Lightning lock up Vasilevskiy with 8-year, $76M extension

The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy to an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $9.5 million, the team announced Monday.

The contract will make Vasilevskiy the third-highest-paid goaltender in the league behind Carey Price ($10.5M) and Sergei Bobrovsky ($10M). But while Price and Bobrovsky signed their long-term deals at 29 and 30, respectively, Vasilevskiy is just 25. He was scheduled to become a restricted free agent next summer.

In 2018-19, Vasilevskiy claimed the first Vezina Trophy of his career as the league's top goaltender. He went 39-10-4 with a 2.40 goals-against average, a .925 save percentage, and six shutouts.

While necessary, Vasilevskiy's extension creates further cap problems for the Lightning when his new deal kicks in next summer. The Bolts project to have just over $14 million in cap space for 2020-21, but Brayden Point is still without a deal; Anthony Cirelli, Mathieu Joseph, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak will all see their entry-level contracts expire on July 1, 2020.