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TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is a visible proprietor but he’s not a vocal one. When he does speak it’s usually with his wallet, which was his voice again on Friday.

Two days after giving the go-ahead to sign center Steven Stamkos to an eight-year, $68 million contract, Vinik OK’d an eight-year, $63 million deal for defenseman Victor Hedman.

He then gave his approval to a three-year, $10.5 million extension for goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who could very well spend the 2016-17 season backing up 2016 Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop. Again.

The payouts won’t end there. Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman is engaged in contract talks with the agent for winger Nikita Kucherov and is hopeful a deal to keep him in the fold can get done soon.

When it does, Vinik will have laid out more than $150 million to just four players. You get the feeling he would spend twice that if that’s what it would take to get what it is he’s really after.

“He wants to win,’’ Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman said. “He wants to see this team do well and we’ve come close (to winning a Stanley Cup) here the last two years, so, he just wants to win.’’

If you’re still wondering why Stamkos left more money on the table in Toronto or why Hedman signed an extension a year before he could even test free agency or why Vasilevskiy agreed to come back to quite possibly spend another season as a backup, there’s your answer.

Sure, the money’s great, but there’s something about what’s happening in Tampa right now, something about what has transpired there over the last few years that makes the money and the value of the contracts secondary, and it all started with Vinik.

Vinik was the one who brought in Yzerman, and when he was afraid he’d lose him to another team, it was Yzerman who brought in coach Jon Cooper. The Lightning have been an Eastern Conference power ever since.

Now their core players are showing a willingness to make financial sacrifices of their own to keep it that way. More will have to do the same, Hedman said, to achieve their goal.

“We have a successful team and it’s going to come down to numbers with the cap,’’ he said. “That means it’s going to be difficult to keep the team together, so it’s going to take a little bit of sacrifice (on the part of the players). For us moving forward, it’s going to be important for everyone to buy in to that.’’

It seems Kucherov is buying in. Yzerman wouldn’t talk specifics but he seems to have a gauge on what it will take to get what may be the Lighting’s next superstar under contract and he seems comfortable with those financial parameters. At the same time, Yzerman realizes the limits of the salary cap will soon be tested and he admits that within a year he may have to make some very difficult decisions.

“Between now and the start of (the) 2017-18 (season), if we’re going to sign all the players, we’re going to have to make some changes,’’ he said. “To what extent I’m not sure, but we’re not going to be able sign every single guy and keep the exact same group together.’’

Some of those changes have already been made. As expected, the Lightning bought out defensive Matt Carle on Thursday. They may have to do the same eventually with Valtteri Filppula and maybe even Ryan Callahan.

And then there’s Bishop. Like Stamkos and Hedman, he’s part of the core and he’s already being paid like it. He’ll make $5.95 million in this, the last year of his current contract.

He’s likely to make far more in his next contract. Still, it’s clear Yzerman doesn’t want to lose him. He especially doesn’t want to lose him for nothing the way he could have lost Stamkos for nothing.

Already he seems to have a plan in place to avoid that, but for the time being and quite possibly for the entirety of the 2016-17 season, it looks like Bishop will be a Bolt.

“I have an idea in mind of what I want to do (regarding Bishop) … so we’ll just see how things play out,’’ Yzerman said. “If something that makes sense happens a day from now, a month from now, or at the trade deadline, we’ll look at it. We’re prepared if need be. But it wouldn’t be the worst situation in the world to have two really good goaltenders to play the year out. We could keep both goaltenders here (all season), that’s quite possible.’’

It is with Vinik. He’s all about winning, after all, and to the limits the salary cap allows, he has proven in the last few days that he’s willing to give Yzerman the money necessary to make that happen.

Vinik can’t make it happen on his own, though. As Hedman said, the players, particularly the core players, are going to have to do their part, which means making sacrifices.

Stamkos has already made his. So has Hedman. Might Bishop be next?

Lightning’s core players prove money isn’t everything