Nick Paul will always have a special place in Tampa Bay Lightning history:
Nope. Not that.
Yup, that’s the one. A Game 7 goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs that propelled the Lightning into the second round of the 2022 playoffs. Now, he’ll be on the other side of the bench as the Tampa Bay Lighting traded the 31-year-old forward to the Maple Leafs for goaltender Dennis Hildeby, a 2027 fourth-round pick, and a 2028 third-round pick.
Paul leaves after five seasons in Tampa where he put up 75 goals, 73 assists in 310 games. Injuries limited him to 51 games last season, but he was one of the team’s top face-off guys as he finished the season at 53.9% at the dot.
With the signing of Ilya Mikheyev and Jeffrey Viel earlier in the day, there was a bit of a logjam forming at the forward position, especially among left-hand shots. Mikheyev plays a similar role as Paul in the sense that he is a forward who can move up-and-down the line-up while providing 15-20 goals and killing penalties.
It is worth noting that the Lightning don’t appear to retaining any salary on the deal, so Paul’s $3.15 million cap hit is being fully absorbed by Toronto. Julien BriseBois retains a little cap flexibility as he continues to reshape the Lightning for the 2026-27 season. Paul will have at least one friend in the Big Smoke as he joins Darren Raddysh, who was traded to Toronto a couple of weeks ago.
In addition to picking up cap space, the Lightning get Dennis Hildeby, a 24-year-old netminder who helped the Toronto Marlies on their way to a Calder Cup last season. He is a big guy at 6’7″, 223 lbs. that was selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft by the Leafs. He is in the second year of a three-year deal
Over parts of two seasons with the Leafs, the Swedish netminder has a 8-10-4 record with a .903 SV% and 2.98 goals against average. His lone shutout – a 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. While it’s likely he will be the starter in Syracuse, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that he takes the back-up role from Jonas Johansson at some point in the season.
While he was regarded as one of Toronto’s top prospects, his path to the NHL was blocked once the Maple Leafs signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a three-year contract on July 1. Anthony Stolarz is also under contract until 2030, so while Hildeby isn’t likely to be the starter in Tampa any time soon, there isn’t much standing in his way to being a back-up as soon as this season.
