Yanni Gourde has signed a new contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

My simulation for next season showing me 17 players signed with $5,697,501 left ( 82,5M ) without Gourde. I think that signing will get them in Cap trouble, tho its a good one from TBL side.

Here come all the “cap hell” AGMs.

Just remember that Brisebois knows there are free agents coming, and he’s got something up his sleeve. Otherwise he wouldn’t have signed Gourde.

Not the Lightning's fault that they keep developing really good players that deserve $$s. I am pretty sure that they will sort out their contract situation next year...

Here's another team w/ major cap issues on the horizon. Gourde should be an excellent value at just over $5M AAV, but they also have Kucherov's mega deal about to kick in next season which carries a raise of about $5M AAV. And, they still need to lock up pending RFA Braden Point, who should require at least $7M+ AAV on an 8 year deal. They're gonna have to make some major changes involving the overpaid veterans such as Callahan, Killorn, Johnson, and Palat. That's where the they need to trim the fat. Probably 3 out of 4 of the aforementioned Forwards will be playing elsewhere next season. Plus, star net minder Andre Vasilevsiy has only one more season remains on his current deal ($3.5M AAV), and he'll need a $5M raise as well. Maybe they can trade Johnson and co. for some draft picks/prospects in order to save money. They'll be very top heavy moving forward.

Just to clarify: I don't think Palat and Johnson are necessary overpaid, they just don't seem to fit in to the Lightning's long term plan w/ the current salary cap ceiling.

Nah, nothing like that. I was just stating facts that i notice thru my simulations for all 31 teams next season, not gloating like pharrow & carlo25 type of ppl here.....

They will sort out their cap issues, the question is will Brisebois be able to keep their entire core intact. By that I mean, can they still sign Point w/o a Nylander-type holdout? Point is arguably their 2nd most valuable Forward behind Kucherov as this point. Although, Stamkos is pretty darn good, too.

I wonder how or if this contract will affect what Nylander ultimately signs for. Gourde's numbers are pretty darn good and Nylander supposedly wants about $3M more.

I'm sure the GM has a plan for this, but I really thought that Gourde and Stralman would end up being the odd men out in Tampa. With all the talented young forwards like Joseph, Katchouk and Raddysh getting closer to NHL ready, I thought this hole would be one that could be filled by the prospects.

But none of this takes into account the fact that Gourde is a helluva player having a great start to the year. If push comes to shove and they do end up needing the space, they at the worst have an attractive trade chip.

I think the biggest regret will be the NTC.

This contract is a sign of doing everything to win right now, and get stuck in a slump after.
Unless the plan is to trade Gourde before his NTC kicks in

Well . . . Killorn is getting traded in july

It's great that Tampa can develop players that are deserving of big $$$ contracts. It's those contract that have NTC on some players that are might be anchor if they are trying to jettison. Killorn, Palat, Callaghan, Johnson just might be difficult to move, they just might not want to be traded. We'll see what can be done.

Don't like the term at all. I would've signed Point using that money

A little long and a bit too much money, Tampa is getting close to having a cap crunch. 4.5 million for 4 years would have been better.

Another player who you could argue is better than nylander for around 5 million. Solid signing.

No state income tax definitely helps in Tampa.

But he's also 27, no room really too improve.

It's never a good idea to extend players in November.