Four days after losing Stanley Cup-winning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning signed Sean Burke to a two-year deal worth $3.2 million.
Burke went 6-5-2 in 15 regular-season appearances with Philadelphia during 2003-04 following a midseason trade from Phoenix. He saw very little action while backing up Robert Esche with the Flyers because of a hip injury that required surgery to fix torn cartilage.
But the Lightning saw fit to give the 38-year-old Burke -- who has played 16 NHL seasons -- a deal that will pay him $1.6 million in each of the next two years.
"In all of the due diligence that we did, it kept coming back to Sean Burke being the right guy," General manager Jay Feaster said Tuesday night. "Being a guy that we believe in, in terms of his playing ability, his coachability, his willingness to work within our system, his desire to compete to be the No. 1 guy.
"He is a leader regardless of what his role is."
Khabibulin signed a four-year, $27-million deal on Friday with the Chicago Blackhawks.
"We did an awful lot of homework," Feaster said. "We actually started doing the homework going back to when the CBA was announced - recognizing that depending on what Nik decided to do that we might not have him here."
After exploring the free agent market and what was available by way of trade in the short and long term, Feaster settled on Burke.
Feaster is confident that Burke will go all out to win the starting job, but if he comes up short Burke won't be disruptive within the locker room.
"As we evaluated where we were and what we want to accomplish in coming back as the defending Stanley Cup champions we felt this was the best way to go," Feaster said.
The signing capped a busy day for the Lightning, who also locked up restricted free agent defenseman Dan Boyle with a three-year deal, inked veteran forward Rob DiMaio for two seasons, and signed left winger Dmitry Afanasenkov to a one-year contract.
Feaster was looking to get Boyle, as well as restricted free agent forwards Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, signed to long-term deals before they could get out on the open market.
"Danny is an important part of the core of this hockey club," Feaster said. "When you look at what the market has become for mobile, puck-moving defensemen who have an offensive upside to them, I thought it was very important both short term and long term."
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