Contract Extensions (Jul 2)

There was so much going on in the beginning hours of Saturday, it was hard to keep up. So we'll continue on here.

The St. Louis Blues announced that they had extended their number one goalie, Jake Allen, signing him to a new 4-year extension, which will start in the 2018 season, carrying a cap hit of $4.35 million over those four seasons.

With Brian Elliott shipped off to Calgary this off-season, the Blues are fully Allen's team and now he will be taken care of as such.

There is a full expectation that his numbers will certainly improve, given more responsibility in the net this coming season.

There's no harm in taking names off the board for next year's free agency period, right? The Tampa Bay Lightning don't think so, as they removed defenseman Victor Hedman from any sort of conversation next Summer.

The 2nd overall pick in the 2009 is now locked up for the CBA maximum of eight more seasons, starting in the the 2018 season and his cap hit will be of the franchise player variety, $7.875 million per year.

Last season, Hedman was 15th among all blueliners with 10 goals and 47 points in 78 games.

But wait! That's not all. The Tampa Bay Lightning also took goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy off the potential restricted free agency market, signing him to a new contract extension as well, 3 years, $10.5 million.

The 21-year old netminder from Russia still has another year left on his entry-level deal, but there has been many suggestions that the Lightning would be very comfortable moving Ben Bishop and his large contract out as soon as this season, giving the reins to Vasilevskiy.  Of course, there is no rush to do that, but when the expansion draft rolls around next Summer, there will be lots of conversation, if both goalies are still there.

Last season, Vasilevskiy picked up 24 points in 24 appearances with the Bolts, making him into a very decent back-up solution, as a worst-case scenario.