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Darren Dreger is hard at work on July 4th.
Working on details. Matt Carle is closing in on a deal with Tampa Bay Lightning.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 5, 2012
So this is fun, right? Holland got outbid by Yzerman on Sami Salo earlier in the week, lost out on the Suter sweepstakes, and now it looks like Yzerman is all set to grab Matt Carle out of the UFA pool, leaving it even thinner.
No details on the deal yet, but I'm very much looking forward to the term & cap hit.
This basically leaves St. Louis' Carlo Colaiacovo as the best UFA option for a defenseman that the Red Wings still very much need. It's either that or Michal Rozsival. Maybe Jeff Finger's time in the minors for the last few years has done him some good? Reports are that Phoenix's Keith Yandle is still on the trading block too.
We'll update when we have confirmation that Carle's actually signed.
Update 1: from the Lightning's Twitter feed, it's a six-year deal.
Update 2: $5.5M AAV, according to Dreger.