The Tampa Bay Lightning were going to go under some change this offseason. Given GM Julien BriseBois wanted to extend Nikita Kucherov, who could be $12 million a season over a two or three-year deal, he wasn’t going to be able to keep defenseman Darren Raddysh.

NHL Rumors: Expect the Toronto Maple Leafs to Remain Active

During their locker cleanout day, Raddysh acknowledged that the NHL is a business and that he would let his agent and the team handle things. However, from the sounds of it, the player knew he was leaving as he thanked the organization for giving him a shot.

“I’m very thankful for everything that Tampa has given me. They gave me a shot to play in the NHL. I’ve been here for the last 4 yrs & I can’t say anything bad about this organization,” Raddysh said.

There was a belief, according to Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider, that Raddysh wasn’t coming back. There was no way the team could pay him what he was looking for. As he stated on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio, you can’t fault the player for going to market.

My expectation is that Darren Raddysh will go to market. We’ll see, is there money for both of them? I think there is, especially with the increases in the cap expected to go up the next two years, but I don’t know if Raddysh will be back, because I think he owes it to himself to test the market, because I think he’s got to get more on the open market than he would get here.

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So enter the Toronto Maple Leafs, who continue to have an active offseason. First, they traded Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to the Philadelphia Flyers for Samuel Ersson and Emil Andrae. They followed that up by hiring Jim Hiller to be their next head coach. Now, Leafs GM John Chayka acquired defenseman Darren Raddysh from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday morning.

The Maple Leafs are giving up a fifth-round pick as part of a sign-and-trade with the Lightning. As part of the deal, Raddysh signs an eight-year deal worth $8.5 million a season.

This deal started to come together overnight or late into the morning, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Darren Raddysh was one of the more coveted players this free agency period. Again, the class was not the best to begin with, but Raddysh hit the market at the right time, coming off a season in which he recorded career highs in all three categories, with 70 points (22 goals and 48 assists) in 73 games.

NHL Rumors: Tampa Bay Lightning; Kucherov, Raddysh, and Cooper

Raddysh filled in for Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, and Ryan McDonagh during parts of the season for the Lightning. Remember, Hedman was dealing with injuries along with a personal and mental health issue later on as well. Raddysh stepped up for the Lightning. He recorded 26 of his 70 points on the power play, where he scored 10 goals.

The Maple Leafs continue to add puck-moving defenseman. Again, Emil Andrae is younger, but that was Chayka’s goal when he came to Toronto. Chayka also continues a trend from Brad Treliving, who revamped the defence as well with a sneaky good signing in Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Treliving also added Chris Tanev, so the Leafs defense corps looks strong.

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As for Darren Raddysh, he hit the market at the right time. Part of the reason for the sign-and-trade was to get the eighth year and keep the AAV down. Remember, as of September 16th, 2026, under the new CBA, players can sign max-length seven-year deals with their own club and six-year deals with another club.

This feels like just the beginning for the Maple Leafs as they look to retool on the fly. Now the question is what the Lightning do and where they look for right-shot defenseman?

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