Tampa Bay Lightning Free Agents: Should they stay or should they go?

Now that the 2017-2018 season is over, the Tampa Bay Lightning have a few free agents that they will have to deal with in the coming offseason.  Here’s who the Lightning should resign, and who they should let walk.

The Tampa Bay Lightning will have some contracts to sign this coming offseason.  While this year won’t be as major as next year, with players like Brayden Point, Nikita  Kucherov, Yanni Gourde, Anton Stralman, and Ryan McDonagh all needing new deals, some decisions will still need to be made.

In total, the Lightning has eight players to deal with before the start of the 2018-2019 season.  Those players include Cedric Paquette, Matthew Peca, Chris Kunitz, Andrej Sustr, Slater Koekkoek, Louis Domingue, and Adam Erne.

The majority of these players are restricted free agents, meaning that the Lightning will have exclusive negotiation rights with the player without interference from other teams.

If no deal is reached, other teams may extend an offer sheet to the player but the Lightning would receive compensation in the form of draft picks should they decide not to match the offer.

A few players, however, are unrestricted free agents meaning that they can talk to whatever teams they please.

This list won’t include depth AHL players like Jamie McBain, Mat Bodie, and Eddie Pasquale who are unlikely to make an impact on the Lightning’s roster next year.