The Tampa Bay Lightning have done the San Jose Sharks a favor, trading them Vlad Namestnikov at 50% retained for forward Michael Eyssimont. Namestnikov will now have $1.25 million of dead money on the Lightning’s books for the rest of the year. And along with Eyssimont’s $750k contract, the Lightning only added $500k in space with this move for a total of $1.27 million.
#SJSharks acquire Vladislav Namestnikov from @TBLightning in exchange for Mikey Eyssimont.
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 2, 2023
Eyssimont, coming to Tampa Bay, was claimed on waivers by San Jose in January from Winnipeg where he signed as a non-qualified RFA. He has 40 NHL games to his name, 39 of them this year. He’s presumably here to sit in the press box and be ready in case of injury.
For San Jose, they can now trade Namestnikov for a pick at a much lower cap hit than before. They can even bring him down to league minimum if they wanted to for the bottom-six winger with speed.
Editorializing here, but I’m not exactly sure what Tampa Bay gets out of this. They didn’t even get a pick to use elsewhere by retaining salary.
Original Post:
Vlad Namestnikov and his 1 x $2.5 million contract might be heading to the San Jose Sharks. Return unknown, but here’s the Shaybomb.
Sounds like Vladislav Namestnikov is on his way out of Tampa Bay (again) – this time to San Jose
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) March 2, 2023
No one else has this trade at the moment, but there was a question after Sunday over who will sit once Tanner Jeannot joined the forward lineup. It seems the Lightning want Pat Maroon back in the lineup and are making space on the cap at the same time. Maybe Julien BriseBois is not done?
Namestnikov has been an unoffending bottom six forward for the Lightning, lifting the fourth line up in recent weeks. I didn’t see the need to trade him for any reason except cap hit because there’s another move coming. I guess we’ll see how it all shakes out by Friday afternoon.
My shortlist of guys coming back (will be deleted when we know the actual trade):
Nick Bonino (C), Alexander Barabanov (LW), Radim Simek (LD)
Kevin Labanc would be more interesting, but the Lightning would need San Jose to retain his multi-year deal to make it work. He would fit if Philippe Myers was also in the trade.
UPDATE:
This looks to be a pure cap dump. Michael Eyssimont was claimed on waivers by San Jose in January from Winnipeg. He has 40 NHL GP to his name as a 26-year-old right winger.
I’m ~ hearing ~ that Mikey Eyssimont is going back for Namestnikov
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) March 2, 2023
As expected, the Sharks are going to flip Namestnikov to another team in the coming days. They might even tell him to stay home in Tampa until Friday.
Believe the Sharks are planning/trying to move Namestnikov elsewhere. https://t.co/0MM2RsoAiy
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) March 2, 2023
