Kucherov Contract Talks With Lightning Go Quiet

Pierre LeBrun says he expected Nikita Kucherov to have a new contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning in place by now, and that the silence from both sides on the matter has caught him off guard.

Kucherov, 33, became eligible to sign an extension on 1 July. The coming season is the final year of his current eight-year deal, which carries a cap hit of $9.5 million. His agent, Dan Milstein, normally forthcoming with reporters, has held firm since talks began that he will give no comment, on the record or off, and repeated that position again on Tuesday. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois has likewise declined to discuss the negotiations, in keeping with his usual practice of staying silent while talks are active.

LeBrun noted that 16 September could weigh on the timeline. From that date, terms of the league's new collective bargaining agreement take effect, cutting the maximum contract length from eight years to seven. Any deal signed before then could still run eight years, and at 33 Kucherov might see a longer term mainly as a way to lower the cap hit for Tampa Bay, a structure the club has used with him before. LeBrun's own view is that an extension still gets done, though he had expected it to arrive back in July.