We’ve paid more for riskier prospects IMO. I’M not a true believer per se but I do think that having a bit of room has done wonders for him and now he sees what he capable of.
Ok basic premise regarding defensive players and pretty much all
Players new to the NHL. it takes about 200 games for the player to figure it out after he hits that mark. You’ll kind of figure what the player is. For Raddysh two other factors come into play. First and foremost the Coaching change from Blashill to the combination of HiNote and Zettler. These two have paired up and designed a system that is both man on man and collapsing into the crease when needed. The whole team has improved markedly on defense and the numbers bear that out. Throw out the first 10 games and look at the numbers they are spectacular compared to last year.
The other factor was Hedman getting injured and finally and I mean finally getting Moser back on his natural LHD position versus RHD covering for Hedman’s lack of defensive players as he’s aged. Along with the magical pairing with Raddysh just unreal.
For me 6.5-7.5 seems reasonable but only JBB knows what he can afford time will tell.
I’m giving him 7 tomorrow. RD who can play every situation and is a bomb partner to our two big ticket defenseman, it’s really a no brainer.
His floor is about that 5m area, and 2m is pennies in the grand scheme of things. People are terrified he’ll regress into a third pairing guy, but tbh I see almost no chance of that happening.
If someone wants to give him 8-9×4 in free agency, go get the bag bro. But, I do think he’ll stay for around 7 if he gets term and a juicy NMC. Fingers crossed he cools off a bit before the season is out.
Kucherov effect
He’s also been given a lot more opportunities with Hedman out.
At this point in Heddys career, he shouldn’t be averaging 20 minutes a game anymore unless it’s playoffs.
Heddy can run PP2 and PK2, but leave Raddysh and Moser as the D1 pair, and keep Raddy on PP1.
This came up like a week ago and a lot of agreed the $6 million range for like 5 or 6 years would be reasonable.
I’d be too scared to go much higher than $6 or 7 since this could very easily be an outlier season. I guess he’s too old for a bridge lol.
Wouldn’t fault the dude for chasing the bag with a diff team tho.
If we want to take a gamble and pay him $5mx5, Im here for it but lets call a spade a spade.
Love Raddy but this was a guy who was a healthy scratch the first month of the season and is benefitting a lot from power play time and Moeser holding things down defensively with their pairing. Even with the rising cap, we dont want to miss on a player with this dollar amount.
As always, lets just let JBB cook.
I fear our power play will regress into oblivion without a right shot on there. Cernak needs to go to clear up some cap for Raddysh imo. Bjork will give us 5m in cap too this summer and we can likely just sign another Pontus holmberg (maybe a slightly better player) to replace him
Easiest way would be to give him a 1 X $7MM deal…but there’s little chance he would take that. It would give him and the team more time to confirm it’s not a blip. Maybe an escalating value with a limited NMC or something is the way.
IN JBB WE TRUST
My biggest fear right now is that we overpay Raddysh for this one season. We scratched him the first month. Has he been fantastic since? Absolutely. But we can’t give him $7M for a few months of great play
This will likely wait until the off season. It’s a weird one. JBB and us fans know raddy has been solid but not what he has been the past 6-8 weeks. JBB doesn’t get emotional (as we saw with stammer) and will offer something that’s fair. He did it with JJ and JJ took the deal. We will see if Raddy does the same.
I have a feeling we’re going to let him walk and he’s going to get overpaid somewhere. That’s the vibe JBB’s comments gave me
At 30 years old, he’ll be looking for his one big contract with term, and he’s earned it with his play this year… so far. It’s all about sample size, like JBB said. Can Raddysh sustain it? Who knows how he’ll play when Heddy and Mac return (and Lille). And Heddy and Mac will play… you’re not sitting $13mil worth of defensemen. Also, Raddysh is only worth the higher end of the numbers discussed here, $5-7, if he performs in the playoffs. And Raddysh shouldn’t underestimate the Kuch effect: How well is Raddysh going to perform on another team’s PP when teams aren’t rolling guys away from him to converge on Kucherov? He’s got it good here, and he knows it: Kuch loading up the Howitzer, and Moser covering any defensive lapses. Raddysh can and should offer us a nice hometown discount. If he keeps this up through the playoffs, however, back up the Brinks truck.
JBB didn’t mince words. He likes the player, and the man. But he’s not going to hand out a huge contract until he’s sure that this version of Raddysh is going to last through the season. I doubt we see anything until after the season is over.
Raddysh and Moser are the Lightning’s two best defensemen. That includes Hedman and McDonagh. Why Raddysh was being scratched all those games and playing limited minutes was always beyond me. They should have extended him when he thought he was lucky to play a game or two. He has possibly the best shot of any NHL defenseman and can play the blue line spot and can play the Stamkos left circle on power plays.
There’s no way JBB dishes out 7M for Raddysh. I love the guy, but he just won’t get that contract from JBB. I think we trade him, to be honest.
I see him getting 5mil AAV. Seems fair as he’s playing with the best in the NHL (Kuch) take that away from him and he’s back to half his points for the season, this isnt to say he hasn’t earned a spot on the top line and deserves probably more, but a safe contract is better than over paying. I’d imagine 5/6 as a safe bet
For some reason the Lightning accepted the countless mistakes made by Lilleberg, Crozier, Carlile, Santini and other defenders but not those made by Raddysh.
i’d be comfortable giving him 6-6.5×4/5 AAV on a front loaded model
If his later years aren’t going to be as productive then at least it would be at a lesser cap hit
20 comments
We’ve paid more for riskier prospects IMO. I’M not a true believer per se but I do think that having a bit of room has done wonders for him and now he sees what he capable of.
