Lightning meet immediate needs without compromising prospect pool

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 7, 2025

Published in Hockey

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TAMPA, Fla. — Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois offered some poetic words about regret after trading a pair of first-round draft picks to the Kraken for forwards Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand Wednesday.

We already knew BriseBois has an all-in mentality. While the Lightning’s personnel has changed over the years, the talent level of the group currently assembled is still special. Its recent run into the thick of the Atlantic Division race reemphasized that.

“Ultimately,” BriseBois said, “the calculation is that trying and failing will yield less regret than failing to try.”

This trade deadline figured to be an arms race, and while the Lightning are in a three-team battle in the Atlantic with the Panthers and Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay’s goal isn’t to win the division; it’s to hoist another Stanley Cup. Florida struck both early and late with deals for defenseman Seth Jones, and forwards Brad Marchand and Nico Sturm. Toronto added forward Scott Laughton and defenseman Brandon Carlo.

The Lightning won’t have to worry about Mikko Rantanen, who went from Carolina to Dallas in a blockbuster trade Friday, unless they face the Stars in the Cup final. Winnipeg, which has the best record in the NHL, made a couple of acquisitions that weren’t especially splashy but made the Jets tougher, getting former Tampa Bay defenseman Luke Schenn and forward Brandon Tanev.

While the Lightning worked until Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline to see if there were any other moves that might fit them, they weren’t really concerned with what other teams did. They met their own needs by getting a pair of two-way forwards who will make them a tougher out in the postseason.

BriseBois hopes to re-sign Gourde, who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season but loves Tampa and didn’t want to leave when he was taken by Seattle in the 2021 expansion draft. The Lightning will get two seasons out of Bjorkstrand before he can hit the open market.

Before that happens, the Lightning hope to hang more Stanley Cup banners from the rafters at Amalie Arena.

Did BriseBois overpay? That answer won’t be known for months, or even years. First-round picks beyond the first few selections are lottery tickets.

We can now say that BriseBois paid too much for Tanner Jeannot two deadlines ago. But the 2022 Brandon Hagel deal, which included two first-rounders and more, certainly looks like a win. And let’s face it, when BriseBois swings for the fences he typically hits it out of the park.

Now that the dust has settled on this trade season, the biggest victory for BriseBois might be that he added two players who can help the Lightning now without having to dip into an improved pool of prospects who are close to contributing to the NHL club. Judging by the number of player who remained with their teams, it was clear that some of the asking prices were astronomical.

It certainly makes it easier to deal picks when you have Isaac Howard, Conor Geekie, Dylan Duke and Ethan Gauthier waiting in the wings. This season presented a seller’s market, because so many teams remained in the playoff race in the days leading up to the deadline. Nevertheless, BriseBois was able to keep all of Tampa Bay’s prospects.

“I’m excited to have those guys, because eventually I expect that they’re going to play for the Tampa Bay Lightning and they’re going to help us win games themselves,” BriseBois said. ”And because they are further along in their development than first-round picks two and three years from now, obviously they’re closer to being able to help us win than whatever player I would have gone with those picks had I selected a player in that draft are in terms of helping us win in the short term.”

We’ve been talking about the Lightning’s window closing for years, but BriseBois has planned well for the future by locking up players like Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul and Erik Cernak. The aforementioned prospects will add to that group sooner than later without taking up much cap space.

Still, big questions loom. Among them are the futures of Nikita Kucherov, who can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 season, and Andrei Vasilevskiy, whose contract ends the following year.

BriseBois will get the benefit of a huge salary-cap spike over the next four years (it’s expected to increase by $25.5 million over the next three). Having players like Guentzel and Hagel on contracts that will become big bargains as the cap grows will help, too. So will the potential for the Lightning’s prospects to become impact players for cheap.

So, as much as BriseBois wears the win-now tag proudly, he uses every opportunity to prepare for the future. In this case, what he didn’t lose at the trade deadline can make fans feel better about the future.

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