Tampa GM: 'I'll Move Players to Create Cap Space'

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced they have signed restricted free-agent defenseman, Mikhail Sergachev to a three-year deal, and while it's great for Tampa GM, Julien BriseBois to get the deal done, his work is far from over.

The Lightning are now roughly $2 million over the salary cap with Sergachev's latest $4.8 million added to the books and the team still needs to sign their last two restricted free-agents, Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli. While there's been tons of trade interest in both, BriseBois will be signing them, and expect to see one of the veteran forwards traded and soon...

BriseBois met with the media and had this to say about the future of his roster:

Not keeping them was never something we would seriously consider. There's significant will on our end to make (new deals) happen. They're a big part of why I look at our organization and future with a lot of promise.

I know I have to move players to make that happen, and I'm confident I'll be able to move the players to create cap space. There's a lot of progress being made. We're working on a bunch of different fronts, there's a lot of balls up in the air. Nothing has materialized yet.

It seems like every year whoever wins the Stanley Cup has to make some huge roster decisions the following season. The Lightning next season will be no different.

Most likely to get traded is Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn. Two veterans for the team who hold heavy contract tags and have seen their production slide the last few seasons. Johnson is due $5 million for the next four seasons, meanwhile Killorn is due $4.45 over the next three.

Keep an eye on Tampa Bay, trades are coming!