- The Lightning’s first contract offer to Nikita Kucherov was around $13 million per season, per Kevin Weekes
- Tampa Bay moved to $15 million only after the Leo Carlsson offer sheet and Cale Makar’s $20 million deal
- Read below for what Weekes says about the Nashville meeting and where Kucherov stands
The Lightning started Nikita Kucherov at about $13 million a year, not the $15 million that has been floating around all weekend.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported Sunday that Tampa Bay’s first offer to the reigning Hart Trophy winner was around $13 million per season. The team only moved to $15 million after Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet and Cale Makar’s record deal reset the market, according to Weekes.
Weekes put it this way in his post:
The $15 million figure is the one David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period passed along Friday as chatter, which we covered in our earlier story on the offer. Weekes now adds that it was the second number, not the first.
The comparison point is Makar, who signed an eight-year, $163.2 million extension with Colorado in August. Carlsson landed a five-year, $90 million deal in Anaheim after the offer sheet. Kucherov has watched both numbers climb while his own contract talks crawled along at $9.5 million.
Weekes also described the meeting where Kucherov made his request. He said four people were in the room in Nashville: Kucherov, his agent Dan Milstein, general manager Julien BriseBois and head coach Jon Cooper.
Kucherov has a great relationship with Cooper, Weekes said, and plans to play out his contract. He has told his teammates and the club he will not re-sign in Tampa. That lines up with what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported when the trade request first broke.
BriseBois has said the team has “no intention” of trading him, and Friedman said Kucherov rarely changes his mind once he has decided. The 33-year-old has four goals and 14 assists in 13 games this season, and the Lightning play on with their captain’s contract situation hanging over the room.
