Dominic Moore traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning to the San Jose Sharks

The Lightning have made their first transaction of the season.

Speculation had been around for weeks regarding the availability of Lightning center Dominic Moore at the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline. There had been a report as well in recent weeks that Moore, who becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, was in contract extension talks with the Lightning as well.

But tonight, just minutes before the Lightning were to square off with the San Jose Sharks at Times Palace, news surfaced that Dominic Moore and a 7th round draft selection had been traded to the visiting Sharks for a 2nd round draft choice in the 2012 NHL draft.

The draft pick that San Jose traded belonged to the Minnesota Wild, but was acquired via trade by the Sharks. It's position should be much higher in the round than if it were San Jose's official 2nd round selection. The Lightning now have three draft selections in the 2nd round of this years entry draft. The additional pick that was acquired was from the Philadelphia Flyers in the Andrej Meszaros trade in 2010.

Moore has 19 points in 56 games this season with the Lightning and has been involved greatly with the Bolts penalty kill,

There's not telling how this will affect team morale going into tonight's game against the Sharks (in progress as of this posting). Coupled with the news Pavel Kubina is on the way out of Tampa, it may not be entirely cheery on the bench and in the locker room tonight.