2023 Trade Deadline Primer: Five Players the Lightning Should Pursue

Welcome back to another trade deadline edition of GM Julien BriseBois having no cap space but acquiring whoever he deems necessary for the Tampa Bay Lightning to make a deep playoff run.

With the 3 p.m. EST March 3rd deadline fast approaching, let’s take a look at the team’s roster and salary cap situation and who would make a good fit.

Roster Needs

What the team needs never seems to change: A hard to play against middle-six forward and similarly physical right hand shot defenseman that can block shots.

Looking at the forward position, this year’s group is fairly rounded-out, unlike last season when two rookies — Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh — were still finding their place in the league. For now, Pat Maroon is still listed on the third line for most games, and has done a good job, but that’s probably a position we would want to upgrade for the playoffs.

On defense, the team has carried Haydn Fleury and Cal Foote as extra defensemen since Nick Perbix secured his spot in the lineup early-on. Perbix looks to be locked-in to his spot, but perhaps we could see some tinkering with Fleury and Foote to give the team more veteran options.

This goes without saying, but any addition needs to be a clear upgrade to the roster. This is not an issue with BriseBois at the helm, but recent events concerning our likely first-round opponent only highlights the need to add difference makers.

And if that’s not enough to put us in a position to act, the prospect of Toronto adding even more would only increase our need to respond.

Salary Cap Situation

With just under $720,000 in open cap space, there is not a lot of room for BriseBois to maneuver here.

Having a potential trade partner, and/or a third party, retain 50% of a player’s remaining salary remains a useful tool, but each retention will only add to the price we pay. With the $720,000 cap space, Tampa Bay would be able to acquire a player with a $2.88M cap hit without needing to make any roster deductions if we paid a trade partner and a third party to retain 50% each.

Any further cap maneuvering beyond that point will require money heading out via trade or waivers, and the team has a few options. Fleury and Foote are options, and could the team even move Vladislav Namestnikov and his $2,500,000 contract to make cap room? If that’s what BriseBois decides needs to be done, then do not rule it out.

Notable Trade Assests

• 2025 1st Round
• 2024 2nd Round
• 2023 & 2024 3rd Round
• 2023 & 2024 4th Round (2024 pick is Chicago’s)
• Cal Foote
• Isaac Howard

The cupboards are looking as bare as ever after going all in the prior three seasons, but there is still something for BriseBois to work with if he finds a piece that he thinks the team must have.

No 1st round pick for the next two years — thanks to the Hagel trade — and no second-round this year either leaves us at quite a disadvantage for making a splash. There is still the full array of third-round and later picks to work with, but for any big trade those will only serve as secondary assets.

Cal Foote has sufficient NHL experience now, but he has not been as consistent in his opportunities as we would hope and has seen Nick Perbix jump him on the depth chart this year. Could he be available? I think it’s a possibility, but only if we are returning another defenseman.

The last time the Lightning drafted in the first-round, before Isaac Howard, BriseBois flipped Nolan Foote the following trade deadline in a deal that brought Blake Coleman to the team for two cup winning seasons. If we need to attach a top prospect to make a trade happen, then Howard will not be safe. Other prospects in the Lightning organization have value as well, but their value will vary team-to-team depending on the type of player they may be looking for.

Potential Trade Targets

Luke Schenn — RD, Vancouver Canucks

Age: 33
Stats: 54 GP | 3 Goals | 18 Assists | +9 | 17:09 TOI/G
Contract: 2023 UFA, $850,000
Misc. Stats: 81 Blocked Shots | 258 Hits (league leader) |1:48 PK TOI/G

Trade board rankings:

• Daily Faceoff: 15
• The Athletic: 10
• TSN: 18

Back on the list again this year is Luke Schenn. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has mentioned multiple times that Tampa has been one of the teams calling Vancouver about the possibility of making a deal for our former RD that played 19 games combined in the 2020 and 2021 playoffs.

The nice thing about reacquiring Schenn is that we know what we will get with him. We can plug him in on the third-pairing, with Hedman, or as the seventh defenseman and get 10-12 minutes of solid physically defensive play from him. But what is that worth?

Vancouver probably believes that Schenn, now the pairing partner to Quinn Hughes, and playing over 17 minutes a game, has considerable value. And as the only notable physical right-shot defenseman being advertised as available for trade by selling teams this year, they could be right.

We have seen in past seasons that the top player in this role can, and will, fetch a premium. Look back to 2021 when we acquired David Savard from the Columbus Blue Jackets for a first and third-round draft pick when he was having the worst season of his career, at that point. He then turned around and became a reliable third-pairing defender that we never had to sweat over in the playoffs.

