Raddysh was the easiest solution for the Leafs’ blueline

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired defenseman Darren Raddysh from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2026 fifth-round pick on Friday. The 30-year-old blueliner is expected to sign an eight-year contract extension that will pay him around $8.5 million per year.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Raddysh’s value with the Leafs and how his contract could age going forward.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I get the concern with Raddysh. With him stylistically, he’s an average skater, and you worry that if he’s an average skater at 30, you’ll be a below-average skater by 33, 34. But I really like something that our friend Matt Larkin pointed out on social media earlier on Friday.

“Some rising-cap perspective: By year two of Raddysh deal, cap will be $113.5 million,” he wrote. “By that point an $8.5 million AAV will be the equivalent of $6.59 million last season when cap was $88 million.”

When we talk about having to re-wire our brains for the offseason, I know it’s a line that I’ve been saying a lot over the last few months, but this is the kind of stuff I’m talking about. Based on our current view of the NHL, is Raddysh an $8.5-million defenseman? No! But is he what we view as a $6.5-million defender? Yes.

By the end of this deal, can Raddysh be a solid No. 4 blueliner who is the equivalent of a $4- or $5-million D-man? I think he can.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…