Lightning stay quiet on last day as trade deadline passes
BUFFALO — The Lightning worked to orchestrate an 11th-hour deal to upgrade their roster before Friday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, but general manager Julien BriseBois couldn’t find a match that fit his team’s needs.
After watching many of its potential postseason foes bulk up in recent weeks, Tampa Bay knew it would have to work some magic to make impactful moves. It had to settle for Sunday’s acquisition of forward Tanner Jeannot from Nashville and a flier on forward Michael Eyssimont, picked up Wednesday from San Jose.
Navigating a fourth straight trip to the Stanley Cup final through the Eastern Conference certainly seems more difficult than it did this time last month. And while BriseBois never has hesitated to deal while the Lightning still have a collection of elite players in their prime, the team’s depleted trade assets and minuscule salary-cap space prevented them from making a move comparable to some of their postseason peers.
On deadline day, the Lightning appeared focused on acquiring another defenseman to improve their blue line and tweaked their roster early in the day in an attempt to help make that possible.
One day after promoting rightshot defenseman Darren Raddysh from AHL Syracuse, Tampa Bay reassigned him to the minors after he made his NHL season debut in Thursday night’s overtime loss to Pittsburgh.
Raddysh played 11:38 with 2 shots and 3 hits but made a costly puck-possession error in his own zone and allowed Penguins forward Drew O’Connor to drive past him to the front of the net for a go-ahead goal in the third period.
With Raddysh back in the minors, it provided the Lightning with just less than $1.27 million of cap space to acquire a player. Still, to make a move of major significance, the Lightning likely would have needed help covering the contract of any player they would have acquired — and potentially help from a third team in doing so — or to move salary from their existing roster.
That’s because they unloaded five draft picks, including a firstround selection in 2025 — as well as defenseman Cal Foote — to acquire Jeannot. They paid a notable price for a high-demand player with a low cap hit ($850,000) and controllability beyond this season.
The Lightning had no higher than a sixth-round pick to deal in the upcoming draft and no first-rounders until 2026. Their highest pick in 2024 is a thirdrounder.
They made a move Wednesday, dealing forward Vladislav Namestnikov, who lost his spot in the lineup when the team acquired Jeannot, to San Jose for Eyssimont. The move also provided a cap-space bump, with San Jose taking 50 percent of Namestnikov’s $2.5 million hit. Friday morning, San Jose flipped Namestnikov to Winnipeg for a fourth-round pick.
In the days leading up to the deadline, the Lightning were linked to Anaheim defenseman John Klingberg and Montreal’s Joel Edmundson. Klingberg was traded to Minnesota just before the deadline, and Edmundson, who returned to the Canadiens lineup Thursday after being sidelined for more than a month, remained in Montreal.
Tampa Bay could have used the help because it has allowed four or more goals in four of its last five games, all of the four resulting in losses.
The Lightning particularly needed help on the right side of their blue line. They moved Foote, a former first-rounder who they hoped would reach his potential but instead had become mostly relegated to a healthy scratch. Top right-shot defenseman Erik Cernak left Thursday’s game and didn’t return, and coach Jon Cooper had no update on him following the game. They gave Raddysh a look but decided he’s not of immediate help.
Regardless, the Lightning would have been hard-pressed to make a blockbuster move comparable to their conference competition. They’re in line for a first-round rematch with Toronto, which had acquired forwards Ryan O’Reilly and Sam Lafferty while overhauling their blue line. A Bruins team that the Lightning could play in the second round added forward Tyler Bertuzzi and defenseman Dmitry Orlov. Metropolitan Division teams such as the Rangers and the Devils made splash moves, acquiring Patrick Kane and Timo Meier, respectively.