Tampa Bay Lightning F Alex Killorn Lets Loyalty Shine Through
Tampa Bay Lightning forward Alex Killorn had to take a discount to remain here in the Sunshine State but asserts this is where he wants to be.
In any professional sport, there are two kinds of players. There are players who do what they do for the sake of the almighty dollar. Then, there are players who do what they do for nothing more than the love of the game. The latter kind of player is the one you can consistently rely on, the ones who really want to win.
Loyalty is something you rarely see in professional sports today, but the Tampa Bay Lightning have more than a few players who have gone leaps and bounds to prove their loyalty to the team. One of those players is Tampa Bay Lightning center Alex Killorn.
As most Lightning fans know by now, Tampa Bay Lightning center Alex Killorn was set to become a Restricted Free Agent this season. The two sides were able to avoid this by working together to come to terms on a seven-year contract extension for the 26-year-old center. The new contract means Alex Killorn will spend a majority of his on-ice career right here in the Bolts Nation.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Of course, this did not come to pass without a little bit of sacrifice. As you know, after laying out big money to keep players like Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman here in the Bolts Nation, the Bolts were a little short of funds to pass around; that is…if they wanted to remain cap compliant.
As you can imagine, Killorn would most certainly be looking for a modest bump in salary from the average $2.55 million he made over the course of the last two seasons. Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman was able to work with Alex Killorn on a deal that would pay an average annual value of $4.45 million per year, just shy of double what he made on his previous deal.
Not long after Killorn signed his new contract, he was a guest on NHL Tonight on the NHL Network. When asked about the kind of impact Steven Stamkos signing for considerably less than he could have received to stay in Tampa Bay had on his decision to follow suit, he was pretty clear this is where he wanted to be, and it wasn’t for the money.
"“I think the fact that when we were talking about negotiations, that Stammer took a discount and a lot of guys are going to have to do that if we want to stay down here,” Killorn said. I think he set a precedent and everyone wants to be in Tampa, so everyone is doing their best to keep this core together, and I think we’re all pretty excited about that going forward.”"
Steven Stamkos said last season when the media frenzy surrounding his impending new deal hit its high point that he wanted to stay here in Tampa Bay and that he wanted to win a Stanley Cup with the group of guys the team had right then. It seems as if there are more than a few players on the team that shares his sentiment, and as you can tell, one of them is Alex Killorn.
It’s not every day when you find a team of players so dedicated to playing as one and fighting for one, clear-cut goal. For the Tampa Bay Lightning, it would be leading the franchise to their second Stanley Cup Championship. We don’t know about you, but we have a rather special feeling heading into the 2016-17 season.
Next: Steven Stamkos Setting The Bar In The Locker Room
There are still a few more pieces to the team that needs to be secured before the start of the 2016-17 season. One of the most essential pieces is the signing of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. If Yzerman is able to secure the final pieces to the puzzle, the NHL had better be ready. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be fighting as hard as they can for another chance to hold Lord Stanley’s Cup high above their heads.