According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Tampa Bay Lightning have agreed to terms on a contract with pending UFA forward Jake Guentzel. The deal’s financial terms were not disclosed and may take until tomorrow to fully develop. The news comes a few hours after the Lightning acquired Guentzel’s rights from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
The reported deal will likely check in at an eight-year term with the Lightning owning enough cap space to give Guentzel nearly $10MM annually. Because the team acquired Guentzel’s signing rights earlier today, Tampa Bay became the only team able to sign Guentzel to an eight-year contract. If Guentzel made it to free agency tomorrow, the Lightning would have only been able to offer him a max of seven years — the same as all other suitors.
After being acquired by the Hurricanes at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Guentzel proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that he could thrive without playing next to Sidney Crosby. However, by inking a contract with the Lightning, Guentzel may arguably have better linemates. The team will likely start him next to Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point on the top line, with the former finishing up a season in which he led the league in assists and points.
Guentzel will land in Tampa Bay having already played 520 regular season games at the NHL level while scoring 227 goals and 491 points through eight years. Largely known for his postseason contributions; Guentzel is a one-time winner of the Stanley Cup as he’s scored 38 goals and 67 points in 69 career games in the playoffs. After being knocked out in the first round of back-to-back postseasons, the Lightning will surely be looking for Guentzel to help turn around the team’s most recent fortunes.
Depending on the financial terms of the agreement, the contract between Guentzel and the Lightning organization may have some collateral damage. With longtime captain Steven Stamkos hitting the free agent market tomorrow, Tampa Bay may not have the cap flexibility to re-sign him after all.
Unreal
Goodbye Stammer! Unless he goes for the $3M x 8 deal!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the Lightning are giving Guentzel $10 million a season, that leaves them with $6.5 million to re-sign Moser, sign two more forwards to fill out their lines. They may not have enough cap space to carry both an extra forward & defenseman. They might not have enough space to carry an extra player period.
Guentzel is more valuable to the Bolts than Stamkos was? Makes no sense to me.
LTIR will come into play soon.
there’s no way guentzel is going to be making more than kucherov/point , i think somewhere between 8-9 million is fair , but anything over that is an overpay. i also think they’re gonna find a way to keep stamkos.
Maybe the Rangers convince Stamkos to play right wing on their top line with Kreider and Zibanejad. Wouldn’t that be interesting
I would be really surprised if Guentzel got $10m for 8 years as that’s overpay. I suspect it’s probably around the same price range as Point & Kucherov (both make $9.5m AAV) meaning it’s probably around $9 to $9.5m for Guentzel. IMO Guentzel should get no more than $9m at best. I guess we’ll have to wait until it’s officially disclosed.
Talk is the Preds are the leading contender for Stamkos. Love to have him, but is a long term deal for a 34 year old a sensible path to go considering where they currently are as a team?
I dunno.
I love Jake…but I wouldn’t trade Stamkos AND Sergachev for him.
Not sure why they think their roster is better this way.
I sense you are trolling, so just for the record: Sergachev has been dealt for Moser, Conor Geekie, a 2025 second round pick, and a 2024 late round pick that became Noah Steen.
They didn’t trade Stamkos let alone there is still a possibility he could still return to TBL.
The trade of Sergachev (quite surprising as it was as I would have moved Cernak instead) they got draft capital & pieces for the future as Moser is a solid defenseman & Geekie has the potential to be an absolute beast in the NHL when his time comes.
Believe it or not, TBL has improved in various ways in the long-term.
Are you trolling or just one of those overly literal people? If so, I won’t attempt to explain opportunity cost.
Jake is eating up most of the cap space that could have been used to keep both of them.
Nice top line, but now the rest of the roster is watered down from last year’s team, which fell short. Last year’s roster was good enough to overcome a Vaz injury, not sure this one does.
With the signing of Guentzel, it will leave TBL with $6.5 to $7m in cap space from the $16.5m they had after the trades of Sergachev & Jeannot.
If they would have kept Sergachev, they would have had $7.9m in cap space that’s with moving Jeannot & not bringing in Guentzel.
Stamkos reportedly wants $4 to $5 from TBL. If you do the math in either scenario up above it leaves TBL with around $2 to $3m in either scenario in cap space. No matter what, TBL was going to be tight in the cap.
TBL after signing Guentzel can still bring back Stamkos & still get a low-cost depth forward in FA. In that alone, makes this team better than last year.
Check me if I’m wrong on this… Guentzel is not eligible for eight years with Tampa because he was not on their reserve list at the trade deadline. It would have had to be a “sign and trade”.
This is correct. He can only sign for 7 years.