Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh is in the middle of a historic season.<\/p>\n
The path to a career year has been a story of perseverance\u00a0for the 30-year-old defenseman, but Raddysh has established himself as one of the premier offensive defensemen in the entire NHL.<\/p>\n
The league has noticed, and on Wednesday the Tampa Bay chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) announced Raddysh as their nominee for the 2026 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.<\/p>\n
Raddysh wasn\u2019t playing in every game to start the season but stepped up after multiple injuries on the Lightning blue line and hasn\u2019t looked back\u2014he is in the midst of a career season, scoring 21 goals and 48 assists for 69 points in 71 games for the Lightning.<\/p>\n
He is playing a career-high 22 minutes, 52 seconds per game to lead Tampa Bay this season, and his 10 power-play goals lead all NHL defensemen. His 21 goals this season tie for fourth among all defensemen in the league, and he ranks seventh in the league for points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he was just trying to round out some other parts of his game, but his confidence level now with the puck and what he can and can’t do, it’s taken him a couple years to kind of figure that out in this league\u2026His confidence level\u2019s been big since he’s been on the power play full time, and he’s shooting that puck with confidence,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAnd anytime you can shoot it as hard as he can, that really helps. But good on him. You always like to see good guys get rewarded, and Raddy\u2019s a good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n