Lightning Sign Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts

[Humpzilla]

TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed left wingers Ryan Malone to a seven-year contract and Gary Roberts to a one-year contract, owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie announced. Both players were acquired from Pittsburgh in exchange for a conditional draft pick in 2009.

“Ryan’s signing is a great validation of the organization’s plans and desires as we move forward,” owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie said. “He fits our strategic plan of adding quality players with a warrior mentality. We look forward to a long and productive career for Ryan as a member of the Lightning organization and the Tampa Bay community.”

Malone, a 6-foot-4, 224-pound Pittsburgh native, played in 77 games with the Penguins last season and recorded 27 goals with 51 points. He also appeared in 20 Stanley Cup Playoff games and tied for eighth in league scoring with six goals and 16 points as he helped Pittsburgh to the Stanley Cup Finals. Malone set career highs for goals, assists, points, power-play goals (11) and game-winning goals (6) in 2007-08. He led the team in game-winning goals, ranked fourth in goals and third in power-play goals, while also ranking fourth among Penguin forwards in average ice time with 19:04.

The 27-year-old has played in 299 career NHL games, all with the Penguins, and amassed 87 goals, 169 points, 27 power-play goals, 11 shorthanded goals and 11 game-winning goals. Malone scored at least 20 goals in three of four NHL seasons.

Originally drafted in the fourth round, 115th overall, by the Penguins in 1999, Malone played four seasons at St. Cloud State before turning pro in 2003. He finished his collegiate career ranked in the top five among St. Cloud State’s all-time leading scorers with 140 points in 142 career games.

“When meeting the media and our fans last week in Tampa we talked about not leaving Steven Stamkos alone,” owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie said. “We talked about being aggressive at the start of the free agency signing period. We think Gary’s signing today represents a great first step for us. He brings the Lightning leadership, tenacity, grit and experience and he will be great for our young players, especially Steven. He will be tremendous for the locker room and his ability to play different roles at the forward position will be beneficial to the team next season.”

A 20-year NHL veteran and former Stanley Cup Champion, Roberts played in 38 games with Pittsburgh last season. The three-time NHL All-Star recorded three goals and 15 points with 40 penalty minutes, and also played in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games recording two goals and four points.

A 6-2, 215-pound native of North York, Ontario, Roberts is a veteran of 1,194 career games with Calgary, Carolina, Toronto, Florida and Pittsburgh. He has amassed 434 career goals, 903 points, 107 power play goals and 51 game-winning goals. He has broken the 20-goal barrier in 16 of his 20 seasons, including two 30-goal seasons, two 40-goal seasons and a 50-goal season. Roberts, 42, has played in 130 career playoff games, recording 32 goals and 93 points. He recorded 12 points in 22 playoff games as he helped the Calgary Flames capture the 1989 Stanley Cup title.

[Rugged]

I officially despise Ryan Malone. I hope he stubs his toe tonight.

[Killah_punk]

Well Tampa enjoy Malone he's a fun player to watch.

[Rugged]

Originally Posted by Killah_punk

Well Tampa enjoy Malone he's a fun player to watch.

He'll do nothing with Tampa and fall off the face of the map. Holy overpayment.

[Humpzilla]

Originally Posted by Rugged

He'll do nothing with Tampa and fall off the face of the map. Holy overpayment.

Sounds plausible. But I don't think it'll happen. Especially with the talent we have on this team. We might not have a Crosby or Malkin, but we do have Marty, Vinny and Boyle.

[Killah_punk]

Originally Posted by Rugged

He'll do nothing with Tampa and fall off the face of the map. Holy overpayment.

I agree he is getting overpaid, but so is half the NHL.

[Jensen]

Holy ****ing **** is that an overpayment. 7-8 million per year? Seriously, does Tampa understand what a salary cap is? That would make Malone probably a top 10-20 paid player in the entire league those years and he's not even a top 50 player in the league. I like Malone, but I would not have given him anything over 5 mil at the most.

