Lightning Aiming To Add Right-Shot Defenseman

One of the Lightning’s priorities before the trade deadline is supplement their blue line, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said on Thursday’s edition of “Daily Faceoff Live.”

“The right side of that ‘D’ corps has been something that they’ve been looking to add. [I] wouldn’t be surprised if [Lightning GM Julien] BriseBois pulls that off. Now, one of the things he did tell me during the Stadium Series was that if they make a move, they don’t just want it to be for this season. They view it as adding now and impacting the roster moving forward. So, to me, that means somebody with term or at least somebody controllable.”

Short-term, adding to the blue line in a season where they’re arguably the clear favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference is arguably a requirement for BriseBois to address. While they’ve gotten consistently strong play out of their call-ups this season, they’ve been plagued by injuries. That won’t change after the Olympic break. Maxwell Crozier won’t be an option until the first round of the playoffs after undergoing core muscle surgery. Victor Hedman has been limited to just 21 games this season and sustained another lower-body injury while warming up for Sweden in yesterday’s Olympic quarterfinal loss to the United States.

The short and long-term pictures are thin on the right side. Crozier, when healthy, had emerged as an NHL-capable third-pairing option. Behind their top three of Darren Raddysh, Erik Černák, and Crozier, they don’t have any other righties in the organization that they’d want playing postseason minutes.

There’s also the question of whether Raddysh, a pending unrestricted free agent, will opt to extend with Tampa. The 29-year-old may be the top pending UFA available at this stage after Artemi Panarin signed his extension with the Kings. His incredible breakout campaign has him sixth in the league in scoring among defensemen with 52 points (17 goals, 35 assists) in 49 games. He’s also now Tampa’s No. 1 on the blue line in terms of deployment, averaging 22:33 of ice time per game. AFP Analytics projects a four-year extension in the mid-$5MM AAV range if he sticks around, but as his earning potential will never be greater than it is now, it’s hard to imagine him not at least wanting to test the market.

With Černák serving as their only top-four piece on the right side signed long-term, and the aging Hedman and Ryan McDonagh needing to start to wind down their minutes on the left side, the need for another high-powered righty to take the Bolts through the end of the decade is apparent. On the left side, they have at least one succession policy in J.J. Moser, who’s already arrived as a top-pairing capable piece. Until they have some degree of certainty surrounding Raddysh’s future, though, long-term right-shot depth remains an active weakness.

If the Bolts aren’t in the rental market, their options become more limited. Teams are never exactly chomping at the bit to part ways with a cost-controlled, or even rights-controlled, right-shot blue liner with top-four deployability. The most talked-about names on the market, veterans Dougie Hamilton and Justin Faulk, are both rather high-cost, on the wrong side of 30, and are only signed for two seasons (Hamilton) or one season (Faulk) past this one.

A younger name who could be a fit, especially short-term as a more natural third-pairing upgrade, is the Rangers’ Braden Schneider. The 24-year-old is a pending restricted free agent, so while he’s not cost-controlled, he at least has two years of team control left for the Bolts to sign him to a long-term deal. He’s averaging a career-high 20:19 per game for the Blueshirts this season with two goals, 11 points, and a -15 rating in 57 games. New York has relied on him heavily in shutdown situations over the past few seasons, and his possession numbers consistently come out above water compared to his offensive zone start percentage. With Černák taking the brunt of shutdown minutes in Tampa, there may be room for Schneider to chip in more offensively in easier minutes.