Tampa Bay GM Ready to Talk Kucherov Extension, but Free Agency Came First

Nikita Kucherov is about to get paid. Again. And the Tampa Bay Lightning know it.

Wednesday marked the official start of NHL free agency, but it also opened the door for players entering the final year of their contracts to negotiate extensions with their current teams. For Kucherov, that means he’s eligible to talk about a new deal that will almost certainly blow past his current $9.5 million cap hit.

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois told reporters they’ll be sitting down with Kucherov’s agent, Dan Milstein, soon. “We will be engaged with Dan in short order,” BriseBois said, via Eduardo A. Encina on X.

BriseBois was honest about why talks haven’t started yet. The last few weeks were a whirlwind. Free agents needed signing or they’d walk. Trade opportunities came with deadlines. Kucherov wasn’t going anywhere, so his extension could wait a beat.

“We’ve had chats,” BriseBois said, via NHL.com. “Just because there wasn’t a pressing deadline to accomplish something versus these free agents–if you don’t sign them today, they’re gone. These trade opportunities, if you don’t pursue them, they disappear–that kind of took precedent the last few weeks. We’ll circle back to his representative, and when we have something to announce, we’ll make an announcement.”

Kucherov is a Lightning legend at this point. Tampa Bay scooped him up with the 58th overall pick in the 2011 draft, and he’s turned into one of the most dangerous scorers in the league. He’s a two-time Hart Trophy winner as league MVP and has won the Ted Lindsay Award twice as the best player voted by his peers.

He’s also got three Art Ross Trophies on his shelf (2019, 2024, 2025) as the NHL’s top point-producer. In 2017, he finished second for the Maurice Richard Trophy, which goes to the league’s top goal scorer.

The Lightning have some cap gymnastics ahead of them. They’ve already made tough decisions in recent years, moving on from players like Alex Killorn and Corey Perry. Keeping Kucherov long-term is the priority, but it’s going to take serious creativity to fit him in under an increasingly tight salary cap.

For now, BriseBois sounds confident. Talks haven’t started in earnest yet, but they’re coming. And when they do, Kucherov’s bank account is about to look very different.