Lightning rumors: How close was Tampa Bay to re-signing Darren Raddysh before Maple Leafs departure

The Tampa Bay Lightning have moved on from one of their defenders from the 2025-26 season. The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded for Darren Raddysh, who was set to be an unrestricted free agent.

While the Lightning made the move to trade away Raddysh, there was also the possibility they would re-sign the blueliner themselves, but the gap was too much, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

“The Tampa Bay Lightning realized this week that the gap was just too wide in contract talks on Darren Raddysh, and it was never going to shrink — hence Friday’s sign-and-trade deal with the Maple Leafs,” LeBrun wrote.

The deal for Raddysh got him a massive pay raise. He was coming off a two-year deal with an AAV of $975 thousand. It was tied for the longest deal of his career, while also being the most he had been paid. Now, he will be getting an AAV of $8.5 million over the next eight years.

“My understanding is that BriseBois never came close to the term or average annual value that Toronto ended up paying, and I get that. Raddysh was still an AHLer three years ago before finally getting his NHL break. He put up 33 points in 2023-24 and 37 points in 2024-25 before his explosion in 2025-26,” LeBrun wrote.

Still, the Lightning’s former defender is coming off a career year. He found the back of the net 22 times while adding 48 assists. He was also great on the power play with 10 goals and 16 helpers. It was by far the best season for the 30-year-old. Still, it was a small sample size.

“At the end of the day, I just don’t think Lightning GM Julien BriseBois bought into the sample size enough to spend large here. I do think Raddysh would have taken a bit less than his deal in Toronto to stay in Tampa, but BriseBois’ view, I’m sure, was that the commitment it would have taken to re-sign him would have taken away from other things Tampa Bay may want to do in the years to come,” LeBrun added.

Now, Raddysh is a member of the Maple Leafs. It was the second major move the Maple Leafs have already made this offseason.

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