Erlendsson: Kucherov In, No Distractions, No Excuses

The puzzle of the Lightning roster put in the final corner piece less than 48 hours before the start of Tampa Bay’s season.

Nikita Kucherov arrived in town on Tuesday and signed a fresh three-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $4.766 million per season.

Now, there should be no excuses for this Lightning team. Kucherov was the only real concern heading  into the season. His absence in training camp proved to be the only disrupting storyline to follow – would the talented 23-year-old be in uniform to start the season or would his absence be a distraction?

Kucherov is here. All the pieces of the puzzle are now together and now it’s full speed ahead for a Lightning team that has Stanley Cup aspirations once again.

This situation had the potential of being a disaster in the making capable of derailing the Lightning off the tracks before even leaving the station. Now the train is set to smoothly depart on the journey of the 2016-17 season without any concern.

Ensuring the season starts with Kucherov is yet another masterful job done by Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman, convincing a key player to take less money in order to make a run at a Stanley Cup championship.

Kucherov deserved more than he received in this contract. In that, there is no debate. In a league where so many contracts are based on comparable players, Kucherov did not receive a similar contract. The talented, former second-round pick is making well below the benchmark salary cap hits set by the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko ($7.5 million), Johnny Gaudreau ($6.75 million), Sean Monahan ($6.375), Nathan MacKinnon ($6.3 million), Filip Forsberg ($6 million), Brandon Saad ($6 million) or Aleksander Barkov ($5.9 million).

Instead, because of the Lightning’s team salary cap constraints, Kucherov took less money on a shorter term deal in order to fit into the team structure, which sits at just over $1 million in available cap space according to both GeneralFanager.com and CapFriendly.com.

These sort of bridge deals used to be commonplace in the NHL for players coming out of their entry level deals when the players have little to no negotiating power without arbitration rights and still a number of years away from unrestricted free agency status.

Now, in a league that is increasingly younger, exceptional talents such as Kucherov

who are considered core players are getting locked in to long-term deals, generally in the six-to-eight-year range, at numbers that used to be reserved for the more established star players.

A large pay day is still in Kucherov’s future. He will be a restricted free agent at the end of this contract and holds arbitration rights. Tampa Bay will be able to sign Kucherov to an extension starting July 1, 2018, and his time will come, especially if the league salary cap rises between now and then.

Will he get equal or more than the $8.5 million per year average that captain Steven Stamkos all but established as the maximum for a Lightning teammate? Or will Kucherov’s play over the next two seasons force Tampa Bay to sign him to a deal exceeding that number?

But that is about the future of Kucherov.

The key part of the deal signed is about the now and trying to capitalize on a window with the current group of players that has led the Lightning to become one of the elite teams in the league. That window, that opened wide in 2015 when Tampa Bay reached the Stanley Cup Final, will close after this season.

Not that it means Tampa Bay’s run of success will end, but the group will undergo a significant change after this season. Ben Bishop is almost certainly to be elsewhere at the start of the 2017-18 season, if not sooner. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat will both be restricted free agents at the end of the season and due for a significant raise. Jonathan Drouin will be coming out of his entry level contract, and if he has the type of year many predict for him, will be in Kucherov’s class of contract at the minimum.

Defenseman Andrej Sustr, who had a terrific season last year and continues to get better, will be a restricted free agent. Slater Koekkoek and Nikita Nesterov will also be restricted free agents while center Brian Boyle, who has become a strong part of the leadership core, will be an unrestricted free agent.

So changes are coming and the time for this group to rise up and seize the chance is right now. For the better part of the previous three seasons, it has been this group that has led the Lightning back to prominence and a perennial playoff contender.

Nikita Kucherov is a huge part of that group. His absence to start the season would have created a void not able to be filled.

Instead, just like the example set by the other players the Lightning signed during the summer of 2016, Kucherov took less than he could have made – and Tampa Bay’s salary cap issue was not his problem – in order to put the best possible team on the ice all in the pursuit of a championship.

In doing so, he became the next player to fall in line with the rest of the locker room – taking less may mean more winning.

(Feature Photo/Christine Gunn)

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