Lightning complete surprising trade with Utah

The Utah hockey club proves that it is serious from its first weeks of official existence. The club acquired defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the NHL draft on Saturday, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Sergachev has been a key part of the Bolts since his acquisition from the Montreal Canadiens in 2017; he won two Stanley Cup championships with the team in 2020 and 2021. In return, Tampa receives Conor Geekie, JJ Moser and two draft picks, one a second round pick in 2025 and the other the 199th pick in Saturday’s draft.

The Lightning will retain no salary as part of the deal, meaning the Russian’s entire $8.5 million will be absorbed by Utah. This opens up more wiggle room for a Victor Hedman contract extension, and also raises eyebrows about the idea that Steven Stamkos, who hits the open market on July 1, is no longer a reality.

This is the first major trade of the NHL Draft after a few relatively quiet transactions Friday night. She’s part of a series of trades that took place on Saturday, joining Kevin Hayes who joined the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tanner Jeannot who joined the Los Angeles Kings (more on that in a second).

And Utah HC wasn’t done with the blue line after acquiring Sergachev, also bringing in New Jersey Devils defenseman John Marino a few minutes later.

Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino both head to Salt Lake City

In one fell swoop, Utah general manager Bill Armstrong transformed his blue line, adding two established NHL D-men in Sergachev and Marino. The latter cost Utah the 49th overall pick and the Edmonton Oilers’ 2025 second-round pick.

The Lightning aren’t done with the Sergachev trade either, also getting rid of Jeannot and his $2.6 million salary cap hit on Saturday. Those two deals open up a ton of cap space in Tampa Bay, and certainly mean there could be an extension for Hedman and Stamkos on July 1.

For Utah, they are improving considerably heading into next season, with a blue line that will now include Sergachev, Marino and likely Sean Durzi and Juuso Valimaki if the latter two defensemen re-sign with Utah; both are RFAs on July 1. If extended, this will be a solid set of top-four defensemen heading into training camp later this year.

As it stands, the Lightning and Utah HC have managed to accomplish some key goals here, and from the looks of it, both GMs appear to be winning as the draft continues on Saturday.

It will be interesting to see if — after making two moves each in just a few minutes — the Lightning or Utah have anything else in store ahead of Monday’s free-agent frenzy.