The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh in a sign-and-trade deal on Friday, taking one of the top offensive defensemen off the upcoming NHL free agent market.
Raddysh inked an eight-year contract, it was announced, with an average annual value of $8.5 million, according to a source, to sidestep going public toward other offers on July 1. The Lightning received a fifth-round pick in the upcoming 2026 draft from the Maple Leafs.
Toronto is betting on Raddysh after the 30-year-old had a breakout season in 2025-26 with career highs in goals (22), assists (48), points (70) and plus-minus (+21) while playing a career-high 22:41 over 73 games for the Lightning. He tallied 26 points on their power play, which featured NHL MVP Nikita Kucherov (37 power-play points) and Jake Guentzel (30 points), using a booming shot from the point to score 10 goals with the man advantage.
Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka had been tracking Raddysh since his junior hockey days with the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters, and Chayka even tried signing Raddysh to a contract when he was GM of the Arizona Coyotes. Now Chayka's gone all-out to hand Raddysh a massive deal -- the success of which hinges on the blueliner having several seasons ahead of him like the one that just passed.
"For us it's an aggressive move, [and] it's not without risk, of course," said Chayka during a Friday media availability. "But we just felt that given the stage we're at, and what he brings to the table, we felt it was worth pursuing. [The trade] came together pretty quickly. The opportunity to secure, in our opinion, the top free agent is an organizational win...[in] that we were able to get a defenseman for eight years that we feel very strongly about."
Chayka downplayed any narrative that the uptick in Raddysh's stats was a driving force in going after him. Rather, Chayka stressed the totality of Raddysh's game is what stood out in landing a player he'd kept an eye on for nearly a decade.
"The part of the value that we were most focused on was his ability to impact the game holistically," said Chayka. "He's a player that plays up against top competition, does quite well. He's a player that breaks the puck out well. He's a player that can join the rush and supplement offense, transitions well, defends the blue line well. So you start adding up all the elements that go into the end result of good production, and the robust play of all that gave us a lot of confidence that we're getting a defenseman that we haven't had in this organization for a long time."
Raddysh was an undrafted free agent who got his start in the Chicago Blackhawks organization in 2017-18 before being traded to the New York Rangers. The late bloomer didn't make his NHL debut until 2021-22 with the Lightning, for whom he would play five seasons, becoming an NHL regular in 2023-24. Overall, the right-shot defenseman had 35 goals and 143 points in 249 games for the Lightning, skating to a plus-24.
He was perhaps the best offensive defenseman available in what is considered a thin NHL free agent market. That spurred Chayka into action to remove Raddysh from the projected competition.
"There's things that are outside of your control," he said. "Free agency is only available to those who make it there, and you never know. So we always had a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Darren, with his background and being the top potential free agent, we felt very strongly about Plan A."
The Lightning were hoping he might stick around on a hometown discount, seeking to use cap space in other areas and with a monster contract extension for Kucherov potentially on the horizon in summer 2027.
Instead, Raddysh is the latest piece Chayka has put in place since taking over the Leafs GM role last month. He traded goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit to Philadelphia earlier this week in exchange for Emil Andrae, Samuel Ersson and a third-round pick and announced the hiring of new head coach Jim Hiller on Wednesday.
The Raddysh deal comes just one week before Toronto uses the first overall pick in next weekend's NHL draft. From the sounds of it, though, Chayka isn't done dealing if he thinks the Leafs can benefit from further turnover.
"It has been a process. We're still evaluating everything," said Chayka. "As I said coming in, I thought [defense] was an area where we needed to improve upon. Everyone knows we have some world-class forwards that, when you get the puck in their hands with time and space, it's going to be a good result for us. So we've been really focused on [improving] and we will continue to evaluate the market. As we sit here today with Darren as a part of [the group], we think it's a pretty good group, and a group that's going to give us a chance."
