The Tampa Bay Lightning signed Alex Killorn to a seven-year
contract on Sunday, avoiding an arbitration hearing set for Wednesday July 20.
Lightning general manager, Steve Yzerman told the Tampa Bay Times, “We are very comfortable
doing a long-term deal at the right cap number with Alex. He has been with us
his entire career. He is a high-character young man, tremendously fit and a
part of the core of our team. We are trying to keep the core together as much
as we can.”
Killorn, 26, put up 14 goals and 26 assists in 81 games for
the Bolts this past season. In 17 Stanley Cup Playoff games, he added five
goals and eight assists. During the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final, in
2014-2015, he finished third on the team with nine goals and 18 points, before
falling to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.
Yzerman added, “He is
a very reliable, very useful in all situations player. He can play right wing,
can play left wing, can play in all spots. He has played very well in the
playoffs for us. One thing that was important to Alex is that he wants to play
in Tampa and he would like a long-term deal. And we were able to work it out.”
The Lightning selected Killorn in the third round, 77th
overall, of the 2007 National Hockey League Entry Draft. In 272 regular season
games with the Bolts, he has scored 53 goals and 85 assists, while adding 15
more goals and 18 more assists in 47 playoff games.
The Lightning have three restricted free agents left to get
under contracts for the upcoming season, forwards, Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav
Namestnikov as well as defenseman, Nikita Nesterov.
Namestnikov is scheduled to have an arbitration hearing on
July 29. Yzerman said, “We will certainly
try to get something done before the hearing. But if we have to go, we have to
go.”
The Lightning also recently resigned forward Cory Conacher
to a one-year, one-way 575,000-dollar contract last Wednesday as well. The
Killorn deal is worth almost 4.45 million-dollars per season.
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