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.
Brandon Share-Cohen has covered the NHL and various professional sports for six years. Working with The Hockey Writers, Brandon works extensively on covering the Boston Bruins in addition to his role as the News Team Lead.
