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Conor Sheary

Lightning, Conor Sheary To Mutually Terminate Contract

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June 30: Sheary has cleared unconditional waivers and will have his contract terminated, per Friedman.

June 29: Lightning winger Conor Sheary hit unconditional waivers Sunday after asking for a contract termination, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.

While it may initially come across as a favor done by Sheary to the Lightning to not force the team to buy out the final season of his contract at a $2MM cap hit, it’s not that cut and dry. Sheary was due $1.5MM in base salary for 2025-26, which would have resulted in a $503K cap hit for the Lightning in each of the next two seasons if he was bought out. That’s barely any cap savings compared to if they buried Sheary in the minors (a cap hit of $850K), so they likely would have pursued that option instead of being on the hook for an additional season with a buyout.

Sheary, understandably, desires a chance to crack an NHL roster and wasn’t particularly amenable to that solution. Instead, he’ll walk away from $1.5MM in guaranteed money and become an unrestricted free agent while the Lightning clear his cap impact from next season’s books completely. In return, Sheary gets the chance to return to a full-time NHL role next season.

The 33-year-old has been a rare free-agent bust for Tampa general manager Julien BriseBois. He was signed to a three-year, $6MM contract in 2023 in the hopes that the diminutive winger could provide some affordable depth scoring and perhaps even flex into a top-six role. Instead, Sheary was relegated to the press box by the end of 2023-24 and spent most of this past season on assignment to AHL Syracuse after clearing waivers a few weeks into the campaign.

Sheary ends his two-year run in Tampa with a 4-11–15 scoring line in 62 games, logging a minus-five rating while averaging 11:07 of ice time per game. Only five of those appearances came this season, and he didn’t record a point in any of them. The veteran of nearly 600 NHL games took his minor-league assignments in stride and was an extremely important player for Syracuse, ranking among the AHL’s top producers with 61 points (20 G, 41 A) and a +15 rating in 59 games.

That showing demonstrated the Massachusetts native may still have the chops to be a third-line scoring piece at the NHL level, even if the fit in Tampa wasn’t a good one for whatever reason. Even with his recent poor run of production, he still averages 17 goals and 37 points per 82 games over his NHL career. That’s a resume a scoring-needy team will take a flyer on, even if he isn’t in a position to command much more than a league minimum salary. His two Stanley Cup rings with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017 will certainly help his case, too.

Once Sheary’s contract officially comes off the Lightning’s books tomorrow, the Bolts will have nearly $5.5MM in cap space with four open roster spots to fill, according to PuckPedia. Their only notable RFA to re-sign is forward Gage Goncalves, who AFP Analytics projects will land a one-year deal at $1.2MM. That leaves a roughly $4MM budget for Tuesday’s free agent frenzy, in which they’ll look to add a few depth skaters, considering no core pieces are on expiring deals.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.

Lightning Reassign Conor Sheary

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Feb. 7: Sheary is back in the minors this morning, the Bolts announced. He skated 11:18 in yesterday’s 5-1 win over Ottawa but failed to record a point, hit, or a shot on goal.

Feb. 6: The Lightning announced Thursday they’ve recalled left-winger Conor Sheary from AHL Syracuse. He joined the team for this morning’s practice and could draw into the lineup in place of Anthony Cirelli, according to Benjamin Pierce of NHL.com. The latter may be dealing with the undisclosed injury that made him a game-time decision for last Saturday’s game against the Islanders. The Lightning’s active roster now stands at 22 players.

Tampa Bay signed Sheary to a three-year, $6MM contract in free agency in 2023. Things haven’t gone well for the two-time Stanley Cup champion, who scored a career-low four goals in 57 games last year and ended up on waivers early in 2024-25 after going pointless through three games. He’s played once since then, skating a season-high 12:18 against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 30 during a brief recall.

The 32-year-old Sheary has been good but not dominant in the AHL, where he ranks second on the Crunch in scoring with 9-15–24 through 31 games. It’s his first action outside the NHL since the 2015-16 campaign when he notched over a point per game with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and earned a mid-season call-up to Pittsburgh that kept him in the league for a decade. The undrafted free agent signing out of UMass has been a serviceable complementary winger throughout much of his career despite his 5’8″, 182-lb frame, notching 124-143–267 in 592 career appearances.

