BriseBois addresses immediate needs on a wild first day of free agency

Hard to fathom when you no longer have Tyler Johnson, Yanni Gourde, Barclay Goodrow, Blake Coleman, David Savard, Luke Schenn and Curtis McElhinney on the roster, but as the opening day of free agency concluded, the unofficial end of the 2020-21 season as teams prepare for the upcoming one, the Tampa Bay Lightning had to consider Wednesday a win.
With limited cap space, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois was able to address Tampa Bay's most pressing needs by adding a right-shot depth defenseman in Zach Bogosian, signing veteran backup goaltender Brian Elliott to replace McElhinney and bringing in defensive-minded, penalty-killing forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
The Bolts signed six players to two-way deals, including a couple of familiar faces in Andrej Sustr and Gabriel Dumont, to help augment their minor league roster in Syracuse and provide insurance in case of injury in Tampa Bay.

And they ensured franchise cornerstone top-line center Brayden Point will remain with the team for the next nine seasons by inking him to an eight-year contract extension one year before he was due to become a restricted free agent.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to be a different team when they take the ice as the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions in 2021-22, but they were able to set themselves up for sustained success and a very real opportunity to go for a three-peat, which hasn't been done in the National Hockey League since the New York Islanders won four Cups in a row from 1980 to 1983.
"The reality going forward is we've kind of locked up all of the big impact guys," BriseBois said during a post-free agent frenzy Zoom media session. "Brayden Point is under contract now for nine years. (Nikita Kucherov) is under contract for I think six more. (Andrei) Vasilevskiy for seven more. (Ryan) McDonagh's under contract long term. (Steven Stamkos) still has three years. Victor Hedman has term. Tony Cirelli, Erik Cernak and Mikhail Sergachev have two years left on their contracts and they're still under team control for at least one more year beyond that, so for the next three years, all of the premium positions are pretty much filled right now on our team. They're filled with really good players still in their prime. That's why I believe there's a lot of reason to believe we can continue to compete for the Stanley Cup over the next few years, at least for the next three considering that all these players are under contract and we're going to be able to keep them going forward. With those guys already under contract and filling all those chairs, now we're looking for the right pieces to support them, to surround them, to fill in the gaps that we might have and obviously we're very limited in the cap space that's available to us to do that."
The first of those gaps, the need for a right-shot defenseman after Schenn signed with Vancouver and Savard with Montreal, was filled with the signing of Bogosian, the Lightning bringing back the hard-hitting, top-pairing blueliner who was a revelation for the team as a free agent pickup at the 2020 trade deadline and played a key role in helping the Bolts win their first of two back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Bogosian signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the 2020-21 season mainly, he said, because it was the first time in his career being an unrestricted free agent not in a midseason "chaos" scenario and he wanted to go through that process as a NHL veteran. But, again a UFA this offseason, Bogosian's agent reached out to BriseBois about the possibility of rejoining the Lightning, and BriseBois was able to sign the 31-year-old Massena, New York native to a three-year contract worth $850,000 AAV despite the team's salary cap crunch.
"I think what really drew him to Tampa was the chance to compete for another Stanley Cup," BriseBois said. "And in fairness, considering the very limited resources and cap space I had, I'm not really in a position to be calling these guys because I can't make them an offer that is commiserate to the quality of the players that they are and I don't want to insult them. But if they call me and they understand our cap situation and they're willing to work with us, then I'm certainly excited to be working with them and try to bring them into the fold and that's what happened when Zach's agent called today."
Bogosian cited the longer three-year term as a selling point to returning to Tampa Bay. With a wife and three young children, he wanted his family to be able to establish roots in a place they'd like to call home. He said once his kids learned they'd be returning to Tampa, they ran around the house screaming 'Go Bolts.'
Another selling point? The chance to return to a locker room where he'd already established lifelong friendships as well as one ready made for another run at the Stanley Cup. Bogosian called signing with Tampa Bay "a pretty easy decision."
"You want to play on a good team and have a chance at winning and doing that with Tampa was such a great feeling," he said. "When you dissect a group, there's a lot of guys that are maybe my age, a little bit older, a little bit younger, but a lot of guys are in similar family situations having kids around the same age. It creates a very cool dynamic in the locker room where all the families can kind of hang out and get along and be able to raise your kids together. In that environment in professional sports, it's so cool to be part of a locker room like that. There's a lot of great points. Tampa, being a great hockey town and them now winning back-to-back creates a lot of buzz around the city, creates a lot of buzz around the hockey world. I'm super excited to be back and be part of it again."
