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Lightning extend Andrei Vasilevskiy; bye-bye Bishop?

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Not long after the Tampa Bay Lightning announced the re-signing of Victor Hedman, they extended 21-year-old netminder Andre Vasilevskiy for three years at $3.5 million per season.

That sound you just heard was Ben Bishop checking out houses in Dallas.

Vasilevskiy made 24 regular season starts in 2015-16 but really came through for Tampa when Bishop went down with injury in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final and helped push the series against the Pittsburgh Penguins to seven games.

“He wanted to show Tampa that he’s prepared to commit and let’s see what happens,” Vasilevskiy’s agent told Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. “He just wanted to show what he can do, wanted to be part of the organization. He could have waited a year, but he wanted to show he’s a team player.”

“I don’t know if there is a bigger goalie talent I’ve seen,” Hedman said on a conference call announcing his own extension. “The dedication and hard work, he is probably the hardest working guy on the team playing behind Bish all year, a Vezina candidate for a reason and one of the great goalies in the game.

“Very happy for him and very excited about that tandem moving forward.”

In 40 career starts, Vasilevskiy has a .921 even strength save percentage and two shutouts. The seven games he played this postseason was the second straight playoff he had to relieve an injured Bishop.

With Vasilevskiy now signed through 2020 and Bishop entering the final year of his deal, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a changing of the guard. But will GM Steve Yzerman go into the year with this tandem together or will he give the young netminder the reins?

Yzerman has had himself quite a week, possibly already locking up the 2017 NHL GM of the Year award. After extending Stamkos and Hedman, he locks up his goalie of the future. Next up? RFA deals for Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn while he figures out what to do with Bishop.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!