It could be an interesting look for the Bolts tonight against the Senators if they’re down a center without Cirelli. Sheary won’t be shifting to the middle – that task will be going to former Penguins teammate Jake Guentzel, who will anchor a line between Gage Goncalves and Brandon Hagel while veteran Cam Atkinson takes his spot on the top line alongside Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point.

Afternoon Notes: Sheary, Talbot, Celebrini, Hughes

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have reassigned Conor Sheary. He was called up on Saturday to serve as the 11th forward in Tampa’s 5-3 loss to Toronto. He managed no scoring, three shots, and one hit in 12:18 of ice time. Sheary’s was on his first call-up since passing through waivers and being assigned to the minors on October 24th.

This season has awarded Sheary his first AHL games since 2015-16. He’s made 11 appearances with the Syracuse Crunch, recording three goals and seven points – good for seventh on the team in scoring.  He’s fallen a long way over the last two seasons, recording just 15 points in 57 games with Tampa Bay last season – and not managing any scoring in four NHL games this year. That scoring skid has pulled the rug from under him, defaulting Sheary to a minor-league role just two seasons after he played in all 82 games for the Washington Capitals. He scored 15 goals and 37 points in that season – one year after a 19-goal, 43-point year. That production is more than enough to uphold an NHL roster spot, but it’s yet to translate to Tampa Bay. Sheary will look to continue his hot scoring in Syracuse, and take better advantage of his next shot at the Lightning lineup.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot left the team’s Sunday game early with a lower-body injury, shares Helene St. James of The Detroit Free Press. Talbot was relieved by Ville Husso, marking his first NHL game sine November 9th. Husso went on to save 15 of the 18 shots he faced. Head coach Derek Lalonde didn’t have any updates on Talbot after the game, though he did mention that Talbot pulled himself from the game. St. James went on to mention that Detroit would be down both of their top-two goalies, should Talbot miss extended time, with backup Alex Lyon missing the last three games with an undisclosed injury. The pair of injuries would push Husso back into the starting role that he lost at the beginning of the season, but Detroit would still need to recall a body to fill-in as backup. Top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa has earned the lion’s share of AHL starts, recording eight wins and a .929 through 13 games this season. He would be a great, high-upside recall – but Detroit could also turn towards veteran Jack Campbell for spot starts. Campbell has yet to make his season debut after starting the year in the NHL Player’s Assistance program
  • Star San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini has won November’s ‘Rookie of the Month’ after scoring seven goals and 12 points in 14 games. He becomes the first Sharks rookie to win the award since Tomas Hertl in 2013-14. Celebrini has bounced back incredibly well from a string of nagging lower-body injuries holding him out of 11 games earlier in the year. He has eight goals and 14 points in 15 games this season, on pace to score 38 goals and 66 points through 71 games. Achieving that scoring would make Celebrini the highest-scoring rookie in Sharks history, beating out Pat Falloon’s 59 points in 1991-92, and Logan Couture’s 56 points in 2010-11.
  • Superstar Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes has achieved a more notable milestone out West, setting Vancouver’s record for all-time assist from a defenseman. Hughes clinched the superlative with the lone assist on a Jake DeBrusk’s first goal on Sunday. He’d go on to assist DeBrusk’s next two goals as well, in the latter’s first hat-trick as a Canuck. The scoring brought Hughes up to 313 assists in 388 games, pushing him past the 310 assists that Alexander Edler recorded in 925 games with Vancouver; nearly three-times as long as it took Hughes. At his current rate of 0.81 assists-per-game, Hughes would need 1,025 career games to pass Henrik Sedin’s franchise record of 830 assists.

Lightning Recall Conor Sheary, Assign Matt Tomkins

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled forward Conor Sheary from, and re-assigned goaltender Matt Tomkins to, the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Sheary was assigned to the minor leagues on October 24th, setting him up to play his first 11 AHL games since the 2015-16 season. He scored three goals and seven points, good for fifth on the Crunch in scoring on a point-per-game basis (0.64).

