If, as Tom Petty once sang, the waiting is indeed the hardest part, then things are about to get a lot easier in the Darren Raddysh saga. The 30-year-old defenseman will not make it to July 1st and free agency. Nor will he be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning next season. The Lightning have announced that they have traded Raddysh to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for a fifth-round selection in the 2026 NHL draft.
Thus ends one of the big question marks for the Lightning and the NHL this summer. It was a sign-and-trade deal as the Bolts signed him to a reported 8-year deal with an $8.5 million AAV prior to sending him north to his hometown province. While a fifth-round pick isn’t going to move the needle much in terms of enlarging the prospect pool, the Lightning do get something for a player that priced himself out of their market with a phenomenal season.
Raddysh truly had a break-out season as he posted 22 goals and 70 points as he filled a gap on the Lightning’s top defensive pairing left by Victor Hedman’s injuries and personal leave of absence. After bouncing up and down the line-up in his previous two seasons with the Bolts, Raddysh found a home with J.J. Moser and on the power play where he posted a team-high 10 goals. In his five-season NHL career the Ontario native has 143 points (35 goals, 108 assists) in 249 games.
Toronto was always lurking as a destination as they look to rebound from a miserable season. New general manager John Chayka had freed up some cap room by dealing goaltender Joseph Woll to Philadelphia, allowing him to make the big splash. Raddysh will likely slot in on the top-pairing with Morgan Reilly (if he isn’t traded) and take over the quarterback position on their first power play unit. While it won’t be Nikita Kucherov dishing him passes for one-timers, it should still be a stacked unit with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies (if he isn’t traded).
As for the Lightning, they are a little less deep on defense than they were 24 hours ago. Losing Raddysh removes a player that was averaging over 22 minutes a night on the blueline and that could play all three aspects of the game. How they replace those minutes now emerges as the big question that will linger into training camp. If Victor Hedman returns to form after a season of battling injuries they could return to the Hedman/Moser pairing that was effective prior to last year.
They could also go shopping for a new right-shot defenseman on the free agent market. They have enough cap space (about $13 million according PuckPedia) to at least have a conversation with some of the players on the open market. Vegas’ Rasmus Andersson tops the list of right-shot blueliners, but John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Connor Murphy, and Andrew Peeke are all looking for a new contract as well.
If the Lightning decide to spend their money elsewhere (like maybe a second-line scoring winger) they should be fine for their top two pairings, especially if Moser flips back to this off-hand side.
Victor Hedman – J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg/Charle-Edouard D’Astous – Max Crozier
Simon Lundmark and Steven Santini could also be in the mix on the right side.
Bringing in a high-priced right-shot defender would probably spurn some more moves as it’s unlikely that Lilleberg, D’Astous, or Crozier would clear waivers next season. There is going to be some competition in training camp for the third pairing, and a quality player is going to find himself in the press box as the seventh defenseman.
The big change will come on the power play. It had, at times, finally adjusted to not having Steven Stamkos in the left circle launching one-timers. Instead, that responsibility had shifted to Raddysh at the top of the slot. If they don’t bring in a big right-handed shot, and let’s face it, no one in the league does it like Raddysh does, then the strategies will have to adjust again. The two main in-house replacements, Hedman and D’Astous are both left-handed shots, which doesn’t run as smoothly on one-timers from Kucherov.
While there was some hope that the Lightning would be able to find a common ground with Raddysh and retain his services, the money (and term) outside of Tampa was just to rich for their blood. Julien BriseBois was able to extract another pick in exchange for tacking on the eighth year to Raddysh’s new contract and the Bolts add the 133rd selection of the 2026 draft to their collection. In an odd little quirk, they have back-to-back picks in the fifth round as the 134th pick was originally Seattle’s and came over in the Yanni Gourde/Oliver Bjorkstrand deal.
They now own six selections on Day Two of the draft:
Second Round – #58
Third Round – #90
Fifth Round – #133 (Toronto)
Fifth Round – #134 (Seattle)
Fifth Round – #154
Sixth Round – #186
Seventh Round – #218
