1.  Lock up Steven Stamkos to a long term deal

2.  Resign Martin St Louis to a 3-4 year deal

3.  Move one money contract from the roster, preferably Andrej Meszaros

Stevie Y accomplished both 2 and 3 on the first day of FA.    For starters, he locked up Marty to a 4 year 22.5 million dollar deal.

“Today is a great day for the Lightning organization,” Yzerman said. “Marty means so much to this franchise, both on and off the ice. His hard work and dedication are unsurpassed and we are thrilled that he will finish his career here in Tampa Bay.”

“Since coming to Tampa in 2000, the goals for my playing career have evolved,” said St. Louis. “I have now enjoyed many team and personal accolades, the highlight being our 2004 Stanley Cup win…Now the goal is to lead the Lightning back towards the top of the NHL while finishing my career here. My family and I would like to thank Steve and Mr. Vinik for giving us that opportunity. I will not let them or our fans in Tampa Bay down. We’ll do everything we can as a team to achieve at the highest levels again.”

Next, Yzerman moved Meszaros to the Philadelphia Flyers for a 2011 2nd round draft pick.  He capped off the moving of Meszaros by locking up ex-Lightning Dman Pavel Kubina to a 2 year 7.7 million dollar deal.  By moving Meszaros and replacing him with Pavel Kubina he spent just over 100k against the cap.  Kubina is a much more physical player who has the ability to play on the power play and be quite effective there.  Andrej never really found his role in Tampa and his point production was something that I was always disappointed in as I thought he had the ability to be a 15 goal scorer from the point.  Kubina had 38 points (6 goals) compared to Meszaros 17 points (6 goals).  Kubina is a much better passer, and came at only a marginal cost.  100k more money, 21 more points and a 2nd round pick is a no brainer in my mind.

Yzerman “traded down financially” again in free agency by letting Antero Nittymaki walk to the San Jose Sharks (he signed for 2 mil a year) and locked up G Dan Ellis for 2 years at 1.5 million a year.  They are almost identical players in my mind (top tier backups, middle of the road starting keeps) and saved 500k in the process.  Ellis and Niitty had identical .909 save percentages last year while Ellis had a 2.69 GAA compared to Niitty’s 2.87.  I personally think Ellis has a bit more upside, even though the two keepers were born literally one day apart, so the age isn’t the determining factor in the upside department.   Ellis’ 2007 season at 2.34 GAA and a .924 SV% is excellent, while Niity has never really shown the potential to put up those kind of numbers.

To make  improvements in personnel, while saving 400k and netting a 2nd round pick in the process, and locking up one of the teams stalwart players, I’d say Stevie Y had a great first couple days of FA.

In his past 8 games, during the Lightning streak, he has seen 254 shots and stopped 245 of them, for a .964 save percentage and a 1.125 GAA.  I said it a few posts ago, but it’s pretty much impossible to beat any team when there goalie is playing that well, and the Lightning are talented.  As I write this, they are debating on NHL Network on whether Antero Niitymaki should be the starting goaltender for Finland over Mikka Kiprusoff or Niklas Backstrom. Without being at games, its sometimes hard for fans to truly get a grasp of how well a guy is seeing the puck, but having been at every home game over this stretch, Niity is seeing everything.  Two of the 9 goals scored on him were lucky bounces off players skates and 3 of them were goals that he had no chance stopping.  He is stopping pucks through traffic, with his blocker pads, and with his leg pads.  Truly fantastic to watch the past few weeks.

Also coinciding with our winning streak has been a points streak for both Martin St Louis and Steven Stamkos.  Martin St Louis has 11 points in 7 games, including 7 goals.  Stammer has 16 points in his last 10 games including 8 goals.  He is a +6 in that time frame.

Stammer and Marty obviously added to that total last night.  Stammer had a goal, his patended weak side of the goalie slap shot (which is as automatic as an empty net goal for Stammer) and an assist to Marty last night.  Marty had two goals, including a beautiful drop of the puck to himself and a burying of a wrister past Roberto Luongo and an assist.

The Lightning ran for the 2nd straight game with a new alignment of forwards.

Line 1 – Stammer, Marty, Steve Downie
Line 2 – Vincent Lecavalier, Stephane Veiulleux, and the never improving consistently awful Alex Tanguay
Line 3 – Nate Thompson, Ryan Malone, Jeff Halpern
Line 4 – Zenon Konopka, Todd Fedoruk, Kurtis Foster

Tocchet is liking the grit and faceoffs he is getting from the 3rd and 4th lines, so I wouldn’t look for a switch at least until we lose a game.

***

• Lightning are now 9th in the league with an impressive 19.5% power play percentage, mainly attributable to the stacked power play line and league power play goal leader Steven Stamkos.
• Lightning rank 7th in the league in faceoffs.