Sheary’s last stint in the minor leagues came during the first two years of his professional career, after signing a three-year entry-level contract with the Penguins as an undrafted college free agent in 2014. He scored 20 goals and 45 points in 58 games as an AHL rookie, and earned an NHL call-up as a sophomore after 36 points in 30 games. Sheary didn’t breakout as an NHL scorer right away, but excelled at handling the intangibles and making impactful plays away from the puck. That earned him a hardy spot in Pittsburgh’s bottom-six as they approached the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where Sheary’s 10 points in 23 games were a major piece of the team’s eventual championship-win. That level of success in his rookie year gave Sheary plenty of momentum headed into 2016-17, where he solidified an everyday role with 23 goals and 53 points in 61 games – an 82-game pace of 71 points – and tallied another seven points in 22 playoff games as Pittsburgh chased their second-straight Cup win.

Sheary’s 53-point season stands as a career-high, but he’s been an impactful third-liner ever since – continuing to provide valuable depth through stints with the Buffalo Sabres, Washington Capitals, and as of last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, eight seasons since his last Cup-win, the wheels finally seem to be slowing for the 32-year-old Sheary. He scored just 15 points in 57 games with Tampa Bay last season, and went without any points in their first three games this year. Sheary signed a three-year, $6MM contract with the Lightning in 2023, but has so far failed to find the spark that led him to 102 points in 206 games with Washington in the three years prior. He’ll get another chance to find that spark now, hoping that a pass through waivers and productive stint in the minors will be enough fuel. Sheary will step into a Bolts offense in need of help, and could bump Cam Atkinson or Darren Raddysh out of the lineup.

Meanwhile, Tomkins will return to the minors just one day after being called up. He served as an emergency third-string option in Tampa’s trip to Nashville on Friday, but has yet to step into the lineup at any point this season. His only playing time this season stands as eight games in the AHL, where Tomkins has managed three wins and a .890 save percentage. He’s a career depth-goaltender, setting a 29-37-6 record and .898 save percentage in 73 games and six seasons in the AHL. Tomkins also took a brief, two-season trip to Sweden’s SHL, where he posted a .910 in 65 games split between Frolunda HC and Farjestad BK. His return to the AHL will provide some support to Syracuse starter Brandon Halverson, who has a .938 in 10 games this season – second-highest in the AHL.

Lightning To Reassign Conor Sheary

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Oct. 24: Sheary has cleared waivers, per Friedman. He can now be assigned to Syracuse at will, something Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports will happen in short order.

Oct. 23: The Lightning have placed winger Conor Sheary on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Syracuse, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Sheary’s time in Tampa hasn’t gone to plan since inking a three-year, $6MM contract in free agency in 2023. He missed significant time in the first half of last season with an upper-body injury and wasn’t the same after coming back, serving as a healthy scratch on several occasions later on. His four goals in 57 games were his lowest ever in a season, and his 15 points were undermined only by his 10 in 44 games with the Penguins in his rookie season in 2015-16.

Fast forward to the beginning of this season, and little has changed for the 32-year-old. He was a healthy scratch for the Lightning’s first game and has only played every other contest, going without a point and recording a -2 rating in third-line minutes alongside Michael Eyssimont and Conor Geekie. Possession quality has become an issue for the veteran, who controlled a career-low 43.5% of expected goals at even strength last season.

Sheary will likely clear waivers given the money and term left on his deal. If so, and assuming he reports to Syracuse, it will mark his first AHL action since he was part of the Penguins organization nine years ago. The preference on both sides would likely be to find a trade for Sheary, which he’d likely need to waive his 16-team no-trade list to make happen.

The Lightning can reduce Sheary’s cap hit from $2MM to $850K by stashing him in the minors.

Buyout Candidate: Conor Sheary

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While the Lightning are the most successful franchise of the last 10 years, back-to-back first-round losses have them at risk of slipping into mediocrity. That’s exacerbated by a salary cap crunch this summer that, if not handled with care, could result in the loss of captain Steven Stamkos to free agency.

General manager Julien BriseBois has no intention of letting his team slip out of contention anytime soon. He’s already made one move to fill out his roster this summer, re-acquiring Stanley Cup champion defenseman Ryan McDonagh from the Predators shortly after both teams were eliminated from the playoffs.

