Tampa Bay Lightning Fully Aware Trades Are Coming This Summer

The Tampa Bay Lightning have won back-to-back Stanley Cups and now the team is going to be dismantled. It's been no secret the Lightning have salary cap issues on the horizon as they've enjoyed using LTIR this postseason. Turns out the players even talked about being broken up a couple of times during their Cup run.

Steven Stamkos says the #TBLightning spoke openly about the fact their team is about to be broken up by salary cap challenges twice during this playoff run.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 8, 2021

It's pretty awesome to hear them using it as motivation. For a team to win consecutive Cups is quite the feat in a hard cap world especially through a 2-year pandemic. 

As far as what to expect for trades, look for the likes of Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Yanni Gourde, and Ondrej Palat to be mentioned in trade rumors. Depending on the expansion draft as well, it could make decisions a little bit easier on who to trade for Lightning management. All four of the players mentioned have some form of trade protection, so they do have some control over their destination.

Look for teams like the Ottawa Senators, Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings to be active in trade discussions with the Lightning. As Dougie Hamilton reminded us all this postseason, Tampa Bay is basically almost $20 million over the salary cap and will need to make some moves.

Photo credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports