Most Valuable Tampa Bay Lightning Players

The Tampa Bay Lightning have become a notable example of a team that has had to make the most of valuable salary cap space over the years.

They have an opportunity to catch a break with the cap going up over the next few seasons. However, they should get some credit for how they were able to piece together competitive teams despite cap headaches.

Let’s take a look at who some of the most valuable players are offensively in comparison to their cap hit. It can help paint a picture of what they’ve been able to get out of the roster they’ve been able to construct.

To be transparent, this isn’t meant to be an exact science. It’s meant to be a fun thought experiment. Some players will cost more per point, but we would all rather have them. If anything, it will show that it’s worth the investment at times.

I also fully understand that offense isn’t everything. Players contribute in various ways.

There’s one rule that I established to keep things reasonable. Each player being looked at had to play at least 41 games, or half the season. There needed to be a cutoff, and half the season felt reasonable. It gives injured players and part-time role players a chance to be evaluated. However, it prevents any crazy, screwed numbers from being included.

Best Bang for Your Buck

One player by dollar value ran away with it. Second place was more than double the cost per point. The honor of having the best bang for your buck was Darren Raddysh. He had a breakout season on the dirt cheap, coming at $13,929 per point. Getting 70 points with a $975,000 cap hit will do that.

The next best value went to a newer addition on defense, Charle-Edouard D’Astous. It’s not too surprising. He stood out as someone who came up in the clutch for the Lightning from time to time during the regular season.

Here is the full top five before we continue the breakdown.

1. Darren Raddysh: $13,929 
2. Charle-Edouard D’Astous: $30,172
3. Gage Goncalves: $36,364 
4. Zemgus Girgensons: $46,250 
5. Dominic James: $60,667 

It’s likely none of the names you were expecting, right? Some of the notable names were actually not that far off. Nikita Kucherov came in at $73,077 per point, and Brandon Hagel came in at $87,838.

Both are pretty good, given their cap hits ($9.5 million for Kucherov and $6.5 million for Hagel).

Now, this is where the reminder that this isn’t an exact science comes in. Obviously, Kucherov and Hagel are better players than those in the top five.

So, there are two takeaways from this, and they can both be true. One is that some extra investment is worth it. It’s worth paying for players like Kucherov and Point.

Another is that low-cost, effective depth is valuable. Guys like Gage Goncalves and Dominic James made for nice options for offensive depth, and getting those options at a low cost provides more cap flexibility.

Worst Offensive Value

By far the worst was Erik Cernak, at $472,727 per point. Most defensemen not named Darren Raddysh get punished the most in this regard.

Their primary role isn’t to provide offense, though the Lightning certainly got relatively more value from other defensemen, such as Ryan McDonagh ($195,238) and JJ Moser ($232,758).

Two forwards managed to find themselves in the bottom five among qualifiers for this list: Nick Paul ($210,000) and Brayden Point ($190,000).

Both dealt with their share of injuries last season, and neither looked quite like themselves when they were available.

For what it’s worth, for Point, he started to look more like himself after the Olympics, which he missed due to injury. He had 20 points in 26 games. During that stretch, prorated to that stretch, it came at $134,126 per point.

After one season, it’s not a concern that these players provided that little production. They were hurt. When they’re healthy, it’s expected they’ll look closer to their normal selves and produce much closer to what is expected based on their cap hits.

If they’re healthy, and this is still what we see, that’s another story. However, let’s cross that bridge if we get there.

Takeaways From Stats

Going into this, the goal was to see who were the biggest steals, in a sense, according to their contracts. In some cases, their overall production relative to their cap hit reflected the season they had, such as Raddysh, D’Astous or Goncalves.

On the open market, both players would likely draw more money than they are currently making. It will vary. Raddysh certainly goes for more than D’Astrous, but a defenseman that tallies about 30 points per season with solid defense would go for more than $875,000 per season. Goncalves is making $1,200,000. You can expect that to tick up when he is a restricted free agent next offseason.

That being said, the top five players who are the cheapest per point don’t all indicate the best value. Getting Kucherov at just $73,077 per point is unreal. After averaging 131 points over the last three seasons, a big question is what the cost per point will increase to if he gets an extension or signs elsewhere in free agency.

To look at another, Hagel at $87,838 is also a great value. After having 30 goals or more in three of his last four seasons and at least 74 points three times in that span, it’s not unrealistic to say he would get around $8 million or more per season, which would bring the cost up to $108,108 per season.

Credit to the Lightning. They know how to time out and lock down the right deals at the right times. It’s allowed them to put a Cup contender on the ice despite the multiple seasons of cap headaches. It could have been worse, like it has been for other teams. Instead, they got ahead early, and it’s worked out.