However, with our current trade asset situation, I doubt we will go that high to get Schenn as Bogosian, Cernak, and Perbix already hold down our right side without much worry.

Nick Bjugstad — C, Arizona Coyotes

Age: 30
Stats: 56 GP | 13 Goals | 10 Assists | +6 | 16:52 TOI/G
Contract: 2023 UFA, $900,000
Misc. Stats: 27 Blocked Shots | 116 Hits | 2:12 PK TOI/G | 47.6 FO%

Trade board rankings:

• Daily Faceoff: 32
• The Athletic: 20
• TSN: 13

Nick Bjugstad is here without any insider connections linking him to Tampa, but he checks the boxes on a lot of what we could be looking for. He has size (6-foot-6, 215 pounds), faceoff capability, and enough defensive prowess that would make him a worthy addition to the roster.

Most telling about Bjugstad is that he is someone that has made a bad team better when on the ice. With a +7 even strength goal differential, he is the Coyotes’ top forward in the category, and one of only two in positive territory.

It should be mentioned that there are concerns about the effort level of Bjugstad’s game, and some of that has been evident since an underwhelming 2020 season with Pittsburgh led to him being sent to Minnesota for two seasons, where he was only a 10-11 minute-per-game depth player. But since arriving in the desert this season, he has looked closer to the player that helped net the Florida Panthers a bunch of draft picks in 2019.

Bjugstad will not be our top target, or one we should pay anything exorbitant for, but he would make a fine budget addition if BriseBois finds his hands tied preventing him from making any bigger splashes.

Sam Lafferty — C/RW, Chicago Blackhawks

Age: 27
Stats: 48 GP | 10 Goals | 11 Assists | -9 | 14:55 TOI/G
Contract: 2024 UFA, $1,150,000
Misc. Stats: 19 Blocked Shots | 89 Hits | 2:00 PK TOI/G | 52.3 FO%

Trade board rankings:

• Daily Faceoff: 13
• The Athletic: NR
• TSN: 11

Sam Lafferty is perhaps an under the radar name, to Tampa fans, that we should be paying more attention to. Frank Seravalli had said Lafferty’s return may surprise and The Athletic lists him as the second best fit for the Lightning behind the next player down on this page.

But what makes Lafferty such an enticing potential fit for the Lightning? His speed is the first thing that stands out as it has propelled him to 4 shorthanded goals this season. While not a top shot blocker in the defensive zone, he is an active forechecker that will hound opponents in the neutral and offensive zones. Additionally, he is the Blackhawk’s top possession forward in terms of corsi-for percentage. Recall that the last Blackhawks corsi-for% leader we traded for worked out okay for us.

A similarity to a past trade that comes to mind here is Barclay Goodrow. Both look like fourth liners on the surface, but when Goodrow was put in the right situation in Tampa he became one heck of a nuisance higher in the lineup. Could Lafferty repeat that in Tampa? Maybe.

As Jon Cooper said about Goodrow on the Lightning, you need Jeeps in addition to Ferraris to win it all, and Lafferty has shown some Jeep qualities this season.

Ivan Barbashev — RW/LW, St. Louis Blues

Age: 27
Stats: 55 GP | 10 Goals | 18 Assists | -4 | 16:15 TOI/G
Contract: 2023 UFA, $2,250,000
Misc. Stats: 27 Blocked Shots | 110 Hits | 0:43 PK TOI/G

Trade board rankings:

• Daily Faceoff: 7
• The Athletic: 7
• TSN: 5

Hello Ivan Barbashev, the forgotten (for now) piece in St. Louis that The Athletic named as their perfect fit for the Lightning.

Barbashev is an effective two-way forward with upside scoring potential. Even though his scoring has come back down to Earth this season after 60 points in 81 games last year, he still represents a potential major upgrade to Tampa’s middle-six. But it is not only offense for Barbashev as he is also the prototypical forechecker that Tampa usually seeks.

Should we end up acquiring Barbashev, I do wonder if we would see some sort of tinkering of the forward lines. We know the top line is set with Hagel, Kucherov, and Point, but the middle-six could try a different look with Barbashev, who is best suited around more offensive style players to maximize his scoring potential.

Assuming we would like to keep Killorn and Cirelli together on a matchup line to other team’s top lines, I wonder if we would see Paul, Stamkos, and Barbashev added to a line. Not only would that benefit Barbashev, but also potentially Stamkos who despite his versatility in all facets of the game is still at his best as a scoring threat.

Trade board rankings: Daily Faceoff, The Athletic, TSN

Contracts and salary cap: CapFriendly

Player statistics: Natural Stat Trick