LIGHTNING TO BUY OUT REMAINDER OF LECAVALIER'S CONTRACT
The Tampa Bay Lightning are parting ways with their longest-serving player, as the club will buy out the rest of Vincent Lecavalier's 11-year, $85 million contract.
"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 general Steve Yzerman in a statement on Thursday. "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.".
A compliance buyout of the the deal - paying out a total of $32.67 million - rids the Lightning of a $7.727 million salary cap hit through the 2019-20 season.
Lecavalier, 33, had 10 goals and 32 assists in 39 games last season.
He spent his entire 15-year NHL career with the Lightning, scoring 383 goals and 874 points in 1,037 regular season games and helped lead the Lightning to their first-ever Stanley Cup victory in 2004.