2:52 PM: The Lightning have confirmed the signing via a public announcement.
9:18 AM: After electing for salary arbitration on July 5th, defenseman J.J. Moser and the Tampa Bay Lightning have reportedly agreed on a new contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the team has signed Moser to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $3.375MM.
According to the report from Friedman, Moser will make $2.7MM during the 2024-25 season and $4.05MM in 2025-26. It will be a significant raise over Moser’s previous contract where he averaged $887K during his entry-level contract.
It will be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy Moser after acquiring him as a part of the package for defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a draft-day trade with the Utah Hockey Club. During a three-year stint with the Arizona Coyotes, Moser quickly became a part of the team’s top four after making his NHL debut in the 2021-22 NHL season.
Over 205 regular season games with the Coyotes, Moser scored 16 goals and 72 points while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. Moser played in nearly all situations in Arizona and showed flashes of being an effective two-way defenseman but did have some shortcomings on the defensive side of the puck. According to HockeyReference, Moser produced an expected +/- of -35.6 throughout his tenure in the desert — coming out to an average of nearly -12 each season. Additionally, Moser averaged an on-ice save percentage in all situations of 89.5% over his first three seasons, but some of the blame could be shared with a subpar Arizona defensive core.
With Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh expected to receive a bulk of the minutes on the left side of Tampa Bay’s blue line crew, Moser should get bumped down to a bottom-pairing role with the Lightning. Although his salary for next year is right on par with a bottom-pairing defenseman, his 2025-26 salary will become a bit rich if Tampa Bay decides to keep him in a similar role.
Getting Moser now signed, this gives Tampa around $2.4m in cap space (as they originally had $5.7m prior according to CapFriendly) to play with as expectations are Tampa is apparently looking to make another move (via. Trade) to fill their open winger slot (left by Stamkos unfortunately) on the second line with Cirelli & Hagel.
The word going around have suggested Moser may play on the right-side on the 1st defensive line with Hedman as Moser is listed of being able to play either side (even though he’s a lefty). Sergachev was originally going to be doing the same thing as well.
Tampa’s make shifting offseason is most certainly not done this summer.
Is this team, right now, as constructed, a Stanley Cup team?
Honestly, I don’t know if I would say they’re a Cup team right now but they’re a playoff caliber team at the very least (if healthy). If they can make another splash somehow like the rumblings that they’re apparently interested in Frank Vetrano from Anaheim then maybe we have a different story on the outlook.
Based on the moves they’ve made so far & the various data metrics that have been reported, they’re technically on paper, better in the 5v5 & defensively compered to last season.
Only time will tell how things will play out this season but that goes for any team really.
I dare say Moser is thrilled to be playing and living in Tampa versus Utah. What a great bounce back for him. Going from beautiful Arizona to depressing Salt Lake City, now a team with championship pedigree with great weather. Good for you J.J!
Apparently, you know nothing of SLC!
I fly in and lay over in SLC a lot. More than I would like. Dump-OLA. If I was a ex-Coyote, I’d demand a trade.