The Bolts

As it was reported on Friday, Brayden Point rejected an offersheet from the Montreal Canadiens. Point has been a primary target for the Canadiens. After he declined their offer, they tried to make an offersheet for the Carolina Hurricanes Sebastian Aho. Both players share the same agent.

From the Lightning perspective, this is a good sign. It means that Point and his agent are confident they can reach a deal without needing to involve another team to apply pressure. But that doesn’t mean we should expect a deal any time soon. The Lightning’s tight cap situation and Point’s outstanding performance over the last two seasons could cause this negotiation to go deep into the summer.

The Tampa Bay Lightning re-signed two players yesterday. The first one is Carter Verhaeghe who spent last season with the Syracuse Crunch and was their top scorer with 82 points [Raw Charge]

So, how does he build on that season? For the first time in his career, he has a legitimate shot at making an NHL team out of training camp. The Lightning do have some open spots on their bottom lines and Verhaeghe has the skill set to fill one of those openings. He is responsible enough defensively to avoid Coach Cooper’s doghouse and has the offensive upside to take advantage of other teams.

Shortly after Verhaeghe re-signed, the Lightning announced about a two-year contract extension for Cedric Paquette [Raw Charge]

This signing does not preclude the possibility that Paquette could be traded if the Lightning need to make a little bit of cap space. Or to make room for a prospect like Mitchell Stephens to take his place on the fourth line. While his value is not high, the Lightning could still get a mid-round pick for him though the small cap relief might be more valuable than the pick depending on how much Brayden Point is signed for.

Later that day, the NHLPA announced list of 40 players who have filed for arbitration. Cedric Paquette is on the list but signed a new deal after filling. The absence of Adam Erne on that list probably means that he’s close to a new agreement with the Lightning.

Check our report on this year’s third round pick Maxim Cajkovic [Raw Charge]

Overall, Cajkovic is an exciting prospect with loads of talent but some question marks that caused him to drop to the third round. That’s exactly the type of pick teams should be making in that range. Very few players drafted this late become impactful NHL players so taking a swing on upside makes sense in this range. The Lightning made a similar pick a few years ago in Alexei Lipanov. That one hasn’t worked out. Hopefully, this one goes better.

The Game

The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed their head coach Mike Sullivan to a four-year contract. Sullivan won the Stanley Cup two times as Pittsburgh Penguins head coach.

The Ottawa Senators announced a new coaching team for the 2019-20 season.

According to reports, the New York Islanders are considering an offersheet for restricted free agent Mitchell Marner after losing out on Artemi Panarin, who recently signed a deal with the Rangers.

Some new signings which happened on Friday:

Blushirt Banter blog wrote an article about how signing Artemi Panarin and drafting Kaapo Kakko would affect the first year in NHL for Vitali Kravtsov [Blueshirt Banter]

On June 21st, the Rangers made it official by drafting Kakko, a Finnish winger, with the pick, immediately changing the outlook of the rebuild and the future of the franchise. All of a sudden, Vitiali Kravtsov wasn’t going to be the guy the Rangers build around. The young Russian was going to have a friend to hang out with in the top-six for years to come

Buffalo Sabres prospect Dylan Cozens will probably miss training camp due to injury,

Scott Darling has spent some time volunteering in China.