Gage Goncalves is under contract and on the cusp of making it to the NHL. On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that they had re-signed their pending restricted free agent to a one-year, two-way contract. The move was pretty much expected and keeps one of their top prospects in the organization for another season.
Goncalves, a second-round pick from the 2020 draft, made his NHL debut last season, playing in two games with the Lightning in January. While he had just the briefest of tastes of the big leagues, it was with the Syracuse Crunch that he had another solid season as he led the team with 58 points (13 goals, 45 assists) in 69 games. That makes back-to-back 50+ point seasons for the 23-year-old and he now has 145 points (43 goals, 102 assists) in 212 career AHL games.
PuckPedia is reporting that the deal is at $775,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level. That represents a slight bump at both levels (he was at a base salary of $750,000/$80,000) on his three-year, entry-level contract.
While he only had a couple of games with the Lightning last season, next season could be a different story. There will be some spots up for grabs in training camp and Goncalves has the skill set to fill a middle-six role as well as help out on the second power play unit. He is a solid passer and has a slightly underrated shot. Will he be a big goal scorer at the top level? Probably not, but he will be able to keep goaltenders honest while setting up his teammates.
If he doesn’t make the club out of camp, he should be among the first wave of recalls should any Lightning forwards suffer an injury. In the meantime, he’ll probably be on the top line for the Crunch as well as on their top power play unit.
Goncalves could lead the next wave of TampaCuse forwards to bolster the Lightning’s roster. We’ll have to wait and see if it happens next season.
With the signing, the Lightning have Felix Robert, Logan Brown, Hugo Alnefelt, and Waltteri Merela left as restricted free agents. Merela and Alnefelt have already signed in Europe while Brown is still a question mark in terms of health. Signing his RFAs now allows Julien BriseBois to focus on his unrestricted free agents over the next few days as the July 1st signing deadline creeps ever closer.
