Utah Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong made the biggest splash of anyone at the 2024 NHL Draft when he acquired star defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The true winners and losers of any trade typically aren’t determined until several years later, but now that a full season has passed since the Sergachev deal, here’s how the two teams have fared so far.
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What did Utah give up in the Mikhail Sergachev trade?
The trade saw Sergachev add black to the blue and white that he’d become accustomed to wearing in Tampa.
In return, the Lightning secured top prospect Conor Geekie, defenseman JJ Moser, a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 seventh-round pick.
Conor Geekie
Geekie, the centerpiece of the return, is Armstrong’s type of player: 6-foot-4, 207 pounds, equal parts goal-scoring, playmaking, and toughness. Whether he pans out offensively or not, Geekie will have a job in pro hockey for as long as he wants.
Geekie split the year between the Lightning and their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. He tallied eight goals and 14 points in 52 games at the NHL level, as well as one assist in four playoff games.
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Once he adjusts fully to the big league, Bolts fans probably won’t feel so bad about letting Sergachev go.
JJ Moser
After a dream start to the season, playing on Tampa’s top pairing and scoring six points in his first six games, Moser was at the top of the world. But, as was the case for Sergachev the year prior, that all changed when he suffered a major lower-body injury (a groin, in Moser’s case).
He missed two and a half months and struggled to rekindle his offensive spark when he returned to the lineup. Regardless, Moser is a promising, young player who could be a big piece of the Lightning’s future.
The draft picks
The 2025 2nd-round pick was used to select center Matthew Gard, but it wasn’t the Lightning who did it. They traded that pick, along with several other pieces, to the Seattle Kraken for Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand. The Kraken then dealt the pick to the Philadelphia Flyers in a simple swap — and that’s where Gard landed.
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The Lightning did keep the 2024 7th-rounder, which they turned in for winger Noah Steen.
It’s still far too early to determine the ceiling of either player drafted with those picks, but statistically speaking, it’s unlikely that either one becomes a more impactful player than the others in the trade.
Mikhail Sergachev
Sergachev-type players don’t often get traded in their prime, but after struggling to come back from a broken tibia and fibula in 2023-24, the Lightning may have wanted to be sure they could get some type of value out of him.
Thankfully for Sergachev and the Mammoth, he made a full recovery and played all but five games this season (his missed games were due to an upper-body injury, not his leg).
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Both on and off the ice, Sergachev was one of Utah’s most important players. He averaged the sixth-most playing time of any skater in the league, he held down the penalty kill and he quarterbacked the power play.
Defensemen aren’t often primary scorers, but he placed fifth on the team in points.
Though he was only 26 years old this season, he was one of the most respected players in the locker room. He’s not loud, but when he speaks, everyone listens.
In one particular instance after practice, we media were informed that we only had a few minutes for interviews that day because the team had a meeting commencing shortly thereafter. None of the players seemed to be in a rush, so we took as much time as they’d give us.
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That ended as soon as Sergachev returned to the locker room, quietly telling each player to wrap his comments up to get to the meeting. It was intriguing to see the urgency with which each player responded to Sergachev’s seemingly relaxed request.
When the team first introduced its captaincy group, Sergachev was not part of it — but just weeks into the season, he joined the rotation of alternate captains.
Now, with Russian young guns Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But making the jump to North America, his leadership will be even more important. He’ll likely be the one to help them with all kinds of things throughout the transition, from translation to finances to on-ice play.
The value Sergachev provides as both a top-tier player and a two-time Stanley Cup champion cannot be understated.
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So, who’s winning?
Again, the effects of the Sergachev trade will continue for many years, so it’s senseless to declare a winner after one season — but Utah is certainly in the lead right now.
Sergachev elevated his team to another level. Geekie and Moser didn’t quite do the same this year, though they have the potential to become great players, too.
Time will tell.