NHL Free Agency rumor: According to Bob McKenzie, Dan Girardi will sign with Tampa Bay Lightning

Follow Raw Charge for more coverage of this developing story today.

Today at noon, Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman will be able to sign free agents. This morning, TSN’s Bob McKenzie began to tweet out his list of free agent deals that are most likely done. Among them, much to our chagrin, was Dan Girardi.

As we have previously written, signing Girardi will likely bump one of our developing defenders down on the lineup. Our current depth chart looks like this:

Victor Hedman - Jake Dotchin

Mikhail Sergachev - Anton Stralman

Braydon Coburn - Andrej Sustr

Slater Koekkoek

In the words of @loserpoints, “Adding Girardi would almost certainly bump one of the younger players further away from the lineup. Dotchin and Koekkoek both need to be playing NHL minutes this year. Sergachev is expected to be ready to go this season as well.”

At around noon, we’ll write a story with the actual numbers and done deal. Until then, you can read more about our reservations about the deal here.