The Tampa Bay Lightning have done it again.
A top of the lineup calibre player signed at a reasonable clip that has the rest of the league envious. This time it was a three-year, $14.4 million contract ($4.8 million AAV) for Mikhail Sergachev, a top-four blueliner who has developed into a two-way beast with a skill level high enough that during the Stanley Cup Final he occasionally played the half wall for the Lightning’s first power play unit.
When these types of good value deals for star-level second contract players get signed, it’s inevitable that Vancouver Canucks fans will salivate. Visions of what might be possible with Vancouver’s bevy of inefficient contracts expiring and Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson on Lightning-like bridge contracts that Tampa has managed to sign Sergachev and Brayden Point to are tempting.
However, for a variety of reasons, Sergachev’s new contract isn’t likely to restrain Hughes’…
