Sports
Lecavalier Agrees To Mega-Deal
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Published: June 26, 2008
TAMPA - Vinny Lecavalier is on the verge of becoming a lifetime member of the Lightning.
Lecavalier has reached an agreement in principle on a nine-year contract worth $77 million, team sources told The Tampa Tribune.
The contract would average out to $8.55 million a season, which would be the third-highest average annual salary in the league when the deal kicks in at the start of the 2009-10 season.
The $8.55 million average also would be the salary cap hit through the end of the 2018 season. The contract also is reported to include a no-movement clause.
Lecavalier is set to enter the final year of a four-year, $27.5 million deal that will pay him $7.166 million this season. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
The length of the contract extension would all but keep Lecavalier in Tampa Bay until he turns 38. The only way out of the guaranteed contract would be if the team opted to buy him out at two-thirds the rate of the remaining value at the time of the contract's termination.
New Lightning owner Oren Koules would neither confirm nor deny the report, but he has expressed in recent days the team's desire to lock up Lecavalier to a long-term deal and, eventually, make him a member of the organization after his playing days. Lecavalier's agent, Kent Hughes, said it might be a little premature to say things have been finalized, but he doesn't believe there are any parts of the deal that can't be worked out.
"There are still aspects that have not been agreed upon and until they are concluded, we don't have a deal in place," Hughes said. "I think an impression has now been created in the Tampa Bay marketplace that it's done, when there are still concrete things that need to be agreed upon. Now, I'm confident that we can work through them and a deal can get done."
New Lightning coach Barry Melrose, on a national conference call Wednesday, spoke as if the deal was done as he acknowledged that Lecavalier, the franchise's all-time leader in almost every offensive category, easily could have opted to explore his options on the open market after next season, where he might have been offered a more lucrative deal.
"Vinny could easily have gone the unrestricted free-agent route, gone to Montreal and received a much higher contract and become the star of the province, he could have owned the province," Melrose said. "But he has chosen to stay here and be a part of this community, and I think you have to reward a guy like that and I think the new owners have stepped up and done that here."
Because he is not within the final 12-month window of his current contract expiring, terms of the collective bargaining agreement do not allow the sides to sign an extension until July 1 at the earliest, although the official announcement likely will occur July 15 when Lecavalier is in Tampa for a charity function.
In the past two seasons, Lecavalier became one of the top players in the league. He captured the Rocket Richard Trophy in 2007 with a league-high 52 goals and last season became the first player in team history to record back-to-back 40-goal and 90-point seasons.
Melrose said he expects more out of Lecavalier than high point totals.
"I expect to see leadership out of Vinny, and I expect him to be the go-to guy, which he already is," Melrose said. "But it's not just about being the best player on the last-place team. Vinny has been putting up big numbers the last couple of years, but it's not just about putting up the offensive numbers; sometimes it takes sacrificing some of those points when it's about the team."
Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.
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