Inside the NHL’s Biggest Contract Surprises of 2025: Who’s Winning and Losing Big Bucks?
What also helped is that two other core contracts also saw big improvement. Erik Cernak is back to looking like a $5 million defender while Andrei Vasilevskiy proved his 2023-24 struggles were purely a result of injury. He’s still got it and is back to a $9 million valuation.
Better depth (Jakob Pelletier and Pontus Holmberg) helps, too. But those are the driving forces.
Now, the Lightning have exactly zero problem contracts on the books but several solid deals, and their forward core is locked in at an incredible price. Between Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Hagel and Cirelli, the Lightning are paying $40.8 million for $58.5 million of value.
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