It felt like the draft might have been the right time for the Lightning to move prospect Isaac Howard after the 2022 first-rounder indicated that he wouldn’t sign with Tampa Bay. However, GM Julien BriseBois indicated to reporters including Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times that they’re at a bit of a roadblock. While there are teams offering up a strong enough return for his services, they haven’t been able to work out a deal with Howard. Meanwhile, teams that Howard is willing to sign with haven’t offered up enough of a return yet. As things stand, the 21-year-old is set to return to Michigan State for his senior year and if he ultimately becomes a free agent next year, Tampa Bay would receive the 31st pick of the second round (63rd overall) as compensation.
Lightning Rumors
Lightning Share Plans, Expectations For Free Agency
The Tampa Bay Lightning are approaching July 1st with only three notable pending-free agents. That short list has made the summer easy to forecast for Bolts general manager Julien BriseBois, who broke down the team’s upcoming expectations to Diandra Loux of The Hockey News. He most notably shared that each of Cam Atkinson, Nicklaus Perbix, and Luke Glendening are expected to hit the open market on July 1st. All three players are set to become unrestricted free agents.
The season-long impact of the three names varied quite widely. Perbix served as a bottom-pair defender for 74 games of the regular season. He recorded a meager 19 points, 20 penalty minutes, and plus-eight while averaging just under 15 minutes of ice time each game. Glendening was also a nightly fixture of the Bolts lineup, stepping into 77 games as the team’s fourth-line centerman. He managed just seven points and a minus-nine on the year, but did offer a staggering 57 percent faceoff win-rate and 105 hits on the full year. Those marks were strong enough to hold down a role in Tampa Bay’s bottom-end – a sentiment that can’t be shared by 36-year-old winger Atkinson. Despite over-800 career games in the NHL, Atkinson found himself facing routine healthy scratches and assignments to the minor-leagues in the season’s second-half. He finished the year with just nine points and a minus-four in 39 NHL games.
Perbix should command a reasonable market in free agency. He’s far from the most explosive defender, but has rivaled 20 points and a positive plus-minus in each of his first three seasons in the NHL. He is only 26 years old, and could offer a new club with the prime years of his career on a new deal. While he negotiates that contract, Glendening and Atkinson will grapple with the thought of retirement. Both players turned 36 after the end of the season, and are now faced with the task of convincing a team they’re still worth depth money. Glendening could win that argument on the back of his continued faceoff wins, and physical role, but it could be an uphill battle for the undersized Atkinson. Atkinson has appeared in 13 seasons and 809 NHL Games, while Glendening has appeared in 12 seasons and 864 games.
BriseBois also shared that the team isn’t expecting to make much of a splash when the market opens up. He told Loux that they underwent a massive change last summer – swapping franchise icon Steven Stamkos for Jake Guentzel through a series of moves. The GM emphasized that teams can’t go through changes of that scale each season, which could lead to a “quiet” summer. Tampa Bay will enter July 1st with just $3.48MM in projected cap space, per PuckPedia. Without a cap-clearing move, it’s unlikely that budget is enough to swing much more than a depth contract before Tampa Bay begins thinking about a cap cushion for next season.
But while they won’t be too active on the open market, BriseBois continued by directly sharing that the Bolts do plan to re-sign defenseman Ryan McDonagh when he hits free agency in 2026. McDonagh has played through six seasons and 349 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, as part of a career that’s spanned 15 seasons and 1,010 games. He posted an impressive 31 points, 22 penalty minutes, and league-high plus-43 while appearing in all 82 games of the 2024-25 season. It was yet another strong year for the iron-man McDonagh – who has posted at least 25 points and a high plus-minus through three of the last four seasons. McDonagh also recently turned 36 years old, but has so far shown no signs of slowing down. He averaged 19 minutes of ice time and scored three points through five postseason games. So long as he stays on course, it seems the Lightning are prepared to re-up McDonagh on a manageable and short-term deal at age-37 next summer.
Tampa Bay is set for a summer of budgeting and tough exits – but they’re changes the team should be able to turnover with a growing emergence of young prospects. Development camp could be the most notable piece of Tampa Bay’s season, as they look to maintain a roster that achieved the third-best record in the Eastern Conference last season.
Lightning Will Not Offer Extension To Cam Atkinson
The Lightning will not pitch an extension to veteran forward Cam Atkinson, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period says. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent next week.
