Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Lightning Will Buyout Lecavalier

06/27/2013 at 10:00am EDT

TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning will use a compliance buy-out, as allowed by the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, on center Vincent Lecavalier, vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman announced today. Lecavalier becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 5, eligible to sign with any team in the NHL, except Tampa Bay. The Lightning will pay Lecavalier two-thirds of the value of his existing contract over twice the term of the deal.

“Vinny has been a significant reason for many of our past successes, including the 2004 Stanley Cup, and his contributions to the community are immeasurable,” said Yzerman upon announcing the buyout. “The Lightning organization is indebted to Vinny; we thank him for all he has done here and we wish him well as he moves forward.

“After much internal deliberation, we believe this will prove to be a pivotal move for us as we strive to achieve our long term goal of competing at the highest level, year-in, year-out. The economics and structure of the CBA are necessitating this decision and we at the Lightning are excited at the newly created opportunities this presents to us.”

added 11:02am,

John Fontana of Raw Charge informs us Steve Yzerman sent out an emaill this morning regarding buying out Lecavalier...

I am writing to inform you that we have elected to "buy-out" the contract of Vincent Lecavalier today. Working under the parameters set forth in the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), each National Hockey League team is permitted two "compliance buy-outs" over the next two years. We have elected to use one of these buyouts to better position ourselves to operate under this new CBA. In buying-out Vinny's contract we are creating approximately $7.7 million of salary cap space for each of the next seven seasons as his contract will no longer count against the team's cap.

The decision to part ways with Vinny was not made easily. In fact, it will cost the Lightning (and owner Jeff Vinik) nearly $32.7 million over the next 14 years. However, after much internal deliberation, we believe this will prove to be a pivotal move for us as we strive to achieve our long term goal of competing at the highest level year-in, year-out.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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