The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without Nikita Kucherov this season due to an injury to his hip that requires surgery. If there is any silver lining to the team losing their best player and former league MVP, it’s that his $9.5 million contract can now be spent with him on LTIR. Let’s quickly go over the numbers and discuss why the Lightning still aren’t out of their mess.
The following roster (I made the lines and pairings arbitrarily) costs $78.9 million. I have listed Nikita Kucherov’s contract at zero dollars, but in reality his contract creates a pool of $9.