Progress of Perbix, Raddysh can Strengthen Tampa Bay Lightning Defense

Amid the shortcomings of the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, their greatest perceived weakness was the blue-line. The Lightning’s defense core was not as strong as in year’s past and it was undeniable and led to a up-and-down season. A bright spot on the season however was the emergence of two young defensemen in Nick Perbix and Darren Raddysh, who can strengthen the Lightning defense as a whole.

For both players, it was their first season seeing regular action in the NHL. For Perbix, it was even his first full pro season. Both players ended up exceeding expectations as the Lightning found themselves with two solid defensemen on their hands that might even be better than initially thought. They even elected to move on from Cal Foote because of the potential these guys showed.

The d-core of the Lightning is largely going to be the same this year. The only change will be Ian Cole heading out and Calvin de Haan coming in. de Haan is coming in for less money than Cole was making, but you can argue that the Lightning defense is weaker with Cole gone.

With Victor Hedman, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak still headlining the defense, the Lightning still have as strong of a top end blue-line is there is. The issue lies with the depth. The depth of their d-core does not have as many household names as it used to. A big reason for this is that Perbix and Raddysh are still young and relatively unknown throughout the league.

If these two players are able to build on what they did this past season, the Lightning’s defense core can find themselves in a fine spot. For both players, it will be the first time getting a full training camp with the expectation they will be on the opening night roster.

In Perbix case, he could even be looking at becoming Victor Hedman’s partner on a full-time basis which should only help his development and chances to produce. In his rookie season, he was already a 20 point player despite not being in the NHL to start the season and playing more limited action.

Raddysh will likely battle with

Zach Bogosian

for the full-time spot on right defense for the Lightning’s third pair. Raddysh seems like the lead candidate at the moment after becoming the preferred option heading into playoffs this past season.

One quality that these two possess is that they seem very unfazed by anything. Despite being first-year NHL’ers, there never really seemed to be much concern with them on the ice in the roles they were playing. Both seemed like very steady presences that could be trusted and seemed to never try to do too much.

If they are able to continue improving next season, the Lightning d-core may be in a much better spot than many think. Perbix and Raddysh will provide great value from the sole fact they will combine for just over $1.8 million toward the cap next season. For a team looking to find value in every place they can, they could really strike gold again if these two continue to improve.