A look at Lightning’s offseason facelift — and what’s still left to do

BRANDON, Fla. — Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois has been forced to make some difficult decisions over the past two weeks.

After the team’s first-round playoff exit, he said this might be his toughest salary-cap crunch yet. He wanted to keep the group together but knew he’d face vast obstacles. As he does every offseason, he promised he’d do all he could to identify where the Lightning needed to improve and address it.

BriseBois knew forward Alex Killorn wanted to end his career in a Lightning uniform, but he could offer only so much in trying to retain the unrestricted free agent. With just $7.325 million in cap space, BriseBois had to shop for bargains and then cut loose players who no longer fit. During draft week, he traded forwards Ross Colton and Corey Perry, recouping some of the draft capital that had been depleted through deadline deals.