Guentzel signs 7-year, $63 million contract with Lightning

Jake Guentzel signed a seven-year, $63 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. Its average annual amount is $9 million.

The 29-year-old forward was traded to the Lightning by the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and could have become an unrestricted free agent Monday at noon ET. He had 77 points (30 goals, 47 assists) in 67 regular season games for the Pittsburgh Hurricanes and Penguins last season, including 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) in 17 games after being acquired in a trade with the Penguins on March 7. Guentzel had nine points (four goals, five assists) in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games for Carolina.

Selected by Pittsburgh in the third round (77th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Guentzel has 491 points (227 goals, 264 assists) in 520 regular-season games with the Hurricanes and Penguins and 67 points (38 goals, 29 assists) in 69 playoff games. He won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2017.

Tampa Bay traded defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday for defenseman JJ Moser and forward Conor Geekie, a seventh-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft and a second-round pick in 2025. Lightning also sent forward Tanner Jeannot to the 2024 NHL Draft to the Los Angeles Kings for a fourth-round pick this year and a second-round pick in 2025.

Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said Saturday that forward Steven Stamkos, who is coming off the final season of an eight-year, $68 million contract (average annual value of $8.5 million) that he signed on June 29, 2016, will become an unrestricted free agent when the market opens.