It’s far from surprising news. The 36-year-old became a free agent last summer after the Flyers bought out the final season of his seven-year, $41.125MM contract. He didn’t land anywhere on July 1 but was a Day 2 signing by the Lightning, agreeing to a one-year, $900K pact to try and rebuild his value following a challenging 2023-24 season.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Atkinson got a few reps in the top six but wasn’t a good fit, and he quickly fell down the team’s depth chart. He was a frequent healthy scratch in the latter half of the campaign and even went on waivers in March to help the Lightning create some salary cap flexibility. He went unclaimed and never suited up for the team’s AHL affiliate in Syracuse, but he was assigned there on more than one occasion to boost their cap space.
Atkinson’s season ended with just 39 appearances, scoring four goals and nine points while averaging nine points per game. It’s been a tough few years for the diminutive 5’8″ winger, who missed the 2022-23 campaign with Philadelphia following offseason neck surgery. His effectiveness was slashed upon returning for 2023-24, limited to 28 points and a -22 rating in 70 games. He was still a 50-point threat pre-injury, looking good in his first season with the Flyers after acquiring him from the Blue Jackets in a one-for-one swap for Jakub Voráček.
Whether Atkinson, one of the highest-scoring players in Columbus franchise history, returns for a 14th NHL season remains to be seen. His market will be limited to league-minimum offers after his tough showing this year, likely without guaranteeing a roster spot. There might still be a fit regarding a reunion with the Blue Jackets as they round out their roster with veteran depth pieces and look to their young core to lift them back to playoff contention in 2025-26.
Lightning’s Nick Perbix Will Test Free Agency
There will be no extension keeping Lightning defenseman Nicklaus Perbix off the open market before July 1, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. The 27-year-old will instead look to cash in as the youngest option available among a thin class of right-shot defenders.
Perbix was a sixth-round pick of the Lightning back in 2017. Tampa retained his signing rights through his post-draft season with USHL Omaha and then during a full four NCAA seasons at St. Cloud State, where he won an NCHC regular-season title as a rookie and was named a First Team conference All-Star following his standout point-per-game senior season. That was enough for the 6’4″, 205-lb rearguard to land his entry-level contract with the Bolts.
The Minnesota native has essentially been a full-time NHLer since turning pro in 2022. Aside from a brief AHL stint to make his pro debut following the end of his senior year with St. Cloud State and a pair of minor-league contests the following year, he’s been a fixture on Tampa’s roster with utility up and down the lineup.
While he’s seen deployment as high as first-pairing duties with Victor Hedman, his overall ice time has been limited because he’s played under 100 minutes on special teams units in total over his three-year career. Perbix averaged 15:45 per game with the Bolts as a result. At 5-on-5, his most common partners over the last three years were Emil Martinsen Lilleberg (919:12), Hedman (893:26), and Mikhail Sergachev (570:12), according to Natural Stat Trick. Whether due to his time spent with more skilled partners in Hedman and Sergachev or not, Perbix’s point production has been solid considering his limited even-strength minutes. He’s consistently churned out 20-25 points, avoiding major injury troubles.
Nonetheless, it makes sense that the Lightning aren’t interested in retaining Perbix. He averaged just 14:41 per game last season, making it hard to justify matching the $2.65MM per season he’s projected to receive on a two-year deal on the open market, according to AFP Analytics. He totaled a 13-50–63 scoring line with a +27 rating in 220 games as a Bolt and will likely look to land somewhere where he has more of an opportunity to play both the power play and penalty kill.
Free Agent Focus: Tampa Bay Lightning
Free agency is less than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Lightning.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Gage Goncalves – Even on a relatively deep Lightning team, Goncalves successfully parlayed an impressive run with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch into a full-time role at the NHL level. From 2022 to 2024, Goncalves scored 26 goals and 112 points in 140 AHL contests, with another four goals and 11 points in 12 postseason contests. This gave Tampa Bay the confidence to allow Goncalves a longer-term opportunity at the NHL level, and his tryout proved successful by all accounts. Goncalves scored eight goals and 20 points in 60 games for the Lightning while averaging 12:48 of ice time per night, and achieved a 92.0% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Given the roster flexibility he affords and arbitration eligibility status, Goncalves should earn a healthy bump on his $775K salary from last year, but it’ll likely be less than double.
Other RFAs: F Jaydon Dureau, F Ryder Korczak, F Waltteri Merela, G Hugo Alnefelt
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
D Nicklaus Perbix – Over the last three years, Perbix has scored 13 goals and 63 points in 220 regular-season contests, with a 51.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and a 91.0% on-ice save percentage. This is a quality value for a defenseman who has averaged less than 16 minutes of ice time per game and has been playing on a $1.125MM AAV for the last two seasons. Unfortunately, his performance might have made it too expensive for him to continue with Tampa Bay. AFP Analytics projects Perbix to command a two-year, $5.2MM contract this offseason, which would take up almost 75% of the Lightning’s available cap space. Ultimately, the team will likely look for a cheaper right-handed option to fill in the gap or use a combination of Steven Santini and Maxwell Crozier next season.
