Team: 2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 26, 2020

Published: Oct. 2, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The Lighting have finally won the Stanley Cup. First of all congratulations to them and now the hard part will be the offseason. Tampa is going to lose a some players in free agency and have to make rooms to be on the cap, because with all the players they have they'll need to make trades for sure to at least bring back most of the core back.
Since they won the cup, Tampa is a no tax state I think all the players they need to resign (Sergachev, Cirelli, Cernak) they will all take a little less then if they were on another market.
Now with the trades. Tampa is deep down the middle with the likes of point, Stamkos, Cirelli, Gourde, Paquette they can afford to trade Johnson. One plausible destination is Minnesota. He would play top 6 minutes there surronded by Parise, Fiala, Kaprizov and a excellent top 4 on defense so he would accept a trade there. Since Tampa need to clear cap room they only take 2nd round pick. This one might be hard for Tampa fans but I would also trade McDonagh. He's a excellent all-around defenseman, but Sergachev is ready to take on a bigger role, he's younger, cap hit will be less and the more the playoffs goes he seemed better defensively. McDonagh is now what 31 and a decline might happen soon. Players this importance are usually not trade in the same division but I've target Boston as a team interested. With Krug and Chara's future incertain in Boston, McDonagh would fill a major need on their blue line. Plus Boston is a team ready to compete now. The 1st pick is going for sure in Tampa Bay and I though they could bring either a pick or a prospect in return. Tampa would be interested in Vaakainainen or another D prospect, but not sure if Boston would do the trade, so I've opt for another pick. I'm not sure if Boston would like to also give a 2nd round in return but I'm pretty sure a 3rd round pick will be enough so I'll go with that.
So with those trade Tampa stay just under the caphit and bring most of the same guys in their lineup to again compete for the Stanley Cup next season.

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