Vasilevskiy Has Big Contract Number in Mind as He Talks Deal with Lightning

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Andrei Vasilevskiy is watching the Nikita Kucherov situation in Tampa Bay very closely. He’s hoping things work themselves out, and cooler heads prevail, but he knows he doesn’t know everything about what’s going on between the forward and the organization. He knew there was a problem, but he was still shocked to hear about the breakdown in communication. “I mean, it was a surprise for all of us…”

“Anything is possible nowadays,” Vasilevskiy said. “I’m not familiar with all the details of what’s going on between the two sides. I understand both parts of that deal and I don’t want to get too much involved. I just hope that at the end of the day they will figure it out and both parties will be happy.”

Will what’s happening with Kucherov happen with Vasilevskiy? He hopes not.

“Obviously my goal is to stay here. If I retire here, in this city, it will be my second biggest accomplishment after the Stanley Cup. Because it’s like, how many goalies played for one team ever? Only a few. That’s definitely one of my biggest accomplishments. It’s my goal for sure to stay with this team.”

So what does Vasilevskiy want on his next contract? He’s not sure yet. He’d love a big offer, it but it sounds like he’s willing to take less than what he possibly could get on the open market.

“To be honest, I don’t know if I’m worth $25 million, so I think my contract won’t be as high,” Vasilevskiy said, laughing. “I mean, it’d be great if it will.”

Vasilevskiy Could Command a Huge Contract

He’s got one more season on his deal after this one and then he’ll be the biggest name on the goaltending market by a wide margin. If the Lightning draw a financial line in the sand, there will be teams ready to throw bags of money at him. He might not take it because his priority is something more than just making the most money possible.

“I think it’s just so cool when you’re drafted and you play your full career for one organization,” Vasilevskiy said. “It says a lot about you as a person, as an athlete, obviously. That means they feel you were such a big piece of that organization, of that team, that they basically, it’s stuck with you for 20 years. So, yeah, that’ll be something to me for sure; it will mean a lot.”

This is good news for the Lightning, but there’s still time for them to botch this up. One could argue they’ve got a history of doing so, having disrespected Steven Stamkos and now Kucherov.

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