It has been a challenging offseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning. After being eliminated in the first round of the NHL playoffs, a tight salary cap forced general manager (GM) Julien BriseBois to move players that the team would have hoped would be on the roster when the 2023-24 season starts in October.
The signing of Tanner Jeannot likely signals the end of most of the Lightning’s major moves this offseason. On July 15, the team announced that they signed the restricted free agent to a two-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $2.665 million. He was acquired from the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Cal Foote, Tampa Bay’s first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, its second-round selection in 2024, as well as third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks in 2023.
According to PuckPedia, the Lightning are $6.58 million over the cap with 22 players on the roster after the Jeannot signing. However, they can exceed the cap by up to $6.875 million with Brent Seabrook on long-term injured reserve, which leaves them with $297,500 in available cap space.
With limited resources, Brisebois was able to pull off three significant moves that will still allow the Lightning to make a run at a Stanley Cup title in the 2023-24 season.
Trading Ross Colton
It was certainly not an easy decision, but the Lightning traded Ross Colton to the Colorado Avalanche for a second-round pick, 37th overall, in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. One of the significant pieces of this move was that the Lightning received a higher draft pick than expected, as many pundits felt that they would only get a third-round selection for the 26-year-old forward. After the trade, Colton, a restricted free agent, signed a four-year deal worth $4 million AAV with the Avalanche, which is something that the Lightning could not afford with their salary cap restrictions.
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Picking up an early draft pick made this move extremely significant as the Lightning only had picks in the sixth and seventh rounds due to trading away these picks in previous years to bolster their roster for the playoffs. They were able to use that selection to draft forward Ethan Gauthier, who many felt would have been selected in the first round.
Gauthier is the son of former NHLer Denis Gauthier and the cousin of Julien Gauthier, who played for the Ottawa Senators and the New York Rangers last season. During his career in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Sherbrooke Phoenix, Gauthier was noted for his persistent and ruthless ability to get in on the attack and establish a forecheck. He’s constantly involved, digging for loose pucks in the corners, engaging in battles to separate the player from the puck to regain possession.
Getting this kind of value in the draft helps to take the sting away from losing such a key piece to the Lightning’s recent playoff success.
Signing Conor Sheary
With a deep free agent pool, the Lightning were able to find some bargains in the free agent market. One of the more significant ones was the signing of Conor Sheary to a three-year contract worth an AAV of $2 million. The Winchester, Massachusetts native played in all 82 games for the Washington Capitals last season, recording 15 goals and 37 points with a plus-9 rating. He ranked fourth on the team in goals, was fifth in points, and tied for second in plus/minus.
More importantly, Sheary brings a champion’s pedigree that the Lightning value. The 31-year-old won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, including scoring the overtime winner during Game 2 of the 2016 Cup Final. He has played in 72 career Stanley Cup Playoff games with the Penguins and Capitals, recording seven goals and 23 points. Sheary has been a solid middle-six option for the Penguins and the Capitals and should provide a more than adequate replacement for the loss of Colton at the cap-friendly price the Lightning needed.
Signing Jonas Johansson
One of the more important positions over the past two seasons for the Lightning has been the backup goaltender. That is because Andrei Vasilevskiy has played so many games over the past few seasons that the workload caught up to him last season as his performance suffered due to fatigue and nagging injuries. With former backup Brian Elliott retiring, the Lightning needed to find some value in signing their next backup. They did that with the signing of Johansson to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $775,000.
Johansson has played in 35 career NHL games with the Colorado Avalanche, the Florida Panthers, and the Buffalo Sabres. He has also skated in 69 career games in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Colorado Eagles, Charlotte Checkers, and Rochester Americans, amassing a 39-21-6 record with a 2.56 goals-against average (GAA) and a .911 save percentage (SV%). The Sabres’ draft pick came over to the NHL after posting very good numbers in the Swedish Hockey League with Brynas IF. The 27-year-old was stuck on the Avalanche depth chart behind Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz, which allowed the Lightning to sign a player at a bargain price who has some upside.
While several popular players have left the team, the recent signings have allowed the Lightning to get a little more speed in their bottom six forward group who will also bring NHL and playoff experience to their roster. Under the constraints of a tight salary cap, the Lightning have signed players that will give them a chance to make another run at a Stanley Cup title in the 2023-24 season.