Tampa Bay Lightning sign Emil Martinsen Lilleberg to two-year contract
It’s been a very productive day for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning have made their third signing of the day, signing defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg to a two-year contract.
The deal is an entry-level contract for Martinsen Lilleberg. While the cap hit is unknown at this point, the fact that it is entry-level indicates that it will be at most $925,000, and we do know that the contract is a two-way deal.
Martinsen Lilleberg spent a majority of his season with IK Oskarshamn of the Swedish Hockey League, where he had 3 goals, 8 assists, and 11 points in 46 regular season games, along with an assist in three playoff games.
He also played 20 games for the Norwegian national team with an assist in those games, including seven at the 2023 Men’s World Championship, where he was held pointless as Norway finished seventh in Group B with a 1-1-1-4 record, which wasn’t good enough for the quarterfinals but did qualify them for the 2024 World Championship.
Martinsen Lilleberg was originally drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes after putting up two goals, two assists, and four points in Sparta Sarpsborg in the Eliteserien league, the Norwegian premier hockey league. However, they opted not to give him a deal, so he’ll make his first attempt at an NHL career with the Lightning.
It’s the third signing of the day for the Lightning, as they also signed defensemen Sean Day and winger Waltteri Merela. Day has been in the Lightning system for three seasons already, while Merela was another entry-level signing for the Bolts.
The Lightning have another offseason of big changes ahead for them, as they’ll have to work around the new extensions to Mikhail Sergachev, Anthony Cirelli, and Erik Cernak in order to bring back the team. Colton Ross and Tanner Jeannot are their only restricted free agents, while Alex Killorn, Corey Perry, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ian Cole, and Brian Elliott are all unrestricted free agents, and they have just $450,000 in cap space to do so.