Winger Jake Guentzel has signed a seven-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning that carries an average annual value of $9 million per season, the team announced Monday.
The Lightning acquired the rights to Guentzel from the Carolina Hurricanes earlier Sunday in exchange for a 2025 third-round draft pick. That gave Tampa Bay an exclusive negotiating window with Guentzel ahead of Monday’s unrestricted free agent market opening.
Guentzel, 29, is a four-time 30-goal scorer, including 30 goals in 67 games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hurricanes last season. He won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2017.
“Things just didn’t work out in Carolina, and then I heard Tampa might be trading for my rights, so obviously I got really excited because everyone hears how good of a team and good of a spot this is,” Guentzel said. “The pedigree behind Tampa Bay, the winning culture — just a lot of high-end players that really make it intriguing to come to Tampa.”
The Lightning opened up significant salary cap space on Saturday at the NHL draft, sending defenseman Mikhail Sergachev ($8.5 million average annual value) to Utah and forward Tanner Jeannot ($2.665 million AAV) to the Los Angeles Kings.
Many speculated those moves were made in order to re-sign captain Steven Stamkos, who joined the Nashville Predators as an unrestricted free agent on Monday. But GM Julien BriseBois told ESPN that he didn’t increase his offer to Stamkos following those trades, and that both the player and the team expected he would test free agency.
“It’s in the best interest of our organization to explore all options in the coming days, whether it be via trades or by getting into free agency,” BriseBois said. “We have this cap space. We can allocate it in different ways by either getting volume or quality. I don’t know yet how we’re going to do that. I know the priority is going to be to address our forward group.”
Guentzel is four years younger than Stamkos and could slide into his old spot on left wing with center Brayden Point and right wing Nikita Kucherov.
Guentzel was one of the most highly coveted forwards on the free agent market heading into the offseason. With his arrival in Tampa, that honor might now be bestowed on Stamkos.
Is Macklin Celebrini about to follow Connor Bedard in becoming the latest No. 1 pick to win the Calder Trophy? Or could a winner come from a dynamic field that features Cutter Gauthier, Matvei Michkov, Logan Stankoven and Will Smith?
We won’t know the answers to those questions until next June … but why wait? Being the top pick in 2023 — plus the fact he’d been talked about for years — made Bedard an early Calder front-runner, only for Brock Faber to emerge as a serious challenger who at one time appeared as if he could win.
So what about this season? Who are the favorites and why? Who are the less-hyped players to keep an eye on who could potentially emerge as serious Calder challengers? Here’s our way-too-early look.
The Stars have one of the NHL’s strongest farm systems, which has allowed them to be in a championship window while giving their prospects opportunities too. In recent seasons, prospects such as Thomas Harley, Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson became important players in their first full season, en route to becoming crucial figures.
The next in that line could be Bourque, who is a candidate to start the season as the Stars’ third-line center. It would be a natural transition considering how he has developed over the past two seasons. Bourque went from 47 points in 70 games in the 2022-23 season for the AHL’s Texas Stars to scoring 77 points in 71 games in the 2023-24 season. Calder races can be greatly influenced by details such as role and usage. That’s what made the race between Bedard and Faber compelling. Bedard logged the minutes that came with being a No. 1 center, while Faber emerged into a top-pairing defenseman who could play in every situation.
Celebrini has the chance to do the same with the Sharks. Finishing with the worst record in the NHL was a result of the Sharks having several significant problem areas. Scoring goals was among them. They were last in goals scored and had a power play that finished in the bottom third. Finding players who could improve that situation was a priority, and Celebrini is a part of that plan. He was drafted with the belief that the 32 goals and 64 points in his lone season at Boston University would translate to the NHL, as a top-line center capable of operating on a first-team power-play unit.
Celebrini’s ability, usage and a supporting cast that’s now led by three-time 30-goal scorer Tyler Toffoli could result in the 18-year-old Hobey Baker Award winner being a wire-to-wire favorite in what’s expected to be a competitive race.