Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Jake Guentzel to Seven-Year Deal

Jake Guentzel James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

The Tampa Bay Lightning added forward Jake Guentzel to their team, and all it cost was a 2025 third-round pick and a $9-million cap hit.

Tampa Bay acquired Guentzel's signing rights from the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday and signed him to a seven-year contract worth $63 million.

Guentzel is a significant addition to the Lightning, which have lost in the first round of the playoffs in back-to-back years. The 29-year-old recorded 30 goals and 47 assists for 77 points in 67 games this past season between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hurricanes. He's consistently averaged close to or more than a point per game in the past seven seasons.

In eight career seasons, the Omaha, Neb., native has played 520 games and recorded 227 goals and 264 assists for 491 points. He also won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017 and has 38 goals and 67 points in 69 career playoff games.

Guentzel could slot in on the top left wing slot beside center Brayden Point and right winger Nikita Kucherov as the Lightning try to renew their competitive window. Although they traded defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, they brought in forward prospect Conor Geekie and up-and-coming NHL blueliner J.J. Moser, who averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time per game with the Arizona Coyotes.

The signing leaves the Lightning with $6.63 million in cap space with a projected 18 of 23 active roster spots filled, per PuckPedia. Eight players became UFAs on Monday, including captain Steven Stamkos. On Saturday, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois confirmed they would be heading to July 1 without a deal done and that the team and Stamkos will do what's right for themselves.

Without waiting to see what happens with Stamkos, who recorded 81 points in 79 games for the Lightning in 2023-24 and has consistently averaged more than a point per game for more than a decade, the team signed Guentzel, who's four years younger. But with about at least two forwards and a defenseman to either sign or call up to The Show, Stamkos appears unlikely to be returning to the Bolts unless he signs at a massive discount.

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