The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed forward Anthony Cirelli to a new deal, keeping together another important part of the roster that won the Stanley Cup last season.
The team confirmed the news on Thursday, announcing that Cirelli returns to Tampa Bay on a three-year contract. The agreement is worth $14.4 million, with the 23-year-old center set to earn $4.8 million per year on average.
By signing Cirelli, who played out his entry-contract in 2019-20, the Lightning managed to hold onto all of their restricted free-agents ahead of the new NHL season.
“Essentially we have everyone signed that we wanted to have signed prior to the start of the season,” said BriseBois.
The reason why the Lightning took a bit longer to tie Cirelli to a long-term deal was the team’s cap issues. Tampa Bay was projected to be $6 million over the league’s salary cap and couldn’t lock him without making some major moves. In the end, there wasn’t a need for that since the Lightning got major cap-relief due to the injury of star winger Nikita Kucherov.
Anthony Cirelli played a big role for the Lightning in 2019-20, contributing with 16 goals and 28 assists for a career-high 44 points. Cirelli added three goals and nine assists in the postseason.
