The Tampa Bay Lightning shocked a good part of the hockey world when they were able to re-sign Lightning captain Steven Stamkos to an $8.5 million a year deal for the next eight years. While this may be one of the best signings the Lightning have made in quite some time, the money for this deal simply did not appear out of thin air.
Something was going to have to be cut if the Lightning is to re-sign other critical names on their off-season list. This includes players like Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Vladislav Namestnikov, and more.