While Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh is in the midst of the best season of his hockey career, he’ll likely need to wait just a little bit longer before he can cash in on his success.
Lightning GM Julien BriseBois told the media yesterday, including the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina, that the club and Raddysh’s representatives would wait to engage in negotiations over a potential contract extension until the end of the season.
BriseBois stated his belief that Raddysh’s play has earned the blueliner a “game-changing contract,” but felt that waiting until the end of the season would allow the club to enter negotiations with a more complete sense of how to evaluate the defenseman’s appropriate contract value.
In a season where the Lightning have dealt with a rash of injuries to their blueline, Raddysh has emerged as a key difference-maker. The 29-year-old went undrafted out of the OHL’s Erie Otters but garnered significant league interest as a free agent at the end of his junior career. He originally signed with the Chicago Blackhawks and would go on to spend over a half-decade in the AHL before he earned his first NHL call-up.
Raddysh earned four NHL games for the Lightning in 2021-22, but his real breakout came in 2022-23, when he scored 51 points in 50 games for the Syracuse Crunch.
He got into 17 NHL games that year, which paved the way for him to earn a full-time role in Tampa the following year. Raddysh scored 33 points in 82 games in his first season as a full-time NHLer, 37 points in 73 games last season, and now has 12 goals and 36 points in 36 games this season.
For as much as he’s clearly developed in his late twenties, few likely expected Raddysh to sit top-five in league scoring by a defenseman halfway through an NHL season. He’s scoring at a higher clip this season than star names such as Quinn Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin, Moritz Seider, and Miro Heiskanen, to name just a few.
Playing defense is about more than just scoring, of course, and that’s why it’s important to note that Raddysh is also playing a key all-situations role for Tampa. He’s their No. 2 defenseman by average ice time per game (21:35) and beyond just getting top power play time, he also plays a role on the penalty kill.
He’s providing Tampa with an immense amount of surplus value on his current $975K cap hit, and as BriseBois said, has clearly lined himself up for a significant contract.
Of course, it’s fair to question whether a team interested in Raddysh will be able to expect Raddysh to put up the kind of point-per-game production he’s managed halfway through this season. But even if his true talent level isn’t quite as high as where he’s ranked right now, the fact is he’s still a right-shot blueliner who managed solid scoring rates in each of the last two seasons prior to this one.
Long gone is the flat cap environment where the vast majority of NHL clubs were tightening their purse strings and showing restraint on the free agent market. With each passing extension that gets signed, the upcoming free agent class thins even further, increasing Raddysh’s earnings potential as one of the top pending UFA blueliners.
For as much as the Bolts might want to see more games before committing significant funds to Raddysh, Raddysh may also want to wait as long as possible before committing to a contract extension in Tampa, as he very well could receive the most lucrative possible offer within the bidding wars of unrestricted free agency.
In any case, both Raddysh and the Lightning have more pressing objectives than the finances of next season; most importantly, it’s returning to the top of the game’s competitive pecking order and winning a third Stanley Cup under head coach Jon Cooper. If Raddysh can manage to string together a few more months of this kind of production, and find a way to translate his scoring to the high-intensity setting of the Stanley Cup playoffs, he could further heighten his chances of landing a life-altering contract this upcoming summer.
Photos courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Tampa’s management led by GM Julien BriseBois will find to way to keep Darren Raddysh as a Bolt, I don’t doubt it. They currently have $14.6M in cap space available to them next season according to PuckPedia, so they’ll have the cap space to pay Raddysh.
I suspect his next contract will be in the range of $4M to $5M AAV. He may take a bit less compared to signing with other teams because of the no income tax in Florida. Furthermore, Raddysh has shown his versatile value and his slap shot is absolutely lethal having the most 90+ mph shots in the NHL this season as teams are taking notice around the league.
He will take less if it’s 8 year old
I’d advise him to sign whatever the Lightning are offering. His run of late with Hedman out is amazing, but he’s also been a healthy scratch earlier this season. One unfortunate shift could cost him everything financially.
This is akin to breaking all the dishes in your cupboard if you wife makes a bad meal. The NHL or any professional sport does not work this way.
The truth is that the Lightning, as they always do, play the long game. Right now they have 9 NHL defensemen if healthy. As much as I love him, the premature signing of McDonough may come back and bite the lightning a bit.
I am sure both sides want to get something done. What is likely on the table today is not enough for Raddysh. The team will know more as the season progresses. You can not fake the production DR has exhibited the last 2 years. There will be plenty of takers.
No wonder that BriseBois doesn’t want to do an extension now. He’d rather Raddysh didn’t post this kind of numbers.
Tampa already has 4 expensive D-men signed long term. Adding a 5th to the list would be imprudent. A point-per-game D-man should command a 10M+ and that would eat up most of the next year’s cap space.
It’s also an all too-familiar situation of a career season miraculously happening in a contract year. Clearly he’s making an extra effort. With a big extension in place, will this extra effort continue?
In place of BriseBois, I’d rather let another team find out the answer to that question. Especially considering Raddysh’s defensive lapses.
In other Lightning News, the team is no longer priortizing resigning the FeelTheThunder ‘Master of The Obvious’ Bot, which it has confidently deemed to never had any value to the organization (except to provide occasional moments of humor).
@PedroShmuck – WFT?…I don’t even know who your irrelevant a$$ is but apparently you got some issue with me. I was just posting a comment, you a$$hole, as this is a comment board. I didn’t know there were certain rules on what one can post. I guess you’re trying to be some keyboard warrior or just another idiot troll on here. Congrats, you’ve achieved it. You’re probably just one dude posting as a bunch of different usernames.
Unintentionally of course