The Bolts will have at least three more years of Point./TIM WIRT
Tuesday, 2 a.m.
If his employee was the Tampa Bay Rays, you might have been nervous.
After all, Brayden was going to make a lot of money. And with him coming off of an injury, a short-sighted team might have let him walk. They might have talked about payroll, and big-market teams against small-market teams. And they might have forgotten what a great two-way player Point has been.
And if his employer was the Tampa Bay Bucs, you might have been worried.
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After all, the Bucs have a history of letting talent go. John Lynch. Michael Bennett. Doug Williams. The Bucs might have talked themselves out of spending the big bucks ... again.
Ah, but this is the Lightning. The team you believe in. The team you trust. The team that wants to win as badly as you want them to win.
Not for one second was I worried about Point. If he wanted to come here, his team would pick up the check. There would be no threats, no auction. If he was wanted, he would be back.
Now, he is.
Point signed a three year $20.75 million contract, one that will get fatter with his next check. Of course he did. This is the team that kept Steven Stamkos, and made Nikita Kucherov a priority, and Victor Hedman. This is the team that doesn't blink when it comes to keeping front-line players.
"In every negotiation there's some give and take," said Lightning general manager Julien BrisBois. "Ultimately, we feel this contract allows us to keep our nucleus for the coming years. It allows us to get Brayden in the full parts of the new season. There's a lot of reasons why I like this contract, but the two key reasons are that Brayden Point is under contract so I'll be able to count on his services for this season, and he's under contract for the next three years at a cap number that allows us to keep our core together to maintain our level of competitiveness for the near future here.
"Knowing that he will be part of our organization not only for the next three years, but the plan is to extend him beyond his three-year term here. Him and all the other players we've been able to lock up over the last few years gives us a really good nucleus that we feel good about for the foreseeable future here in Tampa. It's very promising for our organization and for our fans. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I'm well aware that there's a narrative that our players have over the last few years, worked with the organization to come to terms on contracts that allow us to keep our players and keep our group going forward and allow us to have the best team possible on the ice."
Point had hip surgery in the spring. It will be late October before he returns to the ice.
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