Next Year

palat easily gets a better offer, im sure there is teams that would give 5.5+ for him

Probably, but maybe other GM's think he's feeding off his linemates too much. Plus I think if he's choosing between say 4.5 somewhere else and 3.7 in Tampa then he's picking Tampa pretty easily

I think I would still prefer Bellemare to Johnson. And I'd probably want to re-sign Sustr over having Green on the team unless someone else gives Sustr a decent offer.


Players have been looking for term lately. If he got an NTC and 5 years (through the end of Kucherov's deal), I'd bet he would go low on AAV.

The real issue for the Lightning is what happens after next season with Sergachev, Cernak, and Cirelli due long-term deals and Killorn's deal being up. Likely can only keep 1 of Killorn and Palat to make the other 3 fit.

Miftakhov definitely isnt ready yet. yes hes looked decent so far but he still needs another year or 2 to be fully ready. Palat most likely will be gone unless they trade Killorn but i dont see that happening. Joseph probably gets 100k-200k less for some extra wiggle room for a backup if needed.

I feel like the main reason the Lightning would even consider Bellemare over Johnson is for PKing and on this team there is Colton, Fortier, Cirelli, Killorn, Raddysh, and Katchouk (Plus Palat and Stamkos if needed).