Tampa Bay Lightning @TBLightning

We have acquired defenseman J.J. Moser, forward Conor Geekie, a 7th Round pick (199th overall) in the 2024 <a href="">#NHLDraft</a> and a 2nd Round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Utah Hockey Club in exchange for defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. <a href="">

Utah Hockey Club

Utah was primed to make a massive move this week. Ownership is ready to spend and the organization has a lot of marketing incentive to make headlines and put forth a good product while introducing hockey to a new fanbase.

On a more analytical level, Utah badly needed upgrades on defense and has more prospects and draft picks than they can realistically use.

Mikhail Sergachev is a 200-foot defenseman with a lean towards the offensive side of the game. At 6'3", the Russian is a good skater for his size and a high-end passer in all three zones. In particular, Sergachev is one of the better defensemen in the NHL at moving the puck within the offensive zone, both setting up teammates with passing sequences and generating offense by throwing pucks toward the net from the blue line. He's also very good at skating the puck up the ice.

Defensively, Sergachev's impacts are there but to a lesser degree. He uses his reach and skating to deny zone entries, though his in-zone defending may be as great as his attributes might suggest. Consistency is also elusive for Sergachev. Sometimes he looks like a borderline No. 1 defenseman while other times he looks more like a second-pairing guy.

Sergachev's season was destroyed by multiple significant injuries but the season prior he had a career year with ten goals and 54 assists in 79 games. Of course, he's been a top player for the Tampa Bay Lightning for years and won two Stanley Cups.

He's now coming out of Hedman's shadow and will be the go-to guy in every situation in Utah. There's some risk involved because of his injury history and because Sergachev has yet to truly prove that he can match up against the opposition's top line every night. An $8.5M cap hit leaves little margin for error in the latter regard and there's a reason Tampa Bay moved on.

Still, Sergachev is 26 years old and signed long-term. This team may have left the desert but their defense still looked like one before today's actions. Utah is swimming in cap space and they needed to start turning some "maybe" youth assets into definite impact players at the NHL level. Even if Sergachev does not fully live up to his full cap hit, if healthy, he'll be the lynchpin on Utah's blue line for years to come.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The mix in Tampa Bay has gotten stale. That's not an indictment of the team's philosophies or culture. It's just reality. They ran out of creative ways to fill the depth chart, the prospect pool was barren, and they have no first-round picks in 2024 or 2025.

Focal points like Victor Hedman, Braydon Point, and Nikita Kucherov remain but a lack of depth had relegated them to a Wild Card team and playoff dark horse rather than a real contender. To build a more complete roster they would need to sacrifice a top player. Sergachev, who was relegated to the second pairing behind fellow lefty Victor Hedman, was a natural choice.

The freed $8.5M in cap space will go a long way in addressing needs. So too will the players Tampa Bay acquired from Utah.

J.J. Moser, 24, is a late bloomer who has established himself as a capable NHL defenseman. The Swiss lefty admittedly struggled the last two seasons but was also overexposed on Arizona's makeshift defense, often slotting on the top pairing alongside Sean Durzi. He's an okay play-driver with some secondary offense and a tendency to join the rush. As a number 4 or 5 defenseman in Tampa Bay, and definitely sheltered behind Victor Hedman, he should have an easier time against NHL competition. The restricted free agent should sign for two or three years at between $2M-$3M annually.

Conor Geekie, 20, was an 11th-overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft. He stands at 6'4" and has truly impressive stickhandling for someone of that size and mature synchronicity in how he uses his hands and feet. Last season, Geekie tallied 99 points in 55 WHL games. I don't know if he has the upside that Arizona originally believed when they took him 11th overall but he's a virtual lock to make the NHL as a middle-six forward who can impact the game in a lot of ways and there is good reason to believe he'll be able to remain at center. Most importantly for Tampa Bay, who still are in a win-now window, Geekie could feature in the NHL as soon as next season.

Tampa also receives what should be a fairly high second-round pick and a seventh-round pick, which they used to draft forward Noah Steen.

Tampa Bay moved a luxury item to add two players who should help at the NHL soon and a badly needed second-round pick and also opened up a ton of cap space to build out the roster. It does mean that, at least for now, an already thin defense is even worse. The Lightning have room to maneuver but a lot of work to do in order to be better off and keep their contention window open.