According to their Twitter account, the Tampa Bay Lightning have confirmed that they have traded defenseman Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators. In exchange, the Lightning received defenseman Philip Myers and forward Grant Mismash from Nashville. There doesn’t appear to be any salary retention in the trade. With the Lightning having to make some tough salary cap decisions if they wanted to keep the majority of their core together, one name rumored to be on the move was McDonagh, and GM Julien BriseBois was able to pull it off. McDonagh has a $6.75 million cap hit for each of the next four seasons.
In McDonagh, the Predators acquire a rugged defenseman and veteran of 783 career NHL regular season games, in addition to 185 playoff games, including Stanley Cup championships with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021. Originally the twelfth overall pick in drafted in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, McDonagh was traded to the New York Rangers two years later in the Scott Gomez trade. The defenseman went on to play in 516 regular season games for the Rangers, captaining the team from 2014-15 until his trade to the Lightning in 2017-18. After the trade, the Predators still project to have just over $18.1 million in available salary cap space this offseason, which should be more than enough to make the necessary moves and extend franchise icon Filip Forsberg.
According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, it doesn’t appear the Lightning plan to buy out Myers’ contract ( link ). By keeping Myers on their hands, the Lightning still frees up $4.2 million. With the possible departure of fellow right tackle Jan Ruta, Myers could serve as a backup as he only has one year left on his contract, as opposed to Ruta’s unpredictable term and salary. Speaking to the media, including The Athletic’s Joe Smith, BriseBois said if the league wasn’t in a flat cap situation, he would never have considered making the deal and asking McDonough to waive his no-trade clause. Speaking of that clause, McDonagh currently carries a full no-trade clause, meaning the Lightning had to specifically seek his permission to make this deal, an experience BriseBois told Smith was not pleasant. As for McDonough’s replacement, BreezBoys told Eduardo Encina of the Tampa Bay Times that the plan is to elevate the role of defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and continue to fill out the defensive corps. While it’s a different behavior, it seems consistent with choosing to hold on to Myers instead of buying him.
With the deal, Tampa Bay sends a left-handed defenseman to a right-handed defenseman in Myers, but he may not be with the team for long, as Sportsnet’s Elliott Friedman points out, the team could buy out Myers’ contract and actually get a $617K max credit this season , then owes just $633K in 2023-24. Myers is currently under contract for the 2022-23 season at $2.5 million. While Myers’ cap hit certainly isn’t bad, it’s pretty high for a team fighting for every dollar to stay under the cap. Another option for the Lightning could be to trade Myers, avoiding his cap hit this year, but if they see value in having the cap credit this year with the cap hit next year, they might be inclined to just buy him out now . With the credit, the Lightning would actually take $7.13 million in cap space that it didn’t have at that time yesterday (link).
Last but certainly not least is Mismash, who was drafted in the second round, 61st overall, by Nashville in 2017. The forward played four seasons at the University of North Dakota, where he had 71 points in 117 college games. before turning pro last season. In 57 games with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals last season, Mismash had six goals and six assists.
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