A Lightning lifer? Defenseman Victor Hedman signs 4-year extension
TAMPA — A day after the Lightning showed his best friend the door, they rolled out the blue carpet for defenseman Victor Hedman, signing him to a four-year extension that likely will ensure he spends the entirety of his NHL career with one team. Entering his 16th season this fall, he will be under contract through the 2028-29 season.
A roller-coaster past few days that included massive turnover to the team’s roster ended with the Lightning keeping one of its own. Now the franchise’s longest-tenured player after Steven Stamkos’ departure for Nashville, Hedman is the presumptive favorite to replace Stamkos as the team captain.
For Hedman, 33, the events of the past few days were bittersweet. When the offseason began, he hoped both he and Stamkos would be able to stay in Tampa Bay for the remainder of their careers. The two have been together for 15 seasons, grew up together and were the pillars of championship teams in 2020 and 2021.
“Seeing Stammer go is not something that anyone expected and the same goes for me,” Hedman said via a Zoom call from Sweden on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve been in constant contact throughout the whole process and kind of knew where it was leading, but we’re always going to have each other. ...
“At the end of the day with best-case scenario, yeah, we would love to finish our careers in Tampa together. This is hockey, it’s a business at the end of the day and I strongly admire what Stammer has done for not just me but the whole city and organization.
“It’s a sad, sad day. And it’s going to be hard to imagine going into to our locker room and going into Amalie Arena and not seeing him on the ice. It’s going to be super, super weird.”
Neither Stamkos, who signed with Nashville shortly after free agency opened Monday afternoon, nor Marty St. Louis nor Vinny Lecavalier — both of whom have their retired numbers hanging from the Amalie Arena rafters — finished their careers in Tampa Bay. But Hedman will have that opportunity, receiving the same contract — four years at an $8 million average annual value — that Stamkos received from the Predators; Stamkos’ offer from the Lightning reportedly was in the $3 million range.
“It means the world to me,” Hedman said of the prospect of being a career Lightning player. “For me, I don’t know anything else and I don’t want to know anything else. Tampa has become home for us. ... I’m just super proud and excited to hopefully retire a Bolt, but first and foremost, I’m excited about the opportunity to try (to win) another Cup.
“We’re super fortunate to be in a situation where we have still a really, really good team. ... I’m going to do whatever I can to be as good as I can every single night to help bring another Cup back to Tampa.”
Hedman has been the lynchpin of the Tampa Bay defense for a decade and a half since he was drafted No. 2 overall in 2009. He is one of the league’s top blueliners year in and year out, an exemplary skater with tremendous reach from his 6-foot-7 frame. He is a two-time Stanley Cup winner, claiming the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2020 and Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2018.
After a rocky 2022-23 season, Hedman rebounded with a 13-goal, 76-point effort — the second-most points of his career — showing he still has lots of mileage left in one of the game’s most physically-demanding roles. He averaged 24:48 of ice time, taking on more minutes after Mikhail Sergachev broke his left leg following the All-Star break. Hedman quarterbacked the Lightning’s top-ranked power-play unit, was a key piece of the their fifth-ranked penalty kill and was plus-18 during 5-on-5 play.
Hedman played in his 1,000th career game with the Lightning this past season and will pass Stamkos’ franchise record of 1,082 with 31 more games. Hedman has more goals (156) than any Lightning defenseman and ranks third in franchise history in assists (572) and fifth in points (728).
Whether he succeeds Stamkos as the next Lightning captain remains to be seen. Stamkos had been the captain since 2014 following the trade of St. Louis, and Hedman has worn the alternate captain “A” on his jersey since the 2018-19 season. Asked whether he would accept the captaincy, Hedman said it was “way too early” to discuss that.
“I don’t know what to say to that,” Hedman said. “I look at myself as a leader, and I’ve been an alternate captain for many, many years behind the best captain in the game. So, we’ll see where it goes in the future. But yeah, it’s been close to 24 hours since Stammer left, so I think it would be disrespectful to him and not fair to anyone to comment on that.”
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