The FourCheck: Exit interviews on accountability, contracts and the future

The Tampa Bay Lightning put a bow on the 2025-26 NHL season on Tuesday morning with an end of season media availability at Benchmark International Arena.

Several Lightning players, as well as Vice President and General Manager Julien BriseBois, answered questions both to wrap up the year and preview what could be coming this summer.

“You need breaks to win a championship, but first and foremost, you need an excellent hockey team. And we had an excellent hockey team this year,” BriseBois said. “We're gonna have an excellent hockey team again next year, just based on the players that we expect to have coming back. I have a reason to believe that we're going to be a contender again next season. We're going to be fighting for a playoff spot. We're going to be driven to do better than we did this year, and I believe we will do that.”

Here are four takeaways from Tuesday in the latest edition of the FourCheck:

1. Lightning veterans expect more from themselves

Nearly every player who stood behind the microphone on Tuesday said they expect more from themselves following a fourth consecutive exit in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Brandon Hagel led the team on offense with eight points, and his six postseason goals matched the franchise record for goals in a playoff series. He still wasn’t satisfied with his playoff performance, particularly when the series was tied 2-2 coming back to Tampa for Game 5.

Montreal won Game 5 by a 3-2 score in an effort that displeased the Lightning.

“In Game 7 we gave up nine shots, so it's not on them (coaches). It's not on anyone,” Hagel said. “You put on a performance like that, you're gonna win 99.9% of the time. But you go out in Game 5 and your best players aren’t your best players, starting with myself, to take a lead in the series, to give yourself a little bit more comfortability, probably one of the biggest games in the series…It's just unacceptable…In games like that, you’ve got to show up, and I don’t think our best players did that.”

Forward Brayden Point finished with one goal in the playoffs. He plans to spend time this summer focused on his shooting in preparation for next season.

“Especially in a series that's so tight, a couple of goals would’ve went a long way.  A lot of that’s on me. You gotta find a way to produce and you need guys from all lines to score in the playoffs. And again, I wasn't a part of that. It's tough, but you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and see why, and you’ve got to work on those things in the summer now to hopefully not let it happen again.”

Point suffered injuries during the regular season but said he was healthy for the playoffs. He finished the regular season with 18 goals, the first time since 2017 that he scored less than 20 goals.

He wants to improve on releasing shots, getting pucks off his stick in tight and “increasing the scoring zone” for himself.

“You can learn from it, and I've definitely learned some things in my game that I need to get better at and now it’s about putting in the work,” Point said. “This summer's gonna be a great opportunity for me to work on those things that I identified. Sometimes the way you played in the past doesn't always work when you get older, and the game kind of changes, so now it's about just putting in the work so you can produce at a level that’s gonna help the team win.”

Nikita Kucherov said regardless of the fact that the team pushed their series against the Montreal Canadiens to seven games, it doesn’t matter without the final victory.

He said the team has to be better at 5-on-5 play and create more scoring chances. He said the team can improve in every area in preparation for next year.

“I hope it got better,” he said of executing under pressure. “But at the same time, my game had to be better. It wasn’t, so it is what it is.”

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy credited his team for being better defensively this year but said the team needs to do its job on all fronts. He won’t accept any of the ‘hockey gods’ talk about who deserved what result in a tilted Game 7 or this postseason as a whole.

“We all have to do our jobs. Me, I have to make saves. Defense has to block shots, kill penalties,” Vasilevskiy said. “Offense, they should score goals. We all have to do our jobs. But when one part of the team does the job good enough to win, the other doesn’t, that's how you end your season.”

2. Conversations underway on Raddysh, Kucherov contracts

Darren Raddysh might be the most intriguing player set to hit the open market when free agency opens on July 1, but there isn’t a guarantee that the defenseman leaves Tampa Bay.

BriseBois on Tuesday said the sides are in talks regarding a possible extension.

"I have already reached out to his agent,” BriseBois said. “We've been in touch throughout the second half of the year, just sharing concepts, ideas…Darren, last year when we were holding this exit press conference, the type of season he just had was not on the radar for us, and you need pleasant surprises along the way to offset injuries or guys that may not have necessarily as good a year as has been projected. And he stepped up big time when we needed him this year."

The 30-year-old defenseman established new career marks in every major statistic in 2025-26. He broke Dan Boyle’s franchise record for goals by a defenseman, burying 22 pucks past opposing netminders. He became the first Lightning player to hit the 20-goal mark since captain Victor Hedman had 20 in 2021-22.

Raddysh finished the year with 70 points in 73 games and became just the second defender in team history to reach the 70-point threshold (Victor Hedman, 3x). He tied for third in goals by an NHL defenseman and seventh in total offense in 2025-26.

