Tampa Bay Lightning: Best Addition And Worst Subtraction Of The Summer

Now that the off-season seems to be slowing down, we have a pretty good idea of every team's roster heading into this upcoming year. In this segment, we will be going over the best addition and worst subtraction for each of them. Something important to note is that players who were re-signed or given extensions will not be eligible for the "best addition" section. The same applies for draft picks from this year's NHL Entry Draft.

In this piece, we will be focusing on the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had many notable departures and are in an interesting place heading into this season. They were able to bring in a few additions on cheap contracts, but their losses are far more notable at the end of the day.

Best Addition: Corey Perry RW

The Lightning may have lost a lot of players due to their lack of cap space, but they managed to sign veteran Corey Perry to a two-year, $2 million deal. He just had a great season with the Montreal Canadiens in a bottom-six role. In 49 games, he scored nine goals and recorded 21 points. He also was very effective during their postseason run, as he had four goals and 10 points in 22 games. He will be a nice addition to their bottom-six and should provide a little of everything. He also is another player who has won a Stanley Cup and has been to three Stanley Cup Finals, so that certainly does not hurt.

Worst Subtraction: Yanni Gourde C

There are plenty of potential options for this section, but Yanni Gourde stands out to me personally. Losing him to the Expansion Draft for nothing stings, especially when looking at how well he has performed. In 56 games this season, he scored 17 goals and had 36 total points. Keep in mind, he was limited to third-line minutes, so it will be intriguing to see how he does with Seattle in a bigger role. He also has four years left on his deal, so he could have been a long-term part of Tampa Bay.

Honorable mentions obviously go out to Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Johnson and David Savard. Coleman and Goodrow both landed themselves big paydays on the open market because of how well they played with Gourde. Therefore, Tampa has lost their entire third-line this summer.