It’s been more than a year since Julien BriseBois handed out a long-term contract. Not since Jake Guentzel’s free-agent deal in the summer of 2024 has the Lightning general manager handed out a maximum-length deal, and with his time frame for extending his own players for eight years narrowing due to the new CBA, we knew he had to sign at least one more big deal. So he had to be getting a little antsy. Enter J.J. Moser. On Saturday, the team announced that the 25-year-old defenseman had agreed to an eight-year extension with an annual average value of $6.75 million.
Upon first blush, our initial reaction is – that’s not a bad contract. Moser, in the second year of a bridge contract that had a cap hit of $3.375 million, was set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. That could have led to an interesting battle between the two parties. Instead, the Lightning have their cornerstone defenseman locked up until the summer of 2034.
Acquired on the second day of the 2024 NHL Draft in a blockbuster deal with Utah, Moser immediately earned a spot on the top pairing with Victor Hedman. The left-shot defender played well until an injury sidelined him for a couple of months, and when he returned, he didn’t seem up to the level he had played at prior to the injury.
Paired once again with Hedman to start this season, Moser was off to another good start. What likely solidified Mr. BriseBois’ belief in the Swiss-born blueliner is his play since Hedman’s injury. With the Big Swede and Ryan McDonagh sidelined, Moser switched back to his more natural side and has been the Lightning’s most consistent defender. He has truly taken his game to another level.
There isn’t a a lot that stands out about Moser’s game. He’s not going to fly up and down the ice Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar. He’s not going to lay people out physically like prime Niklas Kronwell. What he is going to do is be in the right spot and, more times than not, make the right play.
One noticeable thing about this season is how his two most common partners, Hedman (160 minutes) and Darren Raddysh (291 minutes) have performed with and without him:
| Stat (5v5) | With Moser | Without Moser |
| Hedman – scoring chances for % | 59.12% | 48.28% |
| Hedman – expected goals for % | 58.42% | 38.33% |
| Raddysh – scoring chances for % | 61.48% | 46.21% |
| Raddysh – expected goals for % | 65.08% | 43.39% |
Moser hasn’t been a passenger this season. He’s been driving the play on his pairing. While any long-term deal is a gamble (side-eyes Erik Cernak being under contract until 2031) there are a lot of things to like about this deal for the Lightning. With the style of hockey that he plays, his contract should age pretty well as he doesn’t rely on top-end speed or a bruising style of play to be effective.
The $6.75 million cap hit is a good number today and will be a great number if the salary cap continues on its current trajectory. To put it in perspective, it’s the same cap hit Ryan McDonagh signed for back in 2018. In a sense, the Lightning are flipping the cap hits between the two considering that the extension McDonagh signed is just a few hundred thousand more than what Moser is making this season. That’s not bad cap management.
The deal locks in the Lightning’s defensive core for at least three more seasons. Mr. BriseBois will have to make some decisions to fill out the bottom six, but the top four should be locked in for better or worse. Getting the deal done now does take a big task off of the summer to-do list for the GM. His biggest decisions will now revolve around Darren Raddysh and Oliver Bjorkstrand. Nikita Kucherov will also be eligible to sign an extension starting on July 1st. Moser was always the player likely to get the biggest boost in salary, so, to have that as a known number allows the general manager to base his negotiations around that.
