We’ve known for a long time now that the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to have a lot of heavy lifting to do to be salary cap compliant for the 2020-21 season. That situation was only made worse by the salary cap remaining at $81.5 million, instead of going up a projected $2-3 million. That little bit of salary cap room now is likely the difference in the Lightning being forced into trading an additional player to make room.
Salary information comes from CapFriendly.com. Salary projections come from Evolving-Hockey.