Tampa Bay Starts Offseason Moves with Johansson Deal

Perhaps Tampa Bay Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois won’t have quite the active offseason this summer as he did in 2024, where he altered the face of the franchise moving forward in allowing future Hall of Fame forward Steven Stamkos to sign with Nashville. However, that doesn’t mean that BriseBois can go on vacation until training camp begins in the autumn.

He has already begun the process of putting the 2025-26 Lightning roster together, and he said recently that he is “excited about our future.”

“I really enjoyed this season’s team,” BriseBois said during his exit interview with the media recently. “I enjoyed how they competed. Almost everyone is under contract and coming back.”

And as of today, that includes backup goaltender Jonas Johansson.

Johansson was an unrestricted free agent following this season but signed a two-year extension on Wednesday for a total of $2.5 million.

“It is one of the toughest jobs in sports, to be the backup goaltender,” veteran Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Johansson’s effort following a 3-2 shootout loss at Buffalo last month. “When called upon and you don’t get to play a ton of games in a row and get in a rhythm.

“(Johansson) has been fantastic for us.”

This signing may not seem like a critical transaction, but having a quality backup goalie is monumental to the success of the team, particularly as starter Andrei Vasilevskiy will celebrate his 31st birthday this July and will be entering his 11th season in the fall.

A backup goaltender is like oxygen, nobody thinks about it until you need it.

As the Lightning defense improved this season from a year prior, so did Johansson’s numbers.

After allowing 3.37 goals per game in 26 games during the 2024-25 season, the soon-to-be 30-year-old (September 19) dropped that number to 3.13 in 19 games this past season.

Next season will be his seventh in the National Hockey League, and second with Tampa Bay, after spending time with Buffalo, Colorado, and Florida through four seasons. However, his time in Tampa has been the most significant for Johansson, who has played more games in the past two seasons (45) than he did in the previous four combined (35).

Johansson stopped 89.0 percent of his shots in his first season with Tampa Bay and improved that statistic to 89.5 percent this season.

After going 13-7-5 as the starter for an injured Vasilevskiy last year, Johansson went 9-6-3 this season.

Johansson made 20-plus saves in 15 games this season and limited foes to three or fewer goals in seven of his final 10 starts.

The Lightning now have four remaining unrestricted free agents from their 2025 Playoff roster, including forwards Yanni Gourde, Cam Atkinson, Luke Glendening, and defenseman Nick Perbix.

Young forward Gage Goncalves is a restricted free agent this offseason.

Earlier this week, Tampa Bay signed 27-year-old defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous to a one-year, two-way contract out of the Swedish Hockey League.

The NHL Salary Cap increases to $95,500,000 in the fall from $88,000,000 this past season.

Tampa Bay currently has a projected salary cap hit of $88,536,666 for next season, with projected cap space of $6,963,3354 for next season.

“We have some younger players who are pushing to play a bigger role on the team,” BriseBois said. “The future is bright for our organization.

“I would say that I am excited about our future, significantly more so today than I was a year ago.”