- Kucherov is entering the final year of an eight-year, $76 million deal at a $9.5 million cap hit
- The CBA expires Sept. 15, and the new one caps a team at seven years on its own player
- Read below for what Julien BriseBois has said about keeping the reigning MVP in Tampa
Nikita Kucherov is the biggest name still sitting inside the eight-year window, and that window shuts on Sept. 15.
Tampa Bay can still hand its reigning MVP a full eight years on an extension. Once the current CBA expires and the new agreement takes over, a club maxes out at seven on its own player. The Lightning have 11 days.
Julien BriseBois has not sounded like a man in a hurry. Asked on July 1, the first day Kucherov could put pen to paper, whether anything was close, the general manager offered intent instead of specifics.
“I’ll reiterate that we would like Nikita to stay here, he would like to stay here,” BriseBois said in the team’s July 1 recap.
Talks with agent Dan Milstein had opened by then, then went quiet behind free agency and a busy trade market.
“We’ve had chats. Just because there wasn’t a pressing deadline to accomplish something versus these free agents, if you don’t sign them today, they’re gone,” BriseBois said. “We’ll circle back to his representative, and when we have something to announce we’ll make an announcement.”
There is a pressing deadline now.
Kucherov is playing out the last season of the eight-year, $76 million contract he signed in 2018, a $9.5 million cap hit that turned into one of the great bargains of the cap era. He won his second Hart Trophy in June after piling up 130 points in 76 games:
He led the NHL in points per game at 1.71 and finished second in assists with 86. Somewhere in the middle of it he ran off 104 points across a 50-game stretch, the most by any player over 50 games since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.
Jon Cooper was asked what separates his winger the week the trophy was announced, and the answer had nothing to do with the award.
“One of the great things that makes Kuch Kuch is he’s never satisfied. He could have 50 goals one year. Well, he wants to get 51 next year. Could have 100 assists one year, he’ll want 110 the next year,” Cooper told TampaBayLightning.com.
Watch what Tampa Bay is trying to keep around:
Age is the wrinkle. Kucherov turns 34 next June, so eight years would carry him to an age-41 season and leave the Lightning paying premium money well into a retool they have not started yet. Seven years does not solve that, though it does trim a season off the back end.
Vancouver read the same calendar this week and signed Zeev Buium through 2034-35 rather than give up the extra year.
Kucherov opened our top 50 forwards list at No. 1 two days ago. Tampa Bay has until Sept. 15 to decide how many years that is worth.