F Luke Glendening – The University of Michigan alumnus may no longer have the capacity to score 20 points a year, nor is he in danger of receiving fringe votes for the Selke Trophy, but Glendening still holds value in a niche role. He remains one of the most effective faceoff takers in the league, winning 56.5% of his 1,829 draws taken with the Lightning. Given that he started 66.7% of his shifts in the defensive zone with Tampa Bay, Glendening ultimately gave the Lightning a better chance to retain possession and have an effective breakout. Still, even without the same faceoff talent, there may be better options available for Tampa Bay this offseason, at a similar league-minimum salary.
Other UFAs: F Cam Atkinson, F Anthony Angello, F Logan Brown, F Gabriel Fortier, D Derrick Pouliot, D Tobie Paquette-Bisson, G Matt Tomkins
Projected Cap Space
As alluded to earlier when talking about Perbix, the Lightning will again be limited by the salary cap this summer. Although there are no expectations this offseason, it is important to remember that Tampa Bay faced a similar situation last offseason and successfully acquired and signed the market’s top unrestricted free agent, Jake Guentzel. General Manager Julien BriseBois has shown time and time again that the Lightning can never truly be counted out of any available player, and it’ll be another interesting study to see how he weaponizes Tampa Bay’s projected $3.4MM in cap space this summer.
Gabriel Dumont Announces Retirement
According to a team announcement, longtime captain for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, Gabriel Dumont, has announced his retirement from professional hockey. Dumont, 34, recently completed his 15th professional season.
Dumont’s entrance into professional hockey came in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Draft, when the Montreal Canadiens selected him with the 139th overall pick. He subsequently had a promising year with the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, scoring 51 goals and 93 points in 62 games with an impressive +43 rating.
Unfortunately, that was the last of Dumont’s high-scoring days for quite some time. He spent the next six years buried in the AHL in the Canadiens organization, scoring 92 goals and 203 points in 389 AHL contests, while managing one goal and three points in 18 NHL games.
After the 2015-16 season, Dumont finally reached free agency and chose to sign a one-year agreement with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was Dumont’s largest opportunity to play at the top level, scoring two goals and four points in 39 games for the Bolts, while averaging 9:40 of ice time per night. After a brief stint with the Ottawa Senators after being claimed off waivers, Dumont later returned to the Lightning organization, again via waivers, a few months later.
Despite posting a solid 15 goals and 43 points in 59 games for the Crunch in his first year as captain during the 2018-19 campaign, Dumont chose to leave the following summer, signing a two-year agreement with the Minnesota Wild. Dumont largely played in the AHL with Minnesota, scoring 20 goals and 46 points in 68 AHL contests, and going scoreless in three NHL appearances over two years.
The beginning of the 2021-22 season signified Dumont’s last move in his professional career and ended his NHL tenure. Syracuse’s former captain returned, again taking on the same leadership role, for the next four years. Unfortunately, Dumont couldn’t lead the Crunch very deep into the Calder Cup playoffs, but did have the best individual season of his career in 2021-22, scoring 30 goals and 62 points in 75 games.
The former fifth-round selection in the 2009 NHL Draft concluded his AHL career with a total of 202 goals and 459 points across 747 games, playing for the Crunch, Iowa Wild, Hamilton Bulldogs, and St. John’s IceCaps. In addition, he recorded four goals and nine points in 90 NHL appearances with the Canadiens, Lightning, Senators, and Wild. PHR congratulates Dumont on a quality professional career and wishes him the best in retirement.
Hagel, Hedman, Kucherov, Vasilevskiy Earn 2024-25 All-Star Team Honors
RW Nikita Kucherov (Lightning) – The reigning Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award winner was a near-unanimous selection for First Team honors, with only two voters assessing he wasn’t worthy. Although he couldn’t match his 100-assist output from last year, Kucherov was again dominant for the Bolts, scoring 37 goals and 121 points in 78 games.
LW Brandon Hagel (Lightning) – Hagel narrowly beat out Alex Ovechkin for Second Team honors despite the latter receiving more First Team votes. Regardless of Ovechkin’s impressive season, there’s no question the right decision was made with Hagel. The six-year veteran scored 35 goals and 90 points in 82 games for Tampa Bay this season, besting his career-high last season by 15 points. Additionally, unlike Ovechkin, Hagel finished ninth in Selke Trophy voting as one of the league’s top defensive forwards.
