Bolts by the Bay
Fansided

NHL Expansion Draft 2017: Tampa Bay Lightning D Jason Garrison headed to the Vegas Golden Knights

By Tasha St. Pierre

Jun 21, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; A general view of T-Mobile Arena after the 2017 NHL Awards and Expansion Draft. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 21, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; A general view of T-Mobile Arena after the 2017 NHL Awards and Expansion Draft. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison was selected by the newly founded Las Vegas Golden Nights at last night’s NHL Expansion Draft.

Once the stage was set for the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas last night, Tampa Bay Lightning fans knew a minimum of one player would be making their way to a new home by the end of the night. The question left to be answered was which player would be wearing a new jersey at the end of the night.

According to the rules of the NHL Expansion Draft, the Las Vegas Golden Knights were required to select a minimum of one player from each of the other 30 clubs in the league which, as we mentioned before, meant the Tampa Bay Lightning were going to lose at least one player in the maelstrom of action.

The aforementioned player turned out to be Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison.

Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning /

Tampa Bay Lightning

While we are pretty sure there is no one in the Lightning fan base who was “hoping” for Garrison to make his way to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, there were a number of fans who were desperately concerned the player heading to Vegas was going to be Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin.

Judging by the events that played out after Garrison’s selection was announced, it seems Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman put the brakes on the possibility of a Dotchin trade by sweetening the deal for the Golden Knights.

In addition to acquiring Jason Garrison, the Las Vegas Golden Knights acquired Lightning prospect Nikita Gusev along with a 2nd Round Draft Pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and a 4th Rounder in the 2018 NHL Draft. In other words, Yzerman made sure the Vegas Golden Knights didn’t get their hands on someone like Dotchin or Lightning defenseman Slater Koekkoek.

One advantage to Jason Garrison making his way to the Las Vegas Golden Knights is the Lightning have managed to free up a nice chunk of cap space for the upcoming Free Agency period. Garrison’s cap hit was around $4.6 million heading into the new season.

This is now an addition $4.6 million Yzerman can give to people like forwards Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. Both Johnson and Palat are set to be Restricted Free Agents when the Free Agency Period opens up on July 1st. As you can possibly imagine, both of these players are going to be looking for moderate boosts to their current contracts. Now, these movements could become a reality.

A player like Jason Garrison definitely brings a lot of veteran experience to a team. Garrison is entering his 10th season in the NHL and has played for teams like the Florida Panthers, the Vancouver Canucks, and more recently, our very own Tampa Bay Lightning. He will definitely be missed here in the Bolts Nation.

Now that the NHL Expansion Draft is behind us, the Tampa Bay Lightning can focus their efforts on re-signing the players in need of new contracts, hunting for new talent in the Free Agency period, and picking up the talent of the future in the 2017 NHL Draft.

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning agree to extension with Peter Budaj

There are a lot of changes on the horizon for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Hopefully, these changes will help right the course for the Bolts and put them back on track to another deep postseason run; and who knows…maybe the Lightning’s 25th Anniversary Season will finally bring Lord Stanley’s Cup back to the Sunshine State?

Home/Draft