8:48 a.m.: The signing is official, according to a press release from the Lightning.
7:35 a.m.: The Lightning have signed winger Jakob Pelletier to a three-year contract, Renaud Lavoie of TVA reported overnight. It’s a two-way deal in 2025-26, followed by a one-way structure in 2026-27 and 2027-28. He’ll earn a base salary of $775K, $850K, and $900K in each respective season for a total value of $2.525MM and a cap hit of $841,667.
Pelletier, a first-round pick of the Flames in 2019, started last season in the AHL after clearing waivers. He received his first recall of the season in early December and remained on the NHL roster for the next two months aside from a few paper transactions, making 24 appearances to tie his previous career-high with the Flames in 2022-23.
In that span, it looked like the Quebec City native was finally getting his feet under him after an injury-riddled development path. While he wasn’t commanding top-six ice time, he did still notch four goals, seven assists, 11 points, and a +10 rating for Calgary – a 38-point pace over a full season. Nonetheless, they traded him to the Flyers in late January in the deal that brought Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Flames.
The trade halted Pelletier’s offensive momentum. The feisty 5’9″ lefty only managed three goals, five assists, and eight points in 25 appearances for Philadelphia to end the season and was an occasional healthy scratch. He totaled seven goals, 12 assists, and 19 points in 47 games on the year while averaging 11:33 per game. He was owed a qualifying offer of $840K on a two-way deal that the Flyers decided they didn’t want to give him, cutting him loose on Monday and making him an unrestricted free agent.
The 24-year-old has an 11-18–29 scoring line with a plus-three rating in 86 NHL appearances for the Flames and Flyers over the last three seasons. He also had three goals, 16 assists, and 19 points in 20 games for AHL Calgary last year. The Lightning giving him three years of term acts as an effective deterrent to waiver claims, though, so they’d have that option to try to send him to AHL Syracuse without a ton of risk. Considering they already have 12 forwards on one-way deals for this year, plus top prospect Conor Geekie looking for more NHL ice time, he faces an uphill battle for a roster spot.
Lightning are happy to report he did not injure his shoulder signing the contract.
Gold!!
If it were the Canes I’d think the deal would’ve been done yesterday. Leaning towards the Caps getting him now.
Who are you talking about?
Whoops, I thought this was the Ehlers thread!
Let him go. He’s on a roll attempting to hit every forum to provide in-depth analysis on every player and team. Kinda fun to watch.
All good. For a second I thought you were talking about Isaac Howard. JBB is trying to move him this Summer so he doesn’t go back to Michigan State.
YES! Wasn’t expecting this, but absolutely love Pelletier’s game. Has had some really bad luck for such a young career so far–destroyed his shoulder in training camp a few years ago, finally was off to a great start last year in limited minutes…and then got traded in the Farabee/Frost deal, reportedly was sobbing in the Flames’ locker room when he was told. Derailed his entire season. But he has enormous upside. Smart move to make the first year 2-way, he’ll be facing an uphill battle to crack the lineup out of camp, rather give him time. Great pickup.
Jakob Pelletier has much potential at 24 years old & this could turn into a really good signing down-the-line for Tampa. The kid has had some rough patches to start his career but he’s going to an organization that should provide him stability & opportunities. The contract set-up is a smart move as well. We’ll see where things lead for him.
Watched him closely in Calgary. Hard working buzz saw and well liked as a teammate. Scored at every level so could be a bargain for Tampa.