The Tampa Bay Lightning has signed a rather familiar face to a one-year, one-way deal.
Tonight, Tampa Bay Lightning fans can dig deep into their closets and rummage through their plethora of Lightning jerseys from yesteryear and dig out an old favorite. It seems as if Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman has brought a familiar face back to the Bolts Nation.
Lightning GM Steve Yzerman announced earlier this evening via the Tampa Bay Lightning’s official website the organization has come to terms with former Lightning center Cory Conacher on a one-year, one-way contract. It is being said Conacher’s contract is worth $575,000.
The last time we saw Cory Conacher in a Lightning jersey, he was causing quite the stir. In fact, there are some people (ourselves included) who were downright angry. Let’s take a little trip back in time to April 3, 2013, when Steve Yzerman elected to trade a young Conacher, who was on track to be a potential rookie of the year candidate, for a mostly untested Ben Bishop.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Some fans, once again…including ourselves, couldn’t possibly see how giving up a talented young forward like Conacher for yet another mostly-untested goaltender would do the franchise any good. Had we lived in the late 1600’s, we may very well have seen Yzerman burned at the stake for his actions.
This is one of those circumstances where we are incredibly happy to have been proven wrong. Ben Bishop has proved time and time again that he’s not only an incredible asset to the Lightning roster but that he was ready to become the backbone of the team on a consistent basis.
However, knowing what we know now, we find it interesting how things have come full circle with Conacher returning to the Lightning roster. The best part of this whole situation may be seeing how Conacher and Bishop interact with one another knowing how their histories are so delicately intertwined with one another.
Much like Martin St. Louis and Tyler Johnson before him, Cory Conacher came to the Tampa Bay Lightning undrafted. Cory Conacher was originally signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning as a Free Agent on March 3, 2012. Just over four years later, here we find ourselves once again.
After making his way to the Lightning’s main roster on the heels of him and his teammates capturing the AHL Calder Cup as a member of the Lightning’s then-AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, Conacher would spend just 35 games. In that amount of time, Conacher would score nine goals and 15 assists for a total of 24 points. From there, the Burlington, Ontario native was traded to the Ottawa Senators.
Conacher would spend two seasons with the Ottawa Senators for a total of 72 games, but he would not be able to capture near the amount of success he had as a member of the Lightning. Towards the end of his second season with the Senators, he would be placed on waivers. This is where he would be picked up by the Buffalo Sabres.
After his one-year deal with the Sabres concluded and the team decided against extending Conacher a contract extension, he made his way to the New York Islanders as a Free Agent. Unfortunately, Conacher still had trouble finding his offensive tenacity and spent quite a bit of time in the AHL between the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the Utica Comets.
Once the 2014-15 season came to a conclusion, Conacher elected to leave the NHL, once again as a Free Agent, and head to SC Bern in the National League A. One season later, here we are back in the Bolts Nation.
Next: Lightning GM Steve Yzerman’s Off-Ice Mastery
Could the Tampa Bay Lightning be the team that helps Conacher find the offensive consistency he’s been so desperately searching for since leaving the Bolts Nation in 2013? We’ll have to wait and see. For now, we’d like to welcome Cory Conacher back to the Bolts Nation. We can’t wait to see what the 2016-17 season has in store for us.