Kolzig Bolts to Tampa

The hourly Tampa Bay update continues with the signing of goaltender Olaf Kolzig to a 1-year deal, worth $1.5 million plus bonuses. The 38-year old goaltender was ousted from his comfy spot as the Capitals number one this season, only to be relegated to unrestricted free agency. The Lightning were still searching for their true number one goalie and it looks as though they have it in Kolzig. At the $1.5 million price tag, he also comes in as a real bargain as well.

Kolzig did manage 25 wins before Cristobel Huet joined the team at the deadline and he finished the year 54 pool points, which did rank him fairly high. As the Tampa number one, he re-gains his pool value and should be a hot commodity come draft day.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Vincent Lecavalier	Paul Ranger	Olaf Kolzig
Martin St. Louis	Filip Kuba	Mike Smith
Vaclav Prospal	Dan Boyle	Karri Ramo
Radim Vrbata	Shane O'Brien
Ryan Malone	Brad Lukowich
Jeff Halpern	Alexandre Picard
Jussi Jokinen	Mike Lundin
Michel Ouellet
Gary Roberts
Jason Ward
Nick Tarnasky
Adam Hall

This signing now nearly completes the necessitative work to have a full line-up for next season and it's only July 1st. They now have 22 players signed on at a cap hit of $46.6 million. It certainly doesn't look like there will be any moves out for players already in Tampa.