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Darren Raddysh

Atlantic Notes: Raddysh, Fleury, Matthews

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Tampa Bay Lightning reporter Chris Krenn tweeted that Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said defenseman Darren Raddysh is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. The 28-year-old missed game 4 of Tampa Bay’s first-round series last night after he’d averaged over 17 minutes of ice time in the first three games.

The native of Toronto, Ontario spent nearly five seasons toiling in the AHL before emerging this season as a solid depth option for the Lightning. In 82 games this year, Raddysh posted six goals and 27 assists while playing over 19 minutes a game. A late bloomer, Raddysh set career highs in almost every offensive category this season, while still providing the Lightning with solid work in the defensive zone.

In other Atlantic Division notes:

  • Jon Cooper also told Chris Krenn that defenseman Haydn Fleury is healthy and available to play for the Lightning. The former seventh-overall pick hasn’t played since colliding with an official back on April 6th in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and did take warm-ups last night with the team. While he is available for game 5, Fleury may serve as a healthy scratch given the depth Tampa Bay has on their back end. Fleury has never lived up to his top-10 draft status but remains a decent depth option for the Lightning should a defenseman go down to injury.
  • TSN’s Chris Johnston tweeted that Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke about superstar Auston Matthews saying that the illness he’s been suffering from has lingered and worsens when he gets on the ice and begins to push himself. Matthews left last night’s game early as the Maple Leafs fell into a deep hole and now trail the Boston Bruins 3-1 in their first-round matchup. The 26-year-old played just 14:16 yesterday, registering a single shot on goal and has just a goal and two assists in four playoff games thus far. Toronto will face elimination tomorrow night in Boston.

Lightning To Activate Mikhail Sergachev From LTIR, Expected For Game 4

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Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is taking normal line rushes during warmup ahead of tonight’s must-win Game 4 against the Panthers, indicating he’s been activated off long-term injured reserve, per the team’s Chris Krenn. Sergachev has been out since fracturing his fibula and tibia during a game on Feb. 7, and head coach Jon Cooper said earlier this month that he wasn’t expected back until the second round at the earliest. The team later confirmed he’ll be entering the lineup as they try to stave off early elimination against their cross-state rivals.

Sergachev, 25, hasn’t played a full game in over four months. He sustained a lower-body injury against the Blues on Dec. 19 that kept him out of game action through the All-Star break and sustained the freak double-break in his left leg while attempting to lay a hit on Rangers winger Alexis Lafrenière in his first game back.

Those injuries limited the top-four fixture to 34 appearances in the regular season, his fewest as a Lightning. Before his initial injury, Sergachev was struggling to recapture his 2022-23 form that earned him Norris Trophy consideration for the first time. Offensively, his points per game pace dropped from 0.81 to 0.56, and his possession metrics dipped slightly as well. The latter was to be expected, though, after a salary cap crunch forced the Lightning to part with many key depth players after last season.

He was actually on the ice for fewer expected goals against per game at even strength than he was last season, something you wouldn’t glean from his -16 rating. That was tanked due to the majority of Sergachev’s playing time coming while starting netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was out recovering from preseason back surgery, forcing inexperienced backup Jonas Johansson into most of the starts to begin the year.

Line rushes indicate he’ll be paired with Erik Černák as the Lightning begin to try and climb out of a 3-0 series deficit. The two were routinely partners when Sergachev was healthy this season, playing 238 minutes together in 31 games. Per MoneyPuck, the pair controlled 48% of expected goals when deployed together.

They’ll operate as Cooper’s second defense pairing behind Victor Hedman and Mathew Dumba in Game 4. Dumba moves up alongside Hedman as Darren Raddysh is a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. Raddysh took just two shifts in the third period of Game 3.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Darren Raddysh To Extension

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have inked defenseman Darren Raddysh to a two-year, one-way contract extension, as announced today by the team. The contract, which carries an AAV of $975K, will take effect starting in 2024-25. PuckPedia later added that Raddysh will earn a $1.114MM salary in 2024-25 and an $836K salary in 2025-26.

Raddysh, 27, broke into the Lightning lineup in the back nine of last season after a career year in the minors. Named to the AHL’s First All-Star Team for 2022-23, Raddysh led all Syracuse Crunch defensemen with 38 assists and 51 points in 50 games. It earned him a call-up to the Lightning in early March, and he recorded a goal and two assists for three points in 17 games before appearing in all six postseason games for the Lightning in their first-round loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. With Erik Cernak sidelined for most of the series with an upper-body injury after he took an elbow to the head from then-Toronto forward Michael Bunting in Game 1, Raddysh stepped into a top-four role alongside Mikhail Sergachev. Although he posted solid possession metrics in the regular season, the Sergachev-Raddysh unit conceded the most quality opportunities of Tampa’s three main pairings in the playoffs, per MoneyPuck.

An undrafted free agent, Raddysh also spent time with the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers organizations before landing in Tampa in 2021 as a free agent. The right-shot defender from Caledon, Ontario, has demonstrated solid two-way instincts in the minors, which appeared to translate to the big leagues in his slightly extended NHL look last season.

The contract’s one-way nature emphasizes Tampa’s belief that Raddysh can be a full-time NHL contributor moving forward, although ideally, they won’t rely on him for heavy minutes unless his game takes another large step. He’ll compete with Haydn Fleury, Zach Bogosian and 2023 free agency addition Calvin de Haan for ice time – a group head coach Jon Cooper will likely rotate throughout the season.

Raddysh will be an unrestricted free agent when his new contract expires in 2026. This season, he’s still on the two-year, two-way contract extension he signed in 2022, which carries a cap hit of $762.5K, an AHL salary of $250K, and a minimum guaranteed salary of $350K, although again, it’s likely he sticks on the NHL roster this season (he would require waivers to be returned to Syracuse).

AHL Shuffle: 3/4/23

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While there were plenty of recalls yesterday following paper demotions to the minors to maintain AHL eligibility, some of those moves will come today instead.  We’ll keep track of those transactions here while non-paper recalls will be covered separately.

  • The Lightning announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Darren Raddysh from AHL Syracuse. The 27-year-old played for Tampa Bay in Thursday’s loss to Pittsburgh but has spent most of the year with the Crunch, picking up 50 points in 50 games to put him second among all AHL rearguards in scoring.
  • The Penguins announced (Twitter link) the recall of forward Drew O’Connor from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 24-year-old last played in the AHL three months ago and since then, he has been a regular most nights with Pittsburgh, recording five goals and three assists in 27 games.
  • The Flames have recalled wingers Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier from AHL Calgary, per the AHL’s transactions log.  Both players were papered down on Friday.  Duehr has four points in 17 games with the Flames so far this season while Pelletier has seven points in 16 contests, five of which have come in Calgary’s last five outings.
  • Nashville has recalled forwards John Leonard and Luke Evangelista from Milwaukee after sending them down yesterday, per the AHL’s transactions log.  Leonard scored in his first game of the season with the Predators on Thursday while Evangelista has an assist over his first two NHL appearances.
  • The Kings have recalled centers Rasmus Kupari and Quinton Byfield, per the AHL’s transactions log.  Kupari has spent most of the year with Los Angeles, getting into 47 games with them compared to 11 with the Reign while Byfield has suited up 34 times for the Kings compared to 16 in Ontario.  These quick demotions will keep them eligible to play in the AHL postseason.
  • The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) they have sent down Ben Meyers to the Colorado Eagles. Meyers has played 34 games in the NHL this season with the Avalanche, scoring one goal and zero assists.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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