Aside from Stamkos and future Hall-of-Famer Victor Hedman, the Bolts have much of their core signed long-term. Erik Černák, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev are all signed through at least 2030 with cap hits north of $5MM. Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy have matching $9.5MM cap hits through 2027 and 2028, respectively. While it could likely change as the salary cap rises, none of them are significant bargains for what they’ve contributed the past couple of seasons, aside from Kucherov and Point.

The salary cap jumping to $88MM next season does offer BriseBois some much-needed flexibility, but they do still have just $5.335MM in projected space with at least three roster spots to fill if they want to have any sort of in-season wiggle room. Even with a significant discount, that’s likely not enough to sign anyone other than Stamkos, posing an obvious issue.

Tampa doesn’t have a recent history of buyouts, but it could be a decent last-ditch way to shed ill-advised cap hit allocation. In a piece for The Athletic on Monday, Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance name Lightning winger Conor Sheary a player to watch as the first window to buy out players, which opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends, approaches.

[RELATED: 2024 Key Offseason Dates]

Often a strong secondary scoring threat throughout a 500-plus game career with the Capitals, Penguins and Sabres, Sheary became a UFA last summer. BriseBois pounced, hoping to add a cost-effective top-nine scoring option while inking him to a three-year, $6MM deal ($2MM AAV) with trade protection. The 32-year-old flamed out in Tampa, though, limited to just four goals and 15 points in 57 games on the year after scoring double-digit goals for the last seven years. He was a frequent healthy scratch near the end of the regular season and didn’t play at all in their first-round loss to the Panthers.

Sheary’s role was limited under head coach Jon Cooper. His 11:06 average time on ice was the lowest since his rookie season. There’s likely some bounceback potential there, as indicated by his career-low 8.0% shooting rate, but the risk of him declining further isn’t one the cap-strapped Lightning can afford to take.

Trading him and removing the final two years of his contract would be ideal, but a 16-team trade list complicates things. A buyout would at least reduce his cap hit from $2MM to $583K next season, opening up an additional $1.417MM in space, per CapFriendly. That’s easily enough to add a cost-effective depth option on the UFA market and opens up additional flexibility for a Stamkos extension.

The rest of the buyout isn’t awful, either. It would carry a $1.083MM hit in 2025-26, still saving the Bolts over $900K in the final season of his deal, before a sub-league minimum penalty of $583K in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Injury Notes: San Jose Sharks, Conor Sheary, Timothy Liljegren

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San Jose Sharks winger Alexander Barabanov returned to the team’s practice for the first time since his October 24th finger injury. Barbanov did not take part in line rushes during the team skate, suggesting that he still isn’t ready to return just yet. The Sharks were also without top winger Tomas Hertl at the Thursday practice. Hertl has been out of action since November 25th with a mid-body injury.

The loss of the wingers is a hit to the Sharks forward group. Hertl substantially leads the team in points, scoring four goals and 16 points through his first 21 games. Fabian Zetterlund, who has nine points in 22 games, ranks second on the team in scoring – significantly behind Hertl. And while Barabanov has gone without a point through the six games he’s managed this season, he did record 15 goals and 47 points in 68 games last year – adding 20 penalty minutes and a -30. His point totals ranked fifth on the 2022-23 Sharks.

Other injury notes around the league:

  • Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper shared that Conor Sheary is working closer to a return. Tampa is gearing up for a six-game road trip that begins in Nashville and then takes the team across the Northwest, beginning on December 7th. Cooper said that Sheary will likely play at some point on the road trip, albeit likely one of the later games.
  • Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe shared that Timothy Liljegren has returned to on-ice activities but isn’t yet close to a return. Liljegren has been out since November 2nd with an ankle injury. The 24-year-old defenseman has appeared in 10 games this season, notching one assist and a -1. He totaled six goals and 18 points in 67 games last season.

Tampa Recalls Waltteri Merelä, Places Conor Sheary on IR

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed forward Conor Sheary on injured reserve and recalled Waltteri Merela back to the NHL lineup. Merelä was sent to the AHL on November 5th, after starting the season with the Lightning, but wasn’t able to play any AHL games before he rejoined the top club.

Sheary left the team’s Tuesday night game after being hit up high by a shot in the first period. It’s hard to tell where Sheary got hit, although it appears the injury could be in his wrist or hand. It’s officially being described as an upper-body injury.

