With all eyes on a potential January 13th start date for the 2020-21 season, teams that currently find themselves over the salary cap will begin looking to become cap compliant sooner rather than later. Such is the case for Julien BriseBois and his Tampa Bay Lightning.
BriseBois' club is currently sitting almost $2M over the cap with just 19 players under contract for next season, with two key pieces from Tampa's Cup-winning roster yet awaiting new deals after becoming restricted free agents in October. These two players are, of course, pivot Anthony Cirelli and blueliner Erik Cernak.
Cirelli is coming off of his best statistical season to date, which is often the case in a contract year for a young player coming off of his entry-level deal. The 23-year-old notched 16 goals and added 28 assists for 44 points in just 68 games for the Bolts last season, playing big minutes against tough competition in Tampa's middle six, eventually settling on a line between Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn.
Cernak, also 23 years old and also coming off of his ELC, began his season in a depth role on the Bolts' back end, seeing a little over 16 minutes of ice per night for much of the season. Where he really seemed to blossom was in the postseason, much to the delight of Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, who rewarded the 6'3", 233 lb defenseman with a sharp increase in ice time to over 25 minutes per night on average, seeing regular minutes on Tampa's top pair with Victor Hedman.
Basically, what I'm trying to get at is that these guys both deserve to get paid. Exactly how much is up for debate, but you could make a case for Cernak being in the $3.5M range or more on a short-term deal and Cirelli being worth as much as $5.5M or slightly more on a longer term deal. Assuming both want a chance to run it back with the Bolts, and with Tampa showcasing their ability to convince guys to sign for less in the past, we could see one or both of these players take a team-friendly deal. But even in that scenario, Tampa is still in a cap crunch. So what exactly does BriseBois have up his sleeve to open up enough space to get these two important pieces locked up?
Well, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, BriseBois may be exploring the possibility of acquiring Henrik Zetterberg and his $6.08M LTIR contract from the Detroit Red Wings, with veteran Tyler Johnson potentially being among the pieces heading the other way.
If there is any truth to this, Tampa could very likely become cap compliant with a 20-man roster, once Cernak and Cirelli have signed new deals - much like what the Maple Leafs did with Nathan Horton and David Clarkson and their LTIR status to squeeze in under the cap - and that would be a tidy piece of work by BriseBois to get the band back together for a chance to repeat.
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