Breaking: Nikita Kucherov signs an extremely team-friendly deal.

This is a huge announcement on so many levels.

First the big part of this story is the fact that Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov has agreed to sign a new deal with the Lightning and according to insider Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times it's a three year deal worht an average annual value of $4.766 million per season.

That is the second big part of this story, general manager Steve Yzerman has once again found a way to convince one of his top players to accept significantly less money than the market would have dictated they should be receiving. 

This is now the third core player who has taken such a deal from the Lightning, but in this case for Kucherov it's a shorter term deal, and should he continue to perform at his current pace he is setting himself up for a huge pay raise in three years.

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