The week before the NHL Draft has kicked off with a flurry of activity. After the Tampa Bay Lightning started things on Friday by pulling off a sign-and-trade with Toronto, their down-state rival ended the weekend with a blockbuster deal of their own.
It started innocently enough as they sent Mackie Samoskevich to Seattle for the 25th pick in the first round (originally the Lightning’s) and a second-round pick in 2027. Armed with two first-round picks, it was almost certain that the Panthers would be wheeling and dealing. A deal for Dylan Larkin made sense, since Florida was on his original short list. They ended up going in a different direction as they sent two 2026 first-round picks (the 9th and 25th) along with a 2029 first-round pick and a second-round pick in 2030 to Ottawa for Brady Tkachuk.
It appears that Matthew’s brother wasn’t interested in extending in Ottawa after his deal was up in two seasons, so the Senators decided to pull the trigger now and pull in a raft of future assets. Rumors have surfaced that they aren’t quite interested in a full rebuild and may use their new picks to bring in a big time player (cough, Jason Robertson, cough).
With the return of Aleksander Barkov and the addition of Tkachuk (B.) Florida will jump right back into competition in the Atlantic Division. Well, once they figure out their goaltending situation. They still have about $7 million in cap space and a couple of open spots on defense to fill as well.
Should be fun.
Hockey News
Bobby McMann extends deal in Seattle [Davy Jones’ Locker Room]
Seattle not only picked up a young forward in Samoskovich, they also kept an older one around. Trade deadline pick-up Bobby McMann, who was on some folks target list in free agency, has decided he likes the Emerald City and signed a six-year deal with a $5.75 million AAV. The 30-year-old left-shot had 10 goals in 18 games following his trade from Toronto.
Edmonton Oilers extend Jason Dickinson [Edmonton Journal]
The cost of a bottom-six center continues to be high as the Oilers locked in Dickenson to a five-year deal with a $4 million AAV. Like McMann, Dickinson was a trade deadline pick-up. He didn’t have quite the same impact that McMann did (1 goal, 3 assists in 17 games) but impressed the brass enough that they want to keep him around.
NHL Rumblings – how the Raddysh deal got done [The Athletic]
There is a lot of info in Pierre LeBrun’s latest rumblings column, but part of it focuses on how Darren Raddysh ended up in Toronto. It’s interesting that LeBrun’s information indicates that Julien BriseBois was never close to the term or salary that the Maple Leafs ultimately provided. LeBrun mused that JBB that the season-long success wasn’t a large enough sample to validate that large of a deal.
He also mentions that he expects the Lightning to be in on John Carlson come July 1.
Where do the Lightning go from here? [Tampa Bay Times]
Eddie Encina delves into the Lightning’s future now that Raddysh is in Toronto and drops an interesting name as a potential replacement – Nick Blankenburg.
Will a NHL team draft Alexander Karmanov [Daily FaceOff]
He is 7’0″ and 280 lbs. In 20 games with the North Bay Battalion he posted two assists. Yeah, his skating could use a little work (okay, a lot of work) but having a massive unit whose reach basically covers the entire defensive zone is certainly intriguing.
Jason chats with a former Bolt on the latest Backchecking The Bolts episode.