[devils29]

Wow, I would've left the Pens in a heartbeat for that sort of money too. He's getting Iginla, Kipper and almost Crosby money in the first two years. Yep, he's a superstar like them too.

I love watching Malone play and I love the direction the Bolts are going but I think they are fukking idiots for paying this much for Malone.

[skacore]

Originally Posted by Jensen

Holy ****ing **** is that an overpayment. 7-8 million per year? Seriously, does Tampa understand what a salary cap is? That would make Malone probably a top 10-20 paid player in the entire league those years and he's not even a top 50 player in the league. I like Malone, but I would not have given him anything over 5 mil at the most.

31.5 / 7 = 4.5

[Snipes19]

Well, 4.5 million per year is more than I'd give Malone, but not by much. Malone is still a legit 20-goal scorer than can provide some toughness - don't forget, so it was important for Tampa to sign him and it's not THAT bad of a signing compared to some other deals we've seen in the past. If Malone were to hit the open market, he would have probably been offered 4 million by most teams, so it's not as bad of a deal as some as you think it is, IMO. An overpayment, but not as big of one as some other players in this league are receiving. All in all, nothing to harshly bash Tampa Bay about, I don't think, as they're just trying to put together a competitive team and they are certainly doing so.

And Jensen - yes, 7-8 million for the first two years is ridiculous, but that isn't the cap hit. The cap hit will still be 4.5 million since that's the average I believe, so if you look at it that way it's really not too bad. I will agree that those first two years are a huge overpayment for him though. Not that it matters too much, but if I were Tampa I would have still liked all 7 years to be pretty equal.

[Jensen]

Originally Posted by skacore

31.5 / 7 = 4.5

Originally Posted by Humpzilla

Malone, who would have drawn considerable interest from around the NHL as an unrestricted free agent, will earn between $7 and $8 million in each of the first two years of the deal.

Read the article next time.

[BGDDYKWL]

While I agree that it is definitely an overpayment, when you consider that Penner is making $4.25M, Hartnell is making $4.2M, and Avery is looking for $4M per, this is pretty comparable. What hurts it is the additional length of the contract in combination with the fact that Malone is a couple of years older.

[skacore]

Originally Posted by Jensen

Read the article next time.

I did read it, you just asked if Tampa knew what the salary cap was so I wasn't sure if you knew how it worked... he's not a 7-8 million dollar cap hit, it'll be 4.5, his contract is just loaded upfront like a lot of guys are doing nowadays, so like you suggested they aren't paying him more than 5/year.

Still a bit pricey for a player of Malone's caliber and 7 years is putting a lot of trust into the guy... who knows how it'll turn out.

[Jensen]

Originally Posted by skacore

I did read it, you just asked if Tampa knew what the salary cap was so I wasn't sure if you knew how it worked... he's not a 7-8 million dollar cap hit, it'll be 4.5, his contract is just loaded upfront like a lot of guys are doing nowadays, so like you suggested they aren't paying him more than 5/year.

Still a bit pricey for a player of Malone's caliber and 7 years is putting a lot of trust into the guy... who knows how it'll turn out.

That's what I meant. The first two years at 7-8 million per year is an overpayment. I guess I forgot to put that in my original post.

[Jensen]

Originally Posted by Wes McSnipes

And Jensen - yes, 7-8 million for the first two years is ridiculous, but that isn't the cap hit. The cap hit will still be 4.5 million since that's the average I believe, so if you look at it that way it's really not too bad. I will agree that those first two years are a huge overpayment for him though. Not that it matters too much, but if I were Tampa I would have still liked all 7 years to be pretty equal.

It still averages out to 4.5 million yes, but paying him $7-8 million per year for the first two years really puts Tampa in a tough situation for the next two years. I'm not sure how Lecavalier's contract is structured, but I think the average is around $8.5 million so I'll go with that. 8.5 for Vinny, 7-8 for Malone, 5 for St. Louis, 6.67 for Boyle. That's almost $28 million in salary for 4 players. That will really limit them in the free agent market and for trade acquisitions for the next two years.