Indeed, Kucherov wanted to solidify his place among the core group of Lightning players committed to the franchise for the foreseeable future, and Yzerman wanted to lock up an important piece of the team as soon as possible.
"My thought is we get the opportunity to open negotiations after July 1 of the last year of their contract," Yzerman explained. "Let's sit down with the player and their agent to see if we can get something done early. From a player's perspective, I think it eases their mind and they can plan their future a little bit. And from the team's perspective, it helps us going forward knowing the cap number of the player, knowing the commitment we have to make other decisions accordingly."
Before the 2016-17 season, Kucherov signed a three-year bridge deal at a relatively bargain $4.76 million AAV. Then he went out and proved he's one of the best young players in the National Hockey League and deserving of long-term, high-dollar commitment from the Lightning. Over the past two seasons, Kucherov has tallied 185 points, second most in the League. Only Edmonton's Connor McDavid (208 pts.) has recorded more. Kucherov's 79 goals over the last two seasons are third most in the NHL behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin (82 goals) and Winnipeg's Patrik Laine (80 goals).
Extrapolating further, over the last four seasons Kucherov ranks fourth in the NHL for scoring (316 pts.) and tied for third for goals (138).
This past season, Kucherov finished third in the NHL scoring race with 100 points and became just the third player in Lightning history to record 100 points in a season, joining Vincent Lecavalier (108 pts. in 2006-07) and Martin St. Louis (102 pts. in 2006-07). He's one of only six Russian-born players to hit the 100-point mark in a NHL season along with Alex Ovechkin (4 times), Evgeni Malkin (3x), Alexander Mogilny (2x), Pavel Bure (2x) and Sergei Federov (2x) and the first to do so since Malkin in 2011-12.
Kucherov set career highs for assists (61), points, penalty minutes (42), power-play points (36) and shots (279) in 2017-18, and his 39 goals ranked tied for ninth in the NHL, one off his career high of 40 established a season earlier.
Kucherov is just as prolific in the playoffs. Since the 2015 postseason, Kucherov ranks second in the NHL for both playoff goals (28) and points (71). He's been selected for the past two NHL All-Star Games and became the first player since the start of the 3-on-3 ASG format to record a hat trick when he accomplished the feat on home ice during the 2018 showcase at Tampa's AMALIE Arena. At the 2018 NHL Awards, Kucherov was voted to his first career First All-Star Team, joining teammate Victor Hedman.