It’s not officially the offseason, but prep for next season has already begun for the Tampa Bay Lightning. So far, they’ve inked a two-year deal with forward Mitchell Chaffee and have signed 2021 seventh-round pick Niko Huuhtanen to an entry-level deal.
However, that’s just the beginning. The Lightning have other key roster members to figure out. An obvious one is re-signing Steven Stamkos. That’s the hot topic this offseason. But the goal here is to go beyond just his contract situation. Here are four players the Lightning need to extend or re-sign this offseason.
Victor Hedman
The Lightning can still avoid another headache with another long-time face of the team. Victor Hedman has one year left on the eight-year contract he signed in 2016. He has been a Bolt for 15 seasons, and there’s value in ensuring he’s a Lightning lifer along with Stamkos.
According to Tampa Bay Times Lightning reporter Eduardo Encina, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois has already had a “preliminary discussion” with Hedman’s agent. He emphasized that the goal is to, like Stamkos, keep Hedman in Tampa Bay.
“We’d love to keep Victor going forward,” BriseBois said. “He’s the elite defenseman. He’s one of those special all-time players, all-time great Tampa Bay Lightning Bolt who’s still super productive, and I have no reason to believe that’s not going to be the case going forward.
“We have a better understanding of where the cap is at least now and next year. There is a new CBA that’s going to come in at some point. There are rumors of expansion drafts. We’re trying to factor all that in, but the plan would be to keep Victor going forward” (from ‘Making Steven Stamkos a career Bolt is Lightning’s top offseason priority,’ Tampa Bay Times, May 1, 2024).
Keeping the team’s top defenseman indicates whether the Lightning are still in it to win the Stanley Cup too. If the 2020 Conn Smythe Trophy winner were to depart, it would be a sure sign the run is over.
Anthony Duclair
The Lightning acquired Anthony Duclair at the trade deadline to boost depth on offense, and he fit perfectly into the puzzle. In 17 games, he scored eight goals and tallied seven assists for 15 points. He picked up at least one point in each of his first seven games with the Lightning. In five playoff games, he had two assists for two points.
Duclair was an excellent deadline acquisition that the Lightning ought to have stick around next season. He helped spark the team’s push to make the playoffs in the second half of the season. He’ll have to be one of the higher-priority signings as he will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
At 28 years old, Duclair has plenty left in the tank and can likely be brought back on a team-friendly deal. In 2023-24, he had a cap hit of $3 million. Even if he wants it bumped up to $4 million or so, it would be worth it for the Lightning to re-sign him on a short-term deal – say two to three years.
Nick Perbix
Nick Perbix has been one of the better late-round picks for the Lightning as of late. The 2017 sixth-round pick spent four seasons in college working on his craft. But once he made the jump to the pros, it didn’t take long for him to become a mainstay with the Lightning. Before his call-up, he had played 14 regular-season games with the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League (AHL) in total.
Following his rookie season, the Lightning signed Perbix to a two-year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $1.125 million. That contract expires after next season, and he’s due for a pay raise.
Perbix finished last season with a career-high 24 points and had a defensive points share (DPS) of 3.4. His blocked shots ballooned from 65 in 2022-23 to 114 in 2023-24. It wouldn’t be crazy to see his AAV double when he signs his next contract, and it would be worth it for the Lightning to take on that increased salary.
What will help the Lightning here is the salary cap is likely going to increase further after next season, giving them the space to increase Perbix’s salary without making his contract a significantly larger portion of the total cap space.
Mikey Eyssimont
If the Lightning are looking to keep some muscle around for the foreseeable future, Mikey Eyssimont is a great option. He played in a career-high 81 games this season, and in turn, saw career highs in nearly every statistical category (shocker, I know).
The 27-year-old forward provided defense in a season when it was lacking badly. He blocked 35 shots and racked up 135 hits. He also had 31 takeaways to 22 giveaways. Eyssimont has shown he’s an asset beyond just backing his teammates when they’re getting knocked around. He’ll break up offensive attacks en route to the penalty box. I say en route to the penalty box because he had 104 penalty minutes this season – the most on the team.
Offensively, Eyssimont doesn’t bring a lot to the table, but that doesn’t mean he won’t provide a clutch goal occasionally. He scored 11 goals in 2023-24 and two were game-winners. That’s tied with Hedman and Nick Paul for game-winning goals.
Instead of rotating through older bottom sixers as they have in recent years, the Lightning can hang onto Eyssimont at a low cap hit and maintain that physicality and timely scoring.
The Lightning are not the team they used to be but have some players worthy of sticking around as they get back to form. If they want to position themselves to win more Stanley Cups, hanging on to key players such as the ones discussed is important.
More must-reads: