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Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper may have offered fans a glimpse of defenseman Matt Carle’s future with the team during the final two games of the Eastern Conference Final last month.

Of course, that’s assuming Carle even has a future with the team.

He probably doesn’t. The Lightning spent some time during the regular season trying to move Carle in a trade and he didn’t do all that much to alter their plans during the playoffs.

His performance in Game 6 was a perfect example. Though he was in position to do so, Carle did little to prevent Conor Sheary from setting up the Penguins second goal of the game and he paid dearly for it.

After failing to engage Sheary, who was allowed to stop and deliver a pass to Kris Letang, who in turn gave the Pens a 2-0 lead 7:40 into the second period, Carle spent the rest of the night on the bench.

With seven defensemen dressed, Cooper turned to Slater Koekkoek, who logged nearly 13 minutes of ice time during the second half of Tampa Bay’s 5-2 loss, including the final shift after goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had been pulled.

Cooper went with Koekkoek again in Game 7, giving him more than 15 minutes of ice time while Carle, who was a healthy scratch 18 times during the regular season, watched yet again from the press box.

What Carle likely saw was his future flash in front of him as Koekkoek played another solid 15 minutes, finishing the game and his 10-game playoff run with one assist and a respectable minus-1 rating.

Now the Lightning have to decide whether to continue moving forward with Koekkoek or retain Carle in the case Koekkeok’s solid postseason was something other than an indication of what’s to come.

It’s a difficult call, largely because moving Carle during the offseason won’t be any easier than it was during the regular season. In fact, it could be even harder.

Carle has a contract that, in addition to having a modified no-movement clause that allows him to kill virtually any trade, calls for him to make $5.5 million each of the next two seasons.

That doesn’t mean the Lighting can’t move him. They can. The problem is that just about every option they have to move him will likely result in the Lightning still paying Carle over the next two or more years.

The only way they can avoid that is by finding a buyer that Carle approves of who is willing to take on his entire salary. The chances of that, though, still seem unlikely.

All of which leaves Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman with three options, the first of which is to simply hold on to Carle and hope his play improves. That, too, seems unlikely.

Secondly, he could find a buyer who is willing to give him something in return, probably a draft pick, for taking on at least a portion of Carle’s contract.

The other option is to simply buy out the final two years of Carle’s contract and accept the fact he’ll count about $1.8 million against the Lightning’s cap for the next four years. Yes, it’s a costly option, but it would clear about $3.7 million off the cap and that $3.7 million could be critical to the Lightning’s future.

In addition to finding a way to retain center Steven Stamkos, Yzerman also has to find ways this offseason to secure the longterm services of several members of his team’s young core.

That group includes forwards Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Cedric Paquette and J.T. Brown and defenseman Nikita Nesterov. And then there are the goalies.

With the possibility of expansion looming, Yzerman may have to act now to ensure he gets something for either Ben Bishop, who has another year left on his contract, or Andrei Vasilevskiy. And if his decision is to retain the fare more established Bishop and move Vasilevskiy, then he’ll still have to find the money to keep Bishop around beyond next season.

Some of that money will almost certainly come from moving Carle, however Yzerman decides to do it. But even with $18 million in cap space, Yzerman may need more if he really hopes to keep his team’s core intact.

Where can he find it? Again, he has some options, the best of which may be to find a way to reduce the cap hit the team is taking from the presence of forward Valtteri Filppula.

At 32, Filppula is Tampa Bay’s oldest forward. He is also one of their least productive. He produced just 31 points (eight goals) during the regular season and only seven (one goal) during the playoffs.

Granted, Filppula is also one of the Lightning’s best faceoff men, but $5 million over the next two years is a lot of money for someone who is at his best in the faceoff circle and passes on far too many shooting opportunities.

At the end of the day, Yzerman would probably rather have Filppula than not. But you can probably say the same thing about Carle.

The bottom line is he can’t afford to keep both. And he may not be able to afford either.

What should the Lightning do with Matt Carle?