Julien BriseBois reveals what was wrong with Stamkos in the playoffs; talks team's cap crunch

Tampa Bay General Manager Julien BriseBois would love to be celebrating his team's Stanley Cup championship, but the reality is he has a lot of work to do. BriseBois is facing a major cap crunch and knows he needs to make moves now in order to keep other players on his roster.

"Even though I would like to bring this whole group back together so we can defend our championship...the reality is I can't do that," said BriseBois Thursday during an end-of-season interview. "The cap just doesn't allow that to happen."

At the same time, BriseBois made it very clear that re-signing Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak and Anthony Cirelli, who are all coming off entry-level contracts, is his priority and that he has no interest in letting any of them go. He also stated he has no intentions of buying anyone out before the 2020-21 season begins

BriseBois also took the time to explain why Lightning Captain Steven Stamkos played in just one game during the entire playoffs, which was game three of the Stanley Cup Final. He said Stamkos had a sports hernia surgery prior to the suspension of play of March 12th. Stamkos fully recovered from that injury and was a full participant in Phase 2, but his rehab triggered a "compensation injury" which kept him out of the lineup in the post season.

"We fully expect him to be ready for next season," added BriseBois.

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