Sheary has appeared in 13 games with Tampa Bay this season, tallying three points, four penalty minutes, and a -3. It’s his first year with the Bolts, after spending the last three seasons with the Washington Capitals. Sheary was brought into Tampa to serve as glue for the team’s top-nine, making his injury that much tougher to bear.

Merelä rejoins the Lightning in Sheary’s absence, after playing 10 games with the NHL club earlier in the season. Merelä went without a point in that span and recorded two penalties. The 25-year-old centerman is in his rookie NHL season, after signing with Tampa as an undrafted free agent out of the Liiga, Finland’s top league. He scored 33 points in 41 games with Tappara Tampere last year, serving as apart of the championship-winning roster. He will look to record his first NHL point now that he’s back with the NHL lineup.

Conor Sheary Leaves Game And Unable To Return

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that forward Conor Sheary left tonight’s game with what is being described as an upper-body injury. The 31-year-old was hit up high by a shot on his first shift of the game and remained on the bench. The puck may have hit Sheary on the wrist or possibly in the hand, however, it is difficult to tell from the video footage. Sheary did not come out to start the second period and a short time later the Lightning announced that he was done for the evening. There’s no information at this time on the severity of the ailment, or how long Sheary could be out of the lineup. At the moment he is listed as day-to-day.

Sheary signed a three-year $6MM contract in the offseason as a free agent and has struggled with his new team to start the year with just a goal and two assists in his first 12 games. The two-time Stanley Cup champion has been a good depth scoring option throughout his career and posted 34 goals and 46 assists over the last two seasons with the Washington Capitals in 153 games. Sheary was a big part of the Pittsburgh Penguins back-to-back Stanley Cup victories in 2016 and 2017 and appeared as though he could be a fixture in the top-6 for the future. However, as his career has gone on he has become more of a middle -6 option for teams.

If Sheary is unable to play on Thursday when Tampa Bay takes on the Chicago Blackhawks, then it is likely that Austin Watson will take his place. Watson has dressed in four games so far this season and has yet to register a point. The 31-year-old was a late signing after converting a PTO into a one-year deal with the Lightning. Watson won’t put up points at the same pace as Sheary, but he does add sandpaper and size to the team’s bottom six.

Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Conor Sheary, Four Others

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are signing forwards Conor Sheary and Luke Glendening to bolster their bottom six, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. The team announced a three-year, $2MM per season contract for Sheary. Glendening’s contract is two years at $800K per season, according to the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina. They’ve also added netminder Jonas Johansson on a one-year, league-minimum deal.

They’ve also signed 2016 first-round pick Logan Brown to a one-year, two-way $775k contract, as well as forward Mitchell Chaffee to the same deal.

Heading into today’s free agency, and with the cap space situation at hand for the team, these are exactly the type of moves that Tampa was expected to make. Sheary and Glendening ultimately improve the bottom six lines, while Johansson gives the team a quality third-string backup option.

With Sheary, the Lightning should get tremendous value out of this signing. Over the last two seasons playing for the Washington Capitals, Sheary has scored 34 goals and 46 assists in just under 160 games. He became an exceptional middle-six option for the Capitals and should do the exact same in Tampa Bay.

In Glendening, the Lightning had a player that will undoubtedly help with the team’s possession numbers. Over the course of his 10-year career, Glendening has averaged a 55.7% faceoff percentage, while averaging a whopping 58.9% with the Dallas Stars alone. Already garnering a defensive unit that is one of the league’s best at moving the puck, the team will benefit greatly from having Glendening take important faceoffs.

Next, Johansson gives the team insurance if one of their regular goaltenders goes down with an injury. Spending last season primarily playing for the Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, Johansson sported a .920 SV% and a 2.33 GAA, helping lead his team to the 2023 Calder Cup playoffs. The Lightning are still expected to sign a more stable backup behind Andrei Vasilevskiy for the 2023-24 NHL season.

Finally, Brown adds an intriguing former top prospect for the Lightning’s development team to get their hands on. Injuries have laid waste to Brown’s development path so far but he’s been a difference-maker at the AHL level and perhaps Tampa Bay thinks they can unlock some of his upside at the NHL level.

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