Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Alex Killorn To 7-Year Contract Extension
The Tampa Bay Lightning have come to terms with Lightning forward Alex Killorn on a seven-year contract extension worth approximately $4.45 million per year.
The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the off-season with many questions in need of answers. As the off-season has progressed, slowly but surely, Lightning fans have started to receive some of the answers they were so anxiously awaiting.
The first of the questions the Tampa Bay Lightning were able to offer up was the impending Free Agent of Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. After signing Stamkos to an eight-year contract extension, the Lightning wasted no time in sealing the deal with Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman on a similar eight-year contract extension.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have also made moves like re-signing goaltenders Andrei Vasilevskiy and Kristers Gudlevskis, signing former Lightning forward Cory Conacher, and much more. Despite all the Lightning’s off-season moves, there are still some questions whose answers are hiding somewhere in purgatory.
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Thankfully, the Lightning announced another signing which will bring nothing but happiness to the Bolts Nation. According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, the Tampa Bay Lightning have signed Lightning forward Alex Killorn to a seven-year contract extension worth an average annual value of $4.45 million.
As you can imagine, this is a significant bump from the $2.7 million Killorn earned in the 2015-16 season. According to Smith, Killorn did request arbitration in the matter of his contract. Thankfully, both sides have come to a mutually beneficial agreement.
It seems as if Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman has made strides in keeping his core players under contract in the long-term. With Stamkos and Hedman already locked down for eight years, one of the only remaining pieces to the puzzle is Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, who has yet to sign an extension with the Bolts.
Last season, Alex Killorn played in all but one regular season game with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In that amount of time, Killer was able to bring home 14 goals and 26 assists for a total of 40 points. This put Killorn in fourth place on the team in terms of overall points.
Killorn’s progress didn’t end in the regular season. In the 17 postseason games Killorn played with the Lightning last season, he scored five goals and eight assists for a total of 13 points. This was good enough to put him in fifth place on the team in overall points.
Since joining the Tampa Bay Lightning’s main roster in the 2012-13 season, Alex Killorn has done nothing but grow as a player. Now, he finds himself one of the many assets the Lightning will want to keep in their arsenal for quite some time.
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Cory Conacher To One-Year Deal
There is still plenty of time between now and the start of the 2016-17 season for Yzerman to fill the few remaining holes we have in the roster. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out. The good news is, Yzerman has a pretty good track record of building a strong team. We have no doubts he’ll get the job done once again.