The Tampa Bay Lightning are not bashful about making moves during trade season. This time around, they swung big in a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks for Brandon Hagel, and on Sunday they continued with a trade that brings forward Nick Paul to Florida, with forward Mathieu Joseph and a 2024 fourth-round pick heading to Ottawa.
How did the GMs do on this one? Here are our trade grades:
The Lightning clearly wanted to bolster their bottom six at the NHL trade deadline, and why not? They created the template for depth moves paying off with big playoff dividends with the Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow trades in 2020 that preceded their two Stanley Cup championship wins.
The Brandon Hagel trade was the first step to that end. Now the Lightning add Paul, 27, from the Senators. He’s a physical presence and a solid defender at even strength. His real virtue is on special teams, as he was Ottawa’s best penalty-killing forward. He’s listed as a winger but has taken faceoffs regularly over the past three seasons.
Paul has shown some offensive upside at 5-on-5, and protects the puck well. Perhaps he can show more on a team like the Lightning.
The big change for Paul in Tampa will be in usage. He was sixth among Ottawa forwards in average ice time. It’s hard to imagine him averaging 17:22 per game given the role in which the Lightning will cast him.
The Senators retained 44.5% of Paul’s salary in the deal, and he’s an unrestricted free agent after the season, giving the Lightning flexibility now and in the offseason. As a restricted free agent, it’s entirely possible that Joseph was going to price himself out of the Lightning’s delicate salary-cap structure.
The fourth-round pick involved in this deal isn’t until 2024, and that’s the Lightning dealing from a position of strength, as they own Chicago’s 2024 fourth-rounder too.
Paul and the Senators couldn’t figure out a financial arrangement that worked for the pending free agent. In Joseph, they get a younger player (25) whose contract they can better control, as an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this offseason.
On the ice, Joseph is a really nice addition. He can play all three forward positions. He’s a tenacious forechecker. His offensive numbers don’t quite match those of Paul, but we bet they surpass them if he’s given Paul’s ice time — Joseph plays only 13:42 on average this season, which is still the highest of his career.
He’ll be reunited with his former junior hockey teammate Thomas Chabot, too.
Overall, it’s a trade that helps both teams, with Joseph as a potential upgrade for the Senators if he blossoms when given the opportunity, assuming the RFA contract situation works out.