What’s left for the Lightning to do in free agency?

BRANDON — The Lightning have retooled their roster over the past several days.

• General manager Julien BriseBois made a big splash Saturday by trading away Mikhail Sergachev and Tanner Jeannot to get younger with defenseman J.J. Moser, 24, and top prospect Conor Geekie, 20.

• BriseBois used newly-acquired cap space from those trades to deal for the rights of Jake Guentzel, jumping the line for the gem of the free-agent market and signing him Monday morning with the largest deal given to an incoming player at a $9 million average annual value for seven years.

• BriseBois then rounded out the forward corps by signing Zemgus Girgensons (three years, $850,000 annually) and Cam Atkinson (one year, $800,000).

• The Lightning inked defenseman Victor Hedman to a four-year, $8 million extension, solidifying his future with the team through 2028-29 and preventing him from going into his final year without a contract, something BriseBois did not do with team captain Steven Stamkos.

• They also signed rookie defenseman Emil Lilleberg to a two-year extension at a $800,000 annually, providing him with guaranteed NHL money in that deal, which goes through 2026-27.

The Lightning now have fielded a complete NHL lineup, with 12 forwards under NHL deals and six defensemen once Moser, a restricted free agent, finalizes a contract. That would leave Tampa Bay with roughly $4 million in cap space remaining, a boon for BriseBois, who had been used to spending this time of the season completing his NHL roster with role players making $1 million or less.

The Lightning believe they have addressed their most important needs, becoming a more capable defensive team and a more dependable one in 5-on-5 play. Guentzel, coming off a 30-goal, 77-point season with a plus-25 ratio, is a strong two-way player who does most of his damage at even strength and can slot into the top line. Girgensons is a big body (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) who can slide into a checking line role, and Atkinson is a low-cost, bounce-back candidate who was a 50-point scorer just two years ago.

Moser will jump into the Lightning’s top-four blue line group, able to log more than 20 minutes a game with the flexibility to play on both sides. And the organization hasn’t had a prospect the caliber of Geekie for years, and even though he has just two playoff games of AHL experience under his belt, he could be a part of the NHL club sooner than later.

The Lightning pursued forward Adam Henrique, a veteran player coming off a 24-goal, 51-point season with Anaheim and Edmonton who would have slid in nicely into the middle-six and provided supplemental scoring. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that Lightning coach Jon Cooper called Henrique to pitch coming to Tampa, but Henrique ultimately returned to Edmonton on two-year, $3 million average annual value deal.

Big names like Vladimir Tarasenko and Daniel Sprong sat unsigned going into Wednesday, but while either one could have added scoring punch, neither fit well defensively. Tarasenko ended up inking a two-year, $4.75 million contract with Detroit, the kind of deal the Lightning certainly weren’t going to entertain.

But they still have cap space, and teams can still go 10% over until the start of the season. BriseBois also has mentioned new trade opportunities that opened up now that the Lightning are a team with means.

The team also could stand pat and await opportunities later this offseason or even save the space for the trade deadline, another door that has been shut to BriseBois in recent years.

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