Over the weekend, Tampa completed deals with the Utah Hockey Club and the Los Angeles Kings, shipping out over $11M in cap dollars, sending Mikhail Sergachev to Utah and Tanner Jeannot to the Kings.
After these deals were completed, a report surfaced suggesting that the Lightning were preparing to take a real run at signing Jake Guentzel on July 1st. Well, as it turns out, the Lightning couldn't wait a little over 24 hours, pulling off a deal to acquire Guentzel's rights from the Canes.
On Saturday, we saw the Leafs acquire Chris Tanev's rights for an expiring prospect and a future 7th round pick. However, Guentzel has netted the Hurricanes a 3rd round pick from the Lightning.
Why the high cost? Well, for starters, Guentzel is probably the number one free agent this summer. The interest is going to be high, so for the Bolts, who have the money to sign him, getting a jump on the competition seemed like a no-brainer for a perennial contender.
This move, of course, comes at the cost of their captain, Steven Stamkos, who is expected to hit free agency on Monday.