The Lightning were in the market for a backup goalie with McElhinney's contract expiring. They landed one of the top veteran goalies available by signing Elliott to a one-year, $900,000 contract. He carries a career .910 save percentage and was Philadelphia's wins leader in 2020-21 after going 15-9-2 in 26 starts sharing the Flyers' net with youngster Carter Hart.
Elliott spent the last four seasons in Philadelphia.
The Lightning also picked up goalie Maxime Lagace to a one-year, two-way contract. Lagace made one NHL appearance last season for Pittsburgh, registering a 29-save shutout against the Buffalo Sabres. He's expected to challenge for the starter's net in Syracuse.
Tampa Bay now has six goalies under contract for the upcoming season.
"I would expect that Vasy and Brian Elliott will be sharing the load in Tampa, Maxime Lagace and Hugo Alnefelt are going to be sharing the load in Syracuse and we will be looking for playing opportunities for Amir Miftakhov and Spencer Martin. Amir will probably end up playing in Orlando, and we'll figure out a plan for Spencer Martin in the coming days here."
Moments after locking up Point long term, the Lightning announced the addition of Bellemare, who scored nine goals in each of the last two seasons with Colorado and is a defensive-minded forward who can kill penalties, which will be needed with Gourde, Goodrow and Coleman no longer in the Lightning lineup.
Bellemare ranked third among Avalanche forwards for average shorthanded time on ice in 2020-21 (2:08) and second for blocked shots (36). He was also Colorado's top face-off man winning 60.8 percent of his draws while taking the fifth most (428) on the team.
"That's part of the reason we're excited to bring in Pierre-Edouard Bellemare because he is a really good defensive forward," BriseBois said. "He can assume some of those minutes that the Barclay Goodrows and the Yanni Gourdes and the Blake Colemans were playing, whether it's late in games protecting leads or on the penalty kill or taking a big face-off, especially in the defensive zone. He's a sneaky, underrated, really good defensive forward and by all accounts, a great guy to have in the locker room, just awesome personality, very popular teammate everywhere he's been."
In addition to Lagace, the Lightning brought in forwards Dumont, Charles Hudon and Remi Elie and defensemen Sustr and Darren Raddysh, the older brother of Taylor Raddysh, on two-way deals. They're expected to round out the Syracuse Crunch roster while also challenging for a role in Tampa Bay.
In the case of Sustr, the Lightning brought back the popular, lengthy, 6-foot-7 defenseman who can shut down plays with his long reach while also mentoring some of the Crunch's younger prospects.
"He's an awesome human being," BriseBois said. "More than likely, he's going to start the season in Syracuse and he has such a good personality. He's a compassionate human being. He's got a lot of empathy. I think he's going to help the Crunch on the ice with his skills, and I think he's going to help our young players that are going to go through the growing pains that come with being a young professional hockey player because he's been there, he's seen it before and he just has that personality where he'll reach out to you when he sees that you need help and he can help you. And then when we have injuries in Tampa, we know he can play at the NHL level."
Of course, the biggest signing Wednesday for the Lightning was a player already on the team. By extending Point's contract another eight seasons, the Bolts ensure their superstar center will be with the team until he's at least 34 years old. Point will carry a $9.5 million AAV cap hit -- tied with Vasilevskiy and Kucherov for tops on the team -- once his current contract expires after the upcoming season.
"The cost certainty is nice, but what's really appealing and exciting to me is knowing Brayden Point's going to be on our team for the next nine years," BriseBois said. "He's only 25 years old right now. He's in the prime of his career. He's a dedicated professional. He's a guy that drives play. He's an elite player at a premium position. When you don't have a first line center, you're chasing a first line center. Just like when you don't have a strong number one goalie, you're chasing a strong number one goalie. When you don't have D, you're chasing D. Knowing that we have Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, the D corps that we have that are all under contract going forward, Andrei Vasilevskiy, that's on top of the incredible wingers that we have, Stammer, Kuch, Palat and Killorn going into next season, that's why there's a lot of reason to think we can sustain being a Stanley Cup contender year in and year out for the next few years and hopefully we can extend that window as long as possible."
The Tampa Bay Lightning will indeed look markedly different next season. The super impactful third line is gone. The fourth line will be chopped up. The penalty kill will need to be retooled.
But that doesn't mean the Lightning will be any less dangerous.
BriseBois made sure of that with his signings and maneuverings over the last couple weeks and especially on the opening day of free agency.