The 5 Best Free Agency Signings This Summer in the Entire NHL

Jake Guentzel

The Carolina Hurricanes traded Guentzel's signing rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick.

Once the trade was completed, Guentzel signed a seven-year deal with an AAV of 9 million dollars in Tampa Bay.

Lightning general manager Julien BrisBois has had an interesting offseason. He let a franchise icon in Steven Stamkos walk and traded away one of the cornerstones of their blueline in Mikhail Sergachev to Utah.

Guentzel will certainly fill the hole in terms of production that the Lightning will lose from Stamkos' departure. The money they gave them is reasonable and being able to lock up a talent like Guentzel is huge, especially after losing a guy like Stamkos.

We'll see how this season plays out for Tampa Bay. Vasilevskiy missed some of last season after going through back surgery and will be able to have a full offseason to recover from it. The blueline will look different after losing Sergachev and bringing back Ryan McDonagh, as well as bringing in J.J Moser.

Not having a guy like Stamkos around the dressing room could affect the team as well, but just analyzing this signing in particular is very good.