D Victor Hedman (Lightning) – The captain of the Lightning was also in a close vote, beating Winnipeg Jets’ Josh Morrissey by a few votes. There are arguments for both sides, but Hedman finished the year with more goals (15), assists (51), points (66), blocked shots (133), and CorsiFor% at even strength (53.5%) compared to Morrissey.
G Andrei Vasilevskiy (Lightning) – After a down 2023-24 campaign (comparatively to his career), Vasilevskiy returned to form in 2024-25. The former Vezina Trophy winner finished with a 38-20-5 record in 63 starts, with a .921 SV% and 2.18 GAA. It wasn’t enough to beat out Hellebuyck, but Vasilevskiy easily would have been named the league’s top netminder in any other year.
Lightning Reportedly Interested In Signing Jonathan Toews
In today’s rendition of 32 Thoughts, Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave a brief update on Jonathan Toews’s market as he attempts to make a comeback to the NHL. Friedman listed the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Winnipeg Jets as likely suitors for the three-time Stanley Cup champion.
Arguably, Tampa Bay makes the most sense of the teams listed. The Lightning are expected to enter the offseason with less than $3.5MM in salary cap space and will have to find a replacement for Luke Glendening on the team’s fourth line. The team could conceivably move Zemgus Girgensons to that role, who’s signed through the 2026-27 season, since he spent much of his tenure with the Buffalo Sabres as a center. Still, the Lightning have highly prioritized faceoff success in that role recently, and Toews’ career 57.3% success rate far outweighs Girgensons’ 45.3%.
Lightning Sign Jack Finley To Three-Year Contract
For the second time in a little over 48 hours, the Lightning have taken care of one of their pending restricted free agents. The team announced that they’ve signed Jack Finley to a three-year contract worth the league minimum of $775K per season. The structure is identical to the one that Maxwell Crozier signed on Friday in that it’s a two-way deal in year one before converting to a one-way pact for the final two seasons.
The 22-year-old was a second-round pick by the Lightning back in 2020, going 57th overall after being picked out of WHL Spokane. His time in major junior was limited the rest of the way with the 2020-21 campaign largely being shelved while he managed 50 points in 60 games in his final season.
Over his first three professional seasons, Finley has spent the bulk of it in the minors with AHL Syracuse. This season, Finley was limited to just 40 games with the Crunch due to injuries but still had a productive year, notching 14 goals and 14 assists. He also made his NHL debut with Tampa Bay back in January, logging 8:25 in a mid-month game against Boston.
Notably, Finley will be waiver-eligible beginning next season so if he doesn’t make Tampa Bay’s roster out of training camp, he’ll have to pass through waivers unclaimed. With a cheap three-year deal in hand now, that could make him likelier to be claimed if the Lightning want to send him down if there’s another team that feels he’s worth of an NHL look.
Lightning Sign Maxwell Crozier To Three-Year Contract
The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Maxwell Crozier to a three-year, $2.325MM contract. The deal carries a league-minimum, $775K cap hit. It will be a two-way contract in the first year, then convert to a one-way deal for the final two years. Crozier was set to become a restricted-free agent this summer. With a new deal in place, Tampa Bay now has four remaining players headed for free agency.
Crozier spent the majority of his season with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. His reputation for always being involved grew louder over the course of the year as he earned career-highs across the board. He recorded nine goals, 25 assists, and 34 points in 52 games. He also added 75 penalty minutes and a plus-16. All five marks beat out his rookie totals from last year, when he managed 21 points, 43 penalty minutes, and a plus-one in 49 games.
Tampa Bay recalled Crozier for the first 13 games of his NHL career throughout the 2023-24 regular season. His performances were modest – headlined by two assists, seven penalty minutes, and a minus-two. The Lightning must have seen a pro-ready through that stat line, and turned to Crozier for three games of a fill-in role during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He earned an additional five NHL appearances this year, but managed no changes to his stat line.
Crozier was originally drafted 120th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. He spent four seasons at Providence College after his draft selection, and totaled 71 points in 119 collegiate games. He’s also managed 58 points, 124 penalty minutes, and a plus-18 through 110 games in the AHL. Crozier is a tall, rangy defender who engages opponents with his stick or body checks; and makes smart passes once he pokes the puck loose. The Lightning will give him a chance to earn a full-time NHL-role over the next three seasons, on a deal that comes at little-to-no risk.