The past 48 hours have certainly been a whirlwind for the Lightning and for forward Jake Guentzel.
It was speculated Friday that the Lightning had massive interest in the 29-year-old, The Lightning completed a trade on Sunday morning to acquire Guentzel’s signing rights to have exclusive negotiations.
On Monday morning, just a few hours before unrestricted free agency was set to begin, the Lightning and Guentzel agreed to a seven year, $63 million contract ($9M AAV).
Guentzel’s $9M AAV will rank fourth on the Lightning, behind Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, as well as goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, all who make $9.5M per season.
Guentzel, 29, has been in the NHL for eight seasons, 7 1/2 spent with the Pittsburgh Penguins and a half season stint with the Hurricanes. Guentzel is coming off one of his most productive seasons to date, totaling 30 goals and a career high 47 assists in just 67 games between the Penguins and Hurricanes. His 25 points in 17 games with Carolina ranks as the most points scored by a trade deadline acquisition in NHL history.
Guentzel has scored 40 goals twice in his career, and added two more 30 goals seasons. Guentzel has also put up a 38 goals and 67 points in 69 playoff games over seven trips to the playoffs, winning the Stanley Cup in 2016-17 with a playoff-high 13 goals and scoring an absurd 10 goals in 12 games in the 2017-18 playoffs.
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