Lightning GM Steve Yzerman told Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times that he is hopeful that he can reach an agreement with RFA winger Ondrej Palat in advance of his July 25th arbitration hearing. Tampa Bay locked up their other key restricted free agent on Monday with the re-signing of Tyler Johnson to a seven-year, $35MM contract.
There’s a good chance that Palat’s agent will be using that exact deal as a comparable in negotiations. The two are coming off statistically similar seasons (Palat averaged 0.69 points per game and Johnson 0.68) while their career numbers are virtually identical (Palat is at 0.71 PPG while Johnson checks in at 0.69). They also happen to be coming off the same three-year, $10MM deals as well. Cap space shouldn’t be an issue on this deal as the Lightning have just over $8.5MM in cap space at the moment per CapFriendly with Palat being the lone NHL restricted free agent still to re-sign.
- The Jets have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with restricted free agent forward Andrew Copp, TSN’s Aaron Ward reports (Twitter link). CapFriendly tweets that the deal will pay him $900K in 2017-18 and $1.11MM in 2018-19. Copp spent the majority of 2016-17 with Winnipeg, collecting 17 points (9-8-7) while averaging 12:21 per night. He also added five assists in eight games with their AHL affiliate in Manitoba.
- The Canucks announced the re-signing of defenseman Evan McEneny to a two-year, two-way contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. McEneny made his NHL debut with Vancouver this past season but primarily suited up with their AHL affiliate in Utica where he scored eight goals and 15 assists in 63 games.