A key defenseman to winning back-to-back Stanley Cups is returning to Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired Ryan McDonagh and the Edmonton Oilers’ 2024 fourth-round pick from the Nashville Predators in exchange for the Lightning’s 2025 second-round pick and their 2024 seventh-round pick.
During the 2023-24 season, McDonagh played in 74 games scoring three goals and tallying 29 assists for 32 points. He’s still contributing plenty defensively at 34 years old with a defensive points share of 4.5. This is a higher DPS than any player on the Lightning not named Victor Hedman (5.4 DPS). The only Predators player with a higher DPS than him was their top defenseman, Roman Josi (4.8).
McDonagh spent four and a half seasons (267 regular-season games) with the Lightning before being traded to the Predators during the 2022 offseason. The Predators trade him back after two seasons (145 regular-season games).
The Lightning bolster a thinning defense with a familiar face while gaining an earlier draft pick in the upcoming 2024 NHL Entry Draft. On the flip side, the Predators add to their stockpile of early-round draft picks over the next two years.
With the addition of the 2025 second-rounder from the Lightning, they will have eight selections in the first two rounds of the 2024 and 2025 Drafts combined. In 2024, they have a first-round pick and three second-round picks. In 2025, they will have two first-round picks and two second-round picks. Three of these selections came in trades with the Lightning. The 2025 first-round pick they acquired from the Lightning in 2023 is top-10 protected.
There are two ways to look at the Predators’ stockpile. One is that they have set themselves up to add a sizable number of prospects to their system. The second is that they also set themselves up to make other trades. Since they are still very much a playoff team—they were the first wild card team in 2023-24—they can move picks to strengthen their roster in other areas to win now. In theory, they have enough picks to do both—have their cake and eat it too.
McDonagh still has two years left on the contract that he signed with the Lightning back in 2018. The average annual value (AAV) of his deal is $6.75 million. Given the Lightning’s tight cap space – even if the cap is increasing – they will have to make a corresponding move.