Ok basic premise regarding defensive players and pretty much all
Players new to the NHL. it takes about 200 games for the player to figure it out after he hits that mark. You’ll kind of figure what the player is. For Raddysh two other factors come into play. First and foremost the Coaching change from Blashill to the combination of HiNote and Zettler. These two have paired up and designed a system that is both man on man and collapsing into the crease when needed. The whole team has improved markedly on defense and the numbers bear that out. Throw out the first 10 games and look at the numbers they are spectacular compared to last year.
The other factor was Hedman getting injured and finally and I mean finally getting Moser back on his natural LHD position versus RHD covering for Hedman’s lack of defensive players as he’s aged. Along with the magical pairing with Raddysh just unreal.
For me 6.5-7.5 seems reasonable but only JBB knows what he can afford time will tell.
I’m giving him 7 tomorrow. RD who can play every situation and is a bomb partner to our two big ticket defenseman, it’s really a no brainer.
His floor is about that 5m area, and 2m is pennies in the grand scheme of things. People are terrified he’ll regress into a third pairing guy, but tbh I see almost no chance of that happening.
If someone wants to give him 8-9×4 in free agency, go get the bag bro. But, I do think he’ll stay for around 7 if he gets term and a juicy NMC. Fingers crossed he cools off a bit before the season is out.
Kucherov effect
He’s also been given a lot more opportunities with Hedman out.
At this point in Heddys career, he shouldn’t be averaging 20 minutes a game anymore unless it’s playoffs.
Heddy can run PP2 and PK2, but leave Raddysh and Moser as the D1 pair, and keep Raddy on PP1.
This came up like a week ago and a lot of agreed the $6 million range for like 5 or 6 years would be reasonable.
I’d be too scared to go much higher than $6 or 7 since this could very easily be an outlier season. I guess he’s too old for a bridge lol.
Wouldn’t fault the dude for chasing the bag with a diff team tho.
If we want to take a gamble and pay him $5mx5, Im here for it but lets call a spade a spade.
Love Raddy but this was a guy who was a healthy scratch the first month of the season and is benefitting a lot from power play time and Moeser holding things down defensively with their pairing. Even with the rising cap, we dont want to miss on a player with this dollar amount.
As always, lets just let JBB cook.
I fear our power play will regress into oblivion without a right shot on there. Cernak needs to go to clear up some cap for Raddysh imo. Bjork will give us 5m in cap too this summer and we can likely just sign another Pontus holmberg (maybe a slightly better player) to replace him
Easiest way would be to give him a 1 X $7MM deal…but there’s little chance he would take that. It would give him and the team more time to confirm it’s not a blip. Maybe an escalating value with a limited NMC or something is the way.
IN JBB WE TRUST
My biggest fear right now is that we overpay Raddysh for this one season. We scratched him the first month. Has he been fantastic since? Absolutely. But we can’t give him $7M for a few months of great play
This will likely wait until the off season. It’s a weird one. JBB and us fans know raddy has been solid but not what he has been the past 6-8 weeks. JBB doesn’t get emotional (as we saw with stammer) and will offer something that’s fair. He did it with JJ and JJ took the deal. We will see if Raddy does the same.
I have a feeling we’re going to let him walk and he’s going to get overpaid somewhere. That’s the vibe JBB’s comments gave me
At 30 years old, he’ll be looking for his one big contract with term, and he’s earned it with his play this year… so far. It’s all about sample size, like JBB said. Can Raddysh sustain it? Who knows how he’ll play when Heddy and Mac return (and Lille). And Heddy and Mac will play… you’re not sitting $13mil worth of defensemen. Also, Raddysh is only worth the higher end of the numbers discussed here, $5-7, if he performs in the playoffs. And Raddysh shouldn’t underestimate the Kuch effect: How well is Raddysh going to perform on another team’s PP when teams aren’t rolling guys away from him to converge on Kucherov? He’s got it good here, and he knows it: Kuch loading up the Howitzer, and Moser covering any defensive lapses. Raddysh can and should offer us a nice hometown discount. If he keeps this up through the playoffs, however, back up the Brinks truck.
JBB didn’t mince words. He likes the player, and the man. But he’s not going to hand out a huge contract until he’s sure that this version of Raddysh is going to last through the season. I doubt we see anything until after the season is over.
Raddysh and Moser are the Lightning’s two best defensemen. That includes Hedman and McDonagh. Why Raddysh was being scratched all those games and playing limited minutes was always beyond me. They should have extended him when he thought he was lucky to play a game or two. He has possibly the best shot of any NHL defenseman and can play the blue line spot and can play the Stamkos left circle on power plays.
There’s no way JBB dishes out 7M for Raddysh. I love the guy, but he just won’t get that contract from JBB. I think we trade him, to be honest.
I see him getting 5mil AAV. Seems fair as he’s playing with the best in the NHL (Kuch) take that away from him and he’s back to half his points for the season, this isnt to say he hasn’t earned a spot on the top line and deserves probably more, but a safe contract is better than over paying. I’d imagine 5/6 as a safe bet
For some reason the Lightning accepted the countless mistakes made by Lilleberg, Crozier, Carlile, Santini and other defenders but not those made by Raddysh.
i’d be comfortable giving him 6-6.5×4/5 AAV on a front loaded model
If his later years aren’t going to be as productive then at least it would be at a lesser cap hit