Tampa Bay Lightning’s Ondrej Palat And Tyler Johnson Opt For Arbitration

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s biggest restricted free agents, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson have officially filed for arbitration.

This action will lead to scheduled arbitration hearings in late July or early August for each player. An independent arbiter will hear each sides arguments for proposed salary and rule.

Each side can continue to negotiate until their case is heard and it is quite possible that their cases could be settled without going to arbitration, just as Alex Killorn did last year.

The Bolts still have approximately $13.6 million left in cap space, so the money to sign both is available. Both are coming off carbon copy three-year, $10 million bridge deals.

GM Steve Yzerman must be careful on the terms of any free agent deal because of pending free agents Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy in the next 2-3 years.

(Feature Photo/Christine Gunn)

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