Quoting: Kosterjr
So your assuming Point is willing to take a bridge deal? Why should he? Nylander didn’t, Marner doesn’t want one. Why would Vasilevskiy take that when he’s better than Gibby for sure and depending on your view Hellebuyck as well. He’s going want Price/Bob money or at least closer to that so 7.5 to 8 million
I
assume that Point is open to the bridge deal option because him and his camp stated multiple times during the season that they are open to both bridge or long term deal. So I'm not really assuming.
Vas is not gonna get/take those money because no sane management person pays a goalie that much (10M). If you do that, you condemn your team to being mediocre at best. And because in Tampa there's a culture now.
I'll just copy-paste a bit of a TheAthletic article that came out the other day, discussing the Brayden Point future contract
https://theathletic.com/973302/2019/05/13/what-will-brayden-points-next-lightning-contract-look-like/ :
Many Lightning players have said that former Lightning GM Steve Yzerman built a culture that’s still there today – buy-in to keep the team together, starting with Stamkos’ re-signing in 2016 for less than he could have gotten on the open market.
“Part of the culture that we have here in Tampa is kind of that team-first mentality, and if you want to keep a good team together, guys are going to have to make little sacrifices along the way,” Stamkos said. “Whether that’s in terms of money or term or ice time or role on the team.
“That was something that — it’s kind of non-negotiable on this team, in terms of doing whatever it takes to help us keep the core together and keep being a productive team. That message was pretty loud and clear early when Steve got here and established himself as a GM, and continued to be that way.”