When Tampa Bay’s power play got off to a slow start, Raddysh got the chance to direct the top unit. 

He never relinquished that role, and the team’s power play improved. Raddysh led with all NHL defensemen with 10 power-play goals, and Tampa Bay finished the year scoring on 20.7% of its power plays after sitting at 15.4%—25th in the league—on Nov. 1.

“I'm very thankful for everything that Tampa has given me. They gave me the shot to play in the NHL. I've been here for the last four years, and I can't say anything bad about this organization,” Raddysh said when asked on Tuesday about his future. “It’s given me everything that I've always wanted to do in my life. The business side I think will take some time and let those guys deal with that. Just try to enjoy being a dad, enjoy a little bit of summer and get back to that in a few weeks.”

Kucherov, meanwhile, is entering the final season of his current contract. Extension talks have begun with the 32-year-old forward, who tied a career high with 44 goals this season on his way to finishing second in NHL scoring with 130 points.

"He's a phenomenal player, and a key reason that we are as competitive as we are is how good a player he is, and I foresee him staying in our organization for a very long time, hopefully until the end of his career,” BriseBois said. “In due time, we'll engage with his agent. We've already had some conversations about he wants to stay, and we'd like him to stay. When we have something to announce, we'll make an announcement."

BriseBois also confirmed that he expects the full Lightning coaching staff to return next season. When asked about head coach Jon Cooper, BriseBois said Cooper will be here for “a while”.

3. Prepare for a quiet July 1

The Lightning saw multiple players earn more NHL playing time this season, and a few in forward Dominic James and Charle-Edouard D’Astous established themselves as full-time NHL options.

Don’t expect a flurry of new nameplates on Lightning jerseys next season, partly because the free agent market is sparse compared to recent summers.

“If we have a depth problem because we have young guys pushing veteran guys out of the lineup, those are called really good problems. I don't know that it changes my mindset going into July 1. The reality is, you can look up who the list of potential free agents are right now around the league, it is slim pickings, probably the slimmest pickings we've ever had in my 25 years in this league,” BriseBois said.

That’s good news for current in-house options. Forwards Conor Geekie, Jakob Pelletier and Dylan Duke were mentioned as youngsters who played for Tampa Bay and could fill gaps which might be unaddressed in free agency due to a lighter free agent market.

“They now have one more summer of working on becoming a better player, bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled. In September, they're going to be given an opportunity to showcase themselves and show us where they're at,” BriseBois said. “And if they're the most deserving players to be on the team, they're going to be on the team. And if they're knocking on the door, they might need to go down and come back later, and that'll be the path for them, but they're right there.”

4. Tampa Bay prospects turn heads as Atlantic stays youthful

The youthful nature of the Atlantic Division was brought up numerous times on Tuesday, referencing the rosters of the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens.

Tampa Bay will need to continue developing young NHLers to maintain one of the longest playoff streaks in the league. Despite not holding many first round draft picks over the past several years, Tampa Bay has still filled their pipeline with young options outside of those previously mentioned.

Benjamin Rautiainen just wrapped up a record-breaking season in the Liiga, the top professional league in Finland. 

The 20-year-old forward was a fourth-round selection by Tampa Bay in the 2025 NHL Draft and went on to be named the best player in the league.

He did so in impressive fashion, breaking the franchise record for Tappara Tempere with a league-leading 77 points in 58 games. It marked the best season in the Liiga in nearly 20 years, and the forward is in the midst of the playoffs.

“Tremendous level of skill and playmaking ability. He’s still a young player, still in development, still physically in development, but I’m very curious to see what comes next for him. It’s really amazing what he's done this year. It's historical, really,” BriseBois said. “If you look at all the records he's beaten, who he compares to in that league—all-time greats that end up being NHL players, Teemu Selanne’s name comes up a lot—so we're really excited about having him in our pipeline…We’re in constant talks with his agent as to what the best course of action is for his development.”

Rautiainen is currently under contract with Tappara Tampere for next season.

Sam O’Reilly is also in the midst of a postseason run and on Tuesday was named as the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)’s 2026 recipient of the Red Tilson Trophy, given to the league’s most outstanding player each season.

O’Reilly finished the regular season with 19 goals and 71 points in 56 OHL games and won 58% of his faceoffs while also playing for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship.

He helped the Kitchener Rangers to an OHL title and will play in the Memorial Cup tournament later this month.

BriseBois has been impressed with the forward’s development since the team acquired the former first round pick in a July trade with the Edmonton Oilers.

"The way he plays the game already, even the small sample we got in training camp, tells me he probably won't need that much time in order to be able to come here and contribute because he already plays a pro-style game,” BriseBois said of O’Reilly…“He’s so textbook in how he plays.”