Bolts Sign Bergeron

This was kind of looming in the rumour mill for quite a while now and on Tuesday, the Lightning announced the signing of unrestricted free agent defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, giving him a deal that will run to the end of this season (2011), which has an annual value of $1 million.  This would work out to be about $516,000, if he was to join the active line-up right away, but a pass through waivers and a small stint through the minors for conditioning will have to be done before that, so his overall cap hit will be less than that.

Bergeron was a casualty of some big spending done by a lot of other teams in the Summer and many who had an eye on him as a free agent likely couldn't dip into their pockets, even for a $1 million deal like this one.  Of course, some teams could afford that, but they were not interested in what Bergeron had to offer.

In 2010 with the Canadiens, Bergeron had a very reasonable season, scoring 13 goals and adding 21 assists in 60 games, starting later in the season, due to a later signing after Andrei Markov was hurt.  Bergeron finished 249th in league scoring, 37th among all defensemen.  Those kind of numbers would have suggested he would have found a home long before now, but that just hasn't been the case.

Bergeron's value to the Lightning will come on the power play, which currently ranks 4th in the NHL at 23.1% effectiveness, so a boost to an already potent power play may very well be dangerous to the Eastern Conference.  The Lightning are currently 2nd in the Eastern Conference standings, 2 points behind Philadelphia for the lead.

The Lightning are not exactly considered a budget team this season and that is definitely working to their benefit. Annually, I have the Lightning with 23 players and 2 buyouts, not including Bergeron, at an annual rate of $56 million, which has a number of discounts and additions from injuries and demotions, not to mention the acquisition of Dwayne Roloson is in there in the annual sense, so they should be okay with this signing.

When Bergeron actually hits the line-up, his impact may be rather positive to the team around him, since he won't be impacting the pools directly for the time being.  Depending on which power play unit he'll be on, he could do some good for players like Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis or Vincent Lecavalier, just to name a few.  Once the second waiver draft rolls along, I would imagine he'll be a popular choice early on.