Contract extension benefits both Maroon and the Bolts

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Patrick Maroon joked he was hoping for a Brayden Point deal when looking to sign a contract extension with the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
"Nine years, $9.5 (million)," he said, referring to the contract Point signed this offseason, Maroon only off by a year on the terms of the eight-year deal. "My points are too high for that though."
Maroon had to settle for a slightly more affordable deal to re-sign with the Lightning.

On Tuesday, Maroon inked a two-year extension worth an average annual value of $1 million that will keep him with the franchise through the 2023-24 season.
The extension served the interests of both parties. Maroon wanted to stay with the Lightning because he and his family love the area, his Lightning teammates and the franchise. And the Lightning wanted to keep the veteran forward who was instrumental in getting the Bolts over the Stanley Cup hump so long as they could sign him at an attractive price that fits the team's future salary cap constraints.

"(The contract extension) actually came fast," Maroon said. "I called my agent and said, 'Hey, I want to stay in Tampa.' Obviously, we know the situation we're in right now with cap space. I knew it was going to be tight, but (general manager) Julien (BriseBois) and (head coach Jon Cooper) found a way to bring me back a few more years. I'm really looking forward to it. Me and my family love it here in Tampa. The organization has been nothing but good to us. To be a part of such a great organization itself, the opportunities that they give you every single year to win, the players they provide you to play with and the leadership here, it's nothing but remarkable. (Tampa Bay owner) Jeff Vinik and Julien have done a really good job of providing that and it's a place where you want to win every single day. Coop does a really good job of providing that winning mentality. There's nowhere else I'd rather be than here."
While his stats don't pop off the page - 20 goals and 54 points in 164 regular season games with Tampa Bay - the numbers don't tell the complete story of Maroon's value to the Lightning organization. When he signed a two-year deal with the team as a free agent on August 24, 2019, fresh off winning his first Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues two months earlier, the Lightning were a team in turmoil. After a magical regular season in which they tied the NHL record with 62 regular season wins and captured the organization's first Presidents' Trophy, the Bolts flamed out in the first round of the playoffs, getting swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets, a stunning exit for the Stanley Cup favorite.
At that point, the Lightning had been to the playoffs in five of Jon Cooper's six full seasons as the team's head coach. They made it to a Stanley Cup Final in Cooper's second full season and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final three times.
Yet, they were still searching for that winning formula that could bring them to their ultimate goal of lifting the Stanley Cup.
Maroon helped make that possible with his arrival.
"He brought a winning pedigree with him here," Cooper said. "To come out of a Stanley Cup year and walk into our room, he was one of the guys that helped identify some of the things we needed to do to win. He's done everything we've asked of him. I don't think you can ever have enough guys that win. I throw Corey Perry into that realm and the way (Pierre-Edouard) Bellemare professionally conducts himself, those three guys have really been a big part of why we're having success and it's great they're all going to be here for a little bit. But Patty's earned this. He grew up in St. Louis, but I think he's found a home here in Tampa."
Maroon brought to the Lightning an understanding of how the game changes from regular season to postseason. The rink condenses. The checking becomes tighter. The hits are harder. The whistles few and far between.
The Lightning learned those lessons from past playoff failures, but Maroon helped to drive them home.
The fact he'd just won a Stanley Cup gave his voice credibility too.
"You've just got to find a way to find an identity for yourself, for your team and just have a role for everyone," Maroon said of the championship mentality he brought to the Lightning locker room. "I think that's the biggest key to us, everyone found a role in our lineup. If we get taken out, someone stepped right in and played that role just as good. We have high-end skill, but at the end of the day, if Nikita Kucherov is telling people to dump the puck in, that's a good sign. I think it just stems from leadership, just finding a way, knowing what it takes to win and realizing it and once you realize it, people start to do it."
Maroon is seeking to become the first NHL player to win four-straight Stanley Cups since several members of the New York Islanders did so when they won four in a row from 1980 to 1983. That legacy is not lost on Maroon, who said being a part of a championship-caliber team every season was a key factor in his re-signing with the Lightning.

"Having the security and knowing that you're signed for two more years and you have two more years to put a lot of work in and hopefully win more championships, that's the whole point of it," Maroon said. "You don't want to go to a team where it's a rebuild situation. You want to go to a team where you can build your career and keep building off that and finding ways to keep winning every single year. You make your money in the playoffs, that's the most important thing. You come to realize when you win one, you want to win another one. This is the team I want to be a part of and the organization I want to be a part of. They have that winning mentality a lot of teams don't have. Julien puts the players in a good position to win every single year. That's what's good about it and that's why people want to come here and play."
In addition to bringing a winning pedigree, Maroon quickly endeared himself to his Lightning teammates. Young players like Ross Colton talk openly about how Maroon took them under his wing to show them the ropes of how to have a long career in the NHL. Veterans gravitate toward him because he keeps the locker room loose with his quickness to crack a joke but knows when to get serious when the moment calls.
And he's become the poster boy for the Florida man meme: a fun-loving, free-spirited, say-what's-on-your-mind character who plays and parties equally hard.
Tampa Bay loves him.
And Maroon loves Tampa Bay.
"He's just a guy that the first time you meet him, it's like you've met before," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "He just makes it comfortable on everyone, whether it's young guys, veteran guys, he brings the group together. That's something that's been a staple of him I'm sure everywhere he's played but with our group here. We were pretty tight, but I think he added a new element to that, and he includes everyone on everything that we do whether we're at home or on the road. That's a great quality that he has, and I think it's translated to the success that we've had on the ice as well. He's a huge part. We kind of joke that he might outlast us all here in Tampa. Very, very happy and excited for him and his family."