Quoting: MG1986
The beautiful thing about the Tampa Bay Lightning that I am not sure all fans appreciate it is how well they draft and develop. I don't think you need to lose Miller or Killhorn. Foote makes losing Stralman a lot easier and you can let some of those UFA and RFAs walk, the Lightning are loaded with prospects. The only issue I foresee, that a lot of team will have to deal with is the upcoming Seattle expansion draft. Like the Leafs and so many other good young teams, the Lightning will certainly lose a good young player. Otherwise, seems like they are good for a while, even with that massive Point contract.
Yzerman was definitely a guru when it comes to drafting, trading, and developing; BriseBois being his prodigy, makes it a much smoother transition. However, Yzerman's weakness is shown in his contracts. Johnson isn't worth the $5m we pay him anymore in my opinion, and his full-NTC until 2021 hinders our trading ability. Killorn at $4.45m for 6 years really hurts us, and he has a full-NTC until 2020, where it becomes a M-NTC. Callahan isn't worth $5.8m for two more years, especially with a M-NTC and a NMC. Of the 18 players on our roster, including Palat and Vasy who are currently injured, 13 have some sort of NTC or NMC.
I think we will need to make some trades here soon, because guys like Sergachev, Volkov, Raddysh, Katchouk, Joseph, Cirelli, Foote, Barre-Boulet, Sommpi, Spencer, Cernak, etc. will soon become regulars and will want more than $2m a year. Obviously that won't be for 4-5 years from now, but of those 13 guys with a NTC/NMC, 9 are signed until 2021-22. The cap crunch is real, and BriseBois is going to have to do some tricky maneuvering to make it work.