Lightning Roster Transactions 2021 Season

[Derek28]

The Lightning assigned Barre-Boulet, Colton, Day, Finley, Goncalves, Green, Huntington, Katchouk, Raddysh, and Semykin to Syracuse.

They waived Witkowski, Walcott, and Martin with the intention of sending them to Syracuse.

They waived Borgman, Gibson, Smith, Thompson, Schenn, and Johnson with the intention of putting those guys on the initial taxi squad.

[Derek28]

Here is what the opening night roster should look like given the moves made today:

FWDS (12): Palat, Point, Stamkos, Killorn, Cirelli, Coleman, Gourde, Goodrow, Maroon, Stephens, Joseph, Volkov

DEF (6): Hedman, Rutta, Sergachev, Cernak, McDonagh, Foote

GOAL (2): Vasilevskiy and McElhinney

[Derek28]

I believe the total cap hit of the 20 man roster above would be $80,091,666. I would assume that means the Lightning will have a couple of paper transactions (maybe Day + Colton) on their final submitted roster. If you add those two at $1,400,000 it would give you a total cap hit of $81,491,666 which would get us as close to the $81.5 million as you can.

[BurnTHalO]

Here is what the opening night roster should look like given the moves made today:

FWDS (12): Palat, Johnson, Stamkos, Killorn, Cirelli, Coleman, Gourde, Goodrow, Maroon, Stephens, Joseph, Volkov

DEF (6): Hedman, Rutta, Sergachev, Cernak, McDonagh, Foote

GOAL (2): Vasilevskiy and McElhinney

Joe Smith is saying since TJ is on waivers, he is not eligible for opening night. Makes things interesting.

[Derek28]

Yeah the opening night roster should of had Point instead of Johnson.

[BurnTHalO]

Yeah the opening night roster should of had Point instead of Johnson.

Haha, completely didn't notice that. My question now is do we see Volkov on that Cirelli line?

[RSchmitz]

Gotta wonder what the plan is for TJ right now, I can't believe he's regressed to the point that he isn't an NHL contributor, and maybe JB is just seeing if there is another round of takers.

[jason_haas]

Gotta wonder what the plan is for TJ right now, I can't believe he's regressed to the point that he isn't an NHL contributor, and maybe JB is just seeing if there is another round of takers.

CapFriendly with a great explanation here. Probably also doesn't hurt to see if someone takes him this time.

Clipboard02.jpg

[Derek28]

Assuming he doesn't get claimed, Johnson would be called up following the first game of the season and the two paper transactions would be sent down. The whole purpose is to get as close to $81.5 million as possible to set the LTIR pool. Schenn (assuming he clears) will alternate with Foote between the taxi squad and the active roster. Waiving Johnson also gives them some flexibility incase of short term injuries to the defense. If they need a 7th defenseman on the active roster for a couple games, they can send Johnson to the taxi squad without having to waive a Volkov or Joseph.

[RSchmitz]

Got it, makes more sense now

[Derek28]

Lightning signed forward Boo Nieves (had been in camp on PTO) to a one year, two-way deal. It's interesting to point out that his cap hit at the NHL level is $708,000. Nieves and one player making league minimum at ($700,000) will likely be included on the roster submitted to the league today for opening day.

They would be able to maximize all but $334 of their cap relief for LTIR.

[ChaseSpace]

Lightning signed forward Boo Nieves (had been in camp on PTO) to a one year, two-way deal. It's interesting to point out that his cap hit at the NHL level is $708,000. Nieves and one player making league minimum at ($700,000) will likely be included on the roster submitted to the league today for opening day.

They would be able to maximize all but $334 of their cap relief for LTIR.

I look forward to when Tampa does the Back2Back the calls from the north will be "They don't count because it was a Covid year and then the next year they cheated the cap"

[Pat664422]

Per rawcharge, here's the lines for tonight:

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Steven Stamkos
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Alexander Volkov
Blake Coleman - Yanni Gourde - Barclay Goodrow
Pat Maroon - Mitchell Stephens - Mathieu Joseph

I'm not a fan of this for a couple of reasons. Plugging Stamkos in on right wing for Kucherov is probably the way to disrupt last year's lines the least, but Stamkos has played on wing for limited periods several times before and he hasn't been as effective compared to playing at center. So in that sense, we're taking a hit to two positions - missing Kucherov and half of a Stamkos.

Also, I'm not sold on Cirelli as a legit 2nd line center yet. I think he's a really good player and could fill in at 2C when needed, shouldn't be there full time. Hopefully he proves me wrong.

For those reasons I think the lineup is stronger with Point 1C, Stamkos 2C and Cirelli 3C. We'd be weaker on the wings, but stronger overall. It would also break up the Gourde line, but we could always reunite them near playoff time when Kucherov is ready to come back.

I'd like to see Coleman get a chance on one of the scoring lines. He's scored 20 goals twice in about half of Killorn's career. Joseph got a good comment from Cooper in their short camp, he could also get a longer than one game look on a scoring line.

[Puckhead]

Based on the schedule, it won't take Coop long to figure out what works and what doesn't . I'll be watching with interest the play of Volkov and Joseph. I think Stamkos on the wing is a good thing. Point is much better carrying the puck and he'll find Stamkos in open ice when it's available.

[dannybolt]

There's nobody on lines 2-4 who deserve to be on the 2nd line more than Cirelli. He's one of the 5 best shutdown Centers in the league already, and you don't see Boston putting Bergeron on the 3rd line.

Overall, I'm good with those lines. I'd prefer Cirelli not have to drag Killorn around, but at least he doesn't have TJ making no difference at all on his other wing. At least for game 1. Ideally, you'd have better wings for Cirelli on the 2nd line, but keeping the Gourde line intact at the outset is a smart, low risk move.

I'm interested to see how the right side D (excluding Cernak) holds up under pressure, because Hedman/McD/Serge can't cover ALL of the ice. Serge/Foote could be interesting; basically telling Serge to man up if he wants to be a top 4, giving him the responsibility of that bottom pair as the protector, rather than the protected as he's been thus far in his career.

I'm also very interested to see how Volkov and Joseph come out, because one of Cooper's Troopers will be waiting in the wings for game 2. Those 2 have a short leash, and I'm sure Cooper wants to get TJ in to try and jumpstart him.

Go Bolts!