Now that Nikita Kucherov is locked up, Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman wasn’t ready to rule out adding another big contract if the price is right.
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” Yzerman said on a Wednesday conference call. “But if you just look at our one-way commitments for the following season, we still have cap space left for this year to add if we wanted. But if we were to bring in a significant contract we would have to make the money work so to speak, and going forward it would be the same situation beyond this year.”
Of course, a significant addition could be that of Erik Karlsson and a potential extension that comes along with a trade that’s been rumored for weeks. Things appeared to heat up last week but has now seemingly cooled for the moment. But according to Yzerman, don’t believe what you read or hear.
“Despite what you’ve read or may have reported, it’s inaccurate,” he said.
[Kucherov’s $76 million extension with Lightning is a bargain]
Even without a Karlsson addition plus a max extension, the Lightning’s salary cap picture going forward is an interesting one. Yzerman has proven already he knows how to navigate tricky waters, and he’ll have to continue to do so next summer.
As per Cap Friendly, the summer of 2019 could see bigger names like Yanni Gourde, Anton Stralman, Braydon Coburn and Dan Girardi able to hit the unrestricted free agent market. Brayden Point, meanwhile, is schedule to become a restricted free agent on July 1 of next year. Add in that both Mikhail Sergachev and Andrei Vasilevskiy will be eligible for extensions in a year’s time and you can see just how much maneuvering Yzerman will need to do in order to keep his key pieces in town.
“These guys are good players, really good players, and when you look around the League, they’re going to get paid a certain amount,” Yzerman said. “We want to keep as many of our good players as we can. We’d like to keep everybody. Unfortunately you can’t do that. But we’re trying to be as competitive as possible while trying to manage the salary cap.”
The Lightning currently have nearly $66 million tied up in 12 players for the 2019-20 NHL season. Should a Karlsson deal and extension get done, that number will change depending on the contracts heading out of Tampa. Yzerman will also likely be helped by another increase in the cap ceiling, which has steadily risen since the 2013 lockout.
“I guess we’re comfortable [in regards to the salary cap] for the time being with this season,” he said. “We’re comfortable where we are going forward. But at some point we’re going to have to make decisions that are strictly cap-related.”
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.