Lost in the free agent drama on Monday was the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning had extended defenseman Emil Lilleberg’s contract. On Tuesday, the team made the terms official as they announced a two-year, one-way extension for the 23-year-old defenseman. The annual average value of the deal, which starts in the 2025-26 season is $800,000.
With the addition of Ryan McDonagh and J.J. Moser, along with Victor Hedman’s extension, the left side of the Lightning defense seems to be set for the immediate future. Hedman is signed through 2028-29 while McDonagh is under contract through 2025-26. Lilleberg’s extension keeps him in the organization through 2026-27 while Moser will likely sign a two-to-three year deal at some point this summer.
The extension is a slight decrease on the current contract that pays Lilleberg $870,000 at the NHL level. However, the fact that the new contract is a one-way deal means that the Norwegian will make more off of this deal than he did on his initial one that paid him $82,500 while he was in Syracuse.
The 23-year-old was signed by the Lightning out of the SHL last summer after the Arizona Coyote (RIP) didn’t sign him to an entry-level contract. The fourth-round pick came over to North America and started the season in Syracuse where he played 31 games, recording 1 goal and 11 assists with the Crunch. With injuries plaguing the blue line (most notably Mikhail Sergachev’s) Lilleberg was recalled in early January and given a chance to play at the NHL level.
To say he excelled would be a bit of an overstatement, but he played well enough to stay up with the Bolts while other blueliners like Declan Carlile, Jack Thompson, and Max Crozier were shuffled back-and-forth. He stayed with the Lightning for the remainder of the season with a brief loan to Syracuse while the Bolts were on a long break in March. In 37 games with the Lightning he finished with five assists and an impressive 105 hits while logging 16:12 of ice time.
That physical aspect of his game is his most notable aspect. At 6’2″, 202-pounds, he has decent size, but packs a lot of power in that frame.
He showed a little bit of it in Rookie Showcase prior to training camp,
Then he gained national notice for an absolutely huge hit on Anaheim’s Brett Leason in January.
Even his captain took notice of the hit, stating after the game that it’s “an element that we miss when we don’t have Cerny or Sergy or a big body back there.”
Lilleberg finished the season averaging 10.07 hits/60, which ranked third on the team for regular players. While that physicality is welcome on a team that sometimes lacks it in their own end, it does lead to some issues from time-to-time. Like most young defensemen, Lilleberg would occasionally take himself out of position when trying to throw a hit or take a penalty at an inopportune time. The good news is that experience usually teaches a player, and the more ice time he gets, the less likely he’ll be to make those mistakes.
For now, Lilleberg will compete with Moser for the 6th/7th position on the roster next season, but there is a chance, due to the fact that he is still waivers exempt, he will end up in Syracuse to begin the season. That shouldn’t be construed as a negative, though. The fact that the Lightning extended him for two seasons on a one-way deal indicates that he is a part of their future.
