According to Craig Custance of ESPN, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vladislav Namestnikov have agreed to terms on a two-year contract that will pay the 23-year-old $1.9375 million per season. The Lightning and Namestnikov were previously slated to negotiate through the NHL’s arbitration process, but both sides were able to reach a deal that ultimately benefited both the team and player.
Lightning and Vladislav Namestnikov agree to 2-year deal worth $1.9375 million per season.
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) July 27, 2016
Namestnikov is coming off of his best season to date, scoring 14 goals and 35 points in 80 games. At just 23-years-old, the young Russian forward has a lot left to show to Lightning fans, and he now has a fresh two-year deal to prove it. The Lightning have a slew of young talent at the forward position, with eight players currently under contract age 26-or-younger on their NHL roster.
Steve Yzerman has had a very busy offseason to date, re-signing big names such as Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Alex Killorn. Namestnikov was one of the last names left on the Lightning’s to-do list with Nikita Kucherov still waiting to sign his extension. Tampa Bay has been one of the best teams in the NHL over the last few seasons and with a successful offseason that has kept the entire team together so far, it doesn’t look like they’ll be slowing down in the 2016-17 season.
