeannot’s $2.665MM cap hit, though Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times shares that there’s been no legitimate discussions of a move just yet. Though Encina did speak to the idea being a tantalizing one for the Lightning, with many teams around the league still interested in acquiring Jeannot.

The Lightning acquired Jeannot from the Nashville Predators ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, sending the Music City defenseman Callan Foote, the picks that turned into Dylan MacKinnon (2023 third-round, 83rd-overall), Jayson Shaugabay (2023 fourth-round, 115th-overall), and Kevin Bicker (2023 fifth-round, 147th-overall), as well as a second-round pick in 2024 and a first-round pick in 2025 in return. Nashville traded the Shaugabay pick back to Tampa four months later, in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick, and moved the Bicker pick to the Detroit Red Wings to move up in the 2023 second-round.

Jeannot scored just four points in his 20 games with Tampa after the trade, though that didn’t dissuade their faith in him, with the Lightning signing Jenanot to a two-year, $5.3MM contract last summer – a deal that avoided the arbitration hearing Jeannot filed for. The rough-and-tumble winger wasn’t able to rekindle his spark on the new deal, though, scoring just 14 points in 55 games this season. He added 75 penalty minutes and a -10 – and tallied just one assist in four postseason games.

There’s still reported interest in Jeannot around the league despite his lacking scoring. Teams like the Calgary Flames have been looped into trade rumors, though Encina emphasized that a trade isn’t likely Plan A. Tampa will need to get a hefty return in any Jeannot trade, if only to hedge their losses from a costly 2023 move.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Saginaw Spirit defenseman Zayne Parekh has won the CHL’s Defenseman of the Year Award, beating out Memorial Cup Finals competition Sam Dickinson. Parekh was dazzling this season, posting a position-leading 33 goals and 96 points in just 66 games this season. He’s just the second OHL defenseman to top 95 points since 2000, joining Ryan Ellis’ 100-point season in 2010-11. But while Ellis was already an NHL draftee, Parekh is headed into his first year of eligibility in the 2024 NHL Draft. He’s seen as one of the top defensemen in the class and should rival a top 10 selection.
  • The Dallas Stars are swapping talented young forwards, with Ty Dellandrea stepping out of the Game 6 lineup in favor of Mavrik Bourque, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Bourque won the AHL’s ‘Les Cunningham’ MVP Award this season after posting 26 goals and 77 points in 71 games this season. Bourque formed a dynamic duo with Stars standout Logan Stankoven in the first half of the season. Dallas will look to use that pairing as their X-factor, as they face elimination at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.

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