An offseason checklist for the Tampa Bay Lightning

The 31-year-old is coming off a contract that saw him make an average of $5.3M over the past five years. If he gets to the open market, a similar price at a similar term is doable. That’s one that Tampa Bay can’t afford, especially knowing they have to keep or replace Rutta as well. Even with Brent Seabrook’s LTIR space, there isn’t enough money for Palat to receive market value and still keep or re-place Rutta. A team-friendly contract is always an option – several have taken a bit less to re-sign in previous years – but with this likely being Palat’s last chance at a big contract, it would certainly be understandable if he wants to see what his other options might be.

If Palat winds up going elsewhere and they need to find a replacement, it wouldn’t be surprising if BriseBois looked for someone on a one-year deal. With several key pieces in need of new contracts soon, a short-term contract would allow give them a boost now and maintain a little bit of flexibility for the 2022-23 offseason. There will be players that don’t like what they have for long-term offers and would certainly view the Lightning as a favorable spot for a ‘pillow’ contract and going that route could give Tampa Bay a capable replacement without needing as long of a commitment.

Extension Talks

Tampa Bay has basically exclusively used short-term bridge contracts with their restricted free agents in recent years. The reason is certainly understandable as they used the lower cost of those contracts to keep their core intact and with two Stanley Cups and a Prince of Wales Trophy in the last three years, it’s hard to say they made the wrong choice. Going that way eventually has its consequences but with that type of recent success they’ve had, it couldn’t have gone much better.

But the consequences of that approach are only a year away. Defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak along with centers Anthony Cirelli and Ross Colton are all about to enter the final year of their respective bridge deals. All four will have arbitration eligibility next summer. Combined, they’ll have a cap hit of $13.675M next season. They will cost considerably more than that in 2023-24, likely surpassing the $20M mark. That’s going to result in the departure of another core player or two no matter what and BriseBois knows that.

While the Lightning could wait to work on these next summer, that’s a lot of big-ticket deals to sign in a short period of time and with arbitration hearings occurring after the bulk of unrestricted free agents have signed, getting into July with even a couple of these still pending wouldn’t be ideal. Having the knowledge of what those players are going to cost before next June and July would be great for planning purposes while also giving those players certainly moving forward. Are they going to get all of them signed now? Probably not but the more they can finalize this summer, the easier it should be next summer.

Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.