Zemgus Girgensons leaves Sabres, signs three-year deal with Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced that the Lightning have signed Latvian forward Zemgus Girgensons to a three-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $885,000.

The 30-year-old spent the 2023-24 regular season with the Buffalo Sabres where he notched eight goals and 14 points in 63 games while averaging 11.33 hits per 60 minutes, the highest among Sabres’ skaters.

Girgensons has carved out a role for himself in the NHL as a low-event, defensively-conscious fourth-line center. He has been consistently playing this role for the last 10 seasons, all with the Sabres. Girgensons was initially selected No. 14 overall in the 2012 NHL Draft and has appeared in 688 career games with Bufflao, notching 89 goals and 188 points in that frame. Girgensons appeared as an NHL All-Star in 2015 and departs ranking second among Sabres players in franchise history with the most hits sitting at 1,239.

Aside from the 2020-21 season, in which he didn’t play at all due to a hamstring injury, the 30-year-old has been gracing the Sabres’ bottom six since he stepped into the NHL for the 2013-14 season.

Girgensons showed some offensive promise in his first two seasons in the NHL. He scored 22 points in 70 games in his rookie season, then followed that up with a 15-goal, 30-point campaign in 61 games in his sophomore year. However, he hasn’t scored more than 20 points in any season since then.

On the international front, Girgensons has represented Latvia in multiple tournaments including the IIHF Men’s Under-18 Championship, World Junior Championship, Men’s World Championship and the Olympics.