Lightning Schedule Features Early John Carlson Reunion With Capitals
On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced their regular-season schedule for 2026-27, which will feature a total of 84 games.
Video Transcript
What do you think of this contract for the Lightning?
How effective do you think that Karlsson can be for this team?
I think he's gonna be effective.
I mean, you know what you're getting, right?
Like, when he was moved last season at the deadline, I think everybody was kinda shocked that Washington just sort of pulled that out of nowhere.
He's still a really good defenseman, even at his age.
He You know what you're getting.
He's a p- power play quarterback.
He's a solid defenseman, has been for a really long time.
For Tampa Bay, I think this fits what they're doing, though.
You've got a group that's a little bit older.
Their window to win is a probably couple years.
There's gonna be some players who are contracting out, and you never really know what happens at the end of those terms.
And if you've got a guy like Raddysh on an eight-year deal, and the real concern with him is he'll never do what he did last year again, right?
So if that's the case, then you know what you're getting with Karlsson.
You know you've got the similar window with some of the other players.
Tampa is the kind of location that if everybody were to leave, and I'm not saying that's going to happen, but if that were the case, they can just go out and get another bunch of people because it's an attractive place to play.
It's an attractive city to live in, and a state free ta- I mean, it's all those things that Tampa can really rebuild if they needed to build, and do it quickly.
So I think if you're stuck with a guy like Raddysh, you can't do that as much as you can with a guy like Karlsson who fits their window.
I also wonder if some of this had to do with the Zach Werenski stuff.
They were heavily rumored to be part of that whole conversation, and then when Werenski sort of pivoted back to Columbus and decided, no, I don't really wanna go anywhere, Tampa quickly made that decision to do the Karlsson thing.
So I think he wanted to go there.
I think Tampa knew that that was an option for them.
I don't think they loved the idea of Raddysh on eight years with the window.
I think it just works out for everybody.
It kind of, you know, makes a lot of sense.
And I think Karlsson's gonna be as productive as he's been.
If not, you know, at least one of those two years.
He might regress a little in the second year, but I think next year he'll be just fine.
