Prior to the 2024 NHL Draft, there were rumors floating around that The Utah Hockey Club were looking to secure the services of a number one defenseman via a trade. On Saturday, they accomplished that by trading for a defenseman extremely familiar to Tampa Bay Lightning fans – Mikhail Sergachev.
In a bit of a surprising move, the Lightning sent their second-best defenseman to Utah in exchange for Conor Geekie, JJ Moser, a 2025 second-round pick, and a seventh-round pick in this year’s draft.
The Bolts also cleared Sergachev’s contract, which had seven years at an AAV of $8.5 million left. As of the time of initial publication, there has been no indication that the Lightning retained salary.
We discussed the possibility of a Sergachev trade earlier this month when looking at the no-trade clauses that were kicking in on July 1st.
“That being said, a Mikhail Sergachev deal would be really, really interesting. Outside of Point or Nikita Kucherov, there may not be a player on the roster that would bring back a bigger haul of assets than Sergachev. Think of what he offers to a GM looking for immediate impact on the blue line.
In a summer where the free agent pool isn’t that deep on defense, the 25-year-old, two-time Stanley Cup winning, 257-point accruing Russian could jump to the top of a lot of defensive rotations. While his $8.5 million cap hit isn’t pocket change, it’s not even in the top-10 in the league right now, and will only move further down the list as time rolls on.
With McDonagh back in the fold, the Lightning could, at least theoretically, deal from a position of strength on the left side of the defense. With Victor Hedman on the first pairing, McDonagh on the second, they could find either an internal solution for the third pair (Emil Lilleberg, Declan Carlille, Nick Perbix on his off-side) or have the money to sign a free agent.
Moving Sergachev would definitely fill the “everything is on the table” portion of Mr. BriseBois’ end of the season speech.”
Connor Geekie is a 20-year-old forward who put up 99 points in 55 games with Wenatchee and Swift Current in the WHL last season before making his pro debut with the Tucson Roadrunners. He was the 11th overall pick in the 2022 draft.
JJ Moser is a 24-year-old, 6’1″, left-shot defenseman who posted 26 points (5 goals, 21 assists) with the Coyotes last season. He is a restricted free agent coming off of a three-year, entry-level deal that had an AAV of $925,000.
With the trade the Lightning now have an estimated $13,835,000 in cap space for next season. It is likely that a portion of that will go towards an extension for Victor Hedman starting in the 2025-26 season, but will it open up enough room for a Steven Stamkos deal this summer?
