The Tampa Bay Lightning have high expectations going into the 2021 NHL Season. This is no surprise since the team won the Stanley Cup a few months back. Unfortunately for the Bolts, they will be without one, if not their best player in Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov will undergo hip surgery that won’t allow him to play the entire regular season. Kucherov won the MVP in 2019 and last year lead the team in points and goals. So how will the Lightning be able to benefit from losing such a star player?
Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois ruled out Kucherov for the regular season last Wednesday. The regular season begins January 13th and ends on May 8th. There is hope that he will be able to return by the playoffs.
While this injury is definitely something the team should be concerned about, there are some positives that come with this injury as well. The long-term injury relief from Kucherov’s $9.5 million salary to resign RFA Centre Anthony Cirelli. Along with paying Cirelli, Tampa has made lots of other signings this past week to make up for the injury. They signed defenseman Erik Cernak to an $8.85 million dollar deal and defenseman Jan Rutta to a $2.6 million dollar deal.
If Kucherov had not been injured, the Bolts would have most likely traded a key player. Since they are already paying their stars like Kucherov, Stamkos, Hedman and others, they need room to get under the $81.5 million salary cap. The team waived forward Tyler Johnson to clear $5 million off the table. However as of December 31, he has yet to be claimed by another team.
“Those are the cards that we’ve been dealt,” BriseBois said on a video call Wednesday. “It’s our job as a group — players, coaches, management — to get ourselves into the playoffs so that we give Kuch an opportunity to compete this year and help us defend this Stanley Cup championship as we’re chasing another one.”