How The Fuck Are The Lightning Going To Pay Brayden Point?

The Tampa Bay Lightning signed goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy today to a monster 8-year extension with an AAV of $9.5m and while it’s good they locked up their goalie for the next 8 years it leaves one enormous question and that is how the fuck are they going to pay Brayden Point?

In 79 games last season, Point had 92 points (41g, 51a) and established himself as an elite, versatile, goal scoring center/wing combo for the Lightning. The best part? Point only had a cap hit of 686k last season. 40 goals from a guy you aren’t even paying a million dollars is what teams dream of. Well, the Lightning’s dream has come to an end and it’s time to pay their guy. Which is going to be extremely difficult with only $5.5m in projected cap space.

If Point was a UFA this offseason he would have easily got a contract similar to Jeff Skinner, somewhere in the $9 million range. It sucks for him that he is restricted because there is no way the Lightning can give him what he is worth without moving a decent roster player.

Ryan McDonagh, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are some names I think the Lightning could try and move. But what leverage do they have? Every team knows that the Lightning need to sign Point and don’t have enough money.

There are a ton of moves to be made before the season starts. A lot of big name RFA’s are still unsigned and when you have situations like the Point and Lightning, fireworks are almost inevitable.