The 6-foot-3 forward played alongside current Blackhawks teammates Tyler Johnson and Boris Katchouk for part of the season in Tampa last season, until he was traded with Katchouk to Chicago.
"Coming in this year I, I knew I was gonna have a better opportunity to play and get more minutes than I had in the past," Raddysh said. "I feel like just kind of at the start of the year I wanted to make an impact as fast as I could just to keep solidify my spot and in the lineup, [wherever] it was, and I feel like just with the guys we have on this team, I feel like we've we've kind of gelled really well."
His friendship with Katchouk, however, began long before. They played competitive box lacrosse growing up in Ontario together, a sport both continued until their teens. Playing both sports growing up remains a common thread for many Candian ice hockey players, including fellow teammate MacKenzie Entwistle.
"We've known each other since we were nine years old, we we played on a team Ontario lacrosse team. So it's kind of been a while and we've always been pretty good friends since then," Raddysh said. " I really enjoyed lacrosse, it was a good sport to have in the summertime and I feel like a lot of things transitioned [well] to hockey."
As for this season, Raddysh has had his best point-producing season of his career, with 14 goals and 10 assists through 51 games. While he's earned the playing time for sure, he's also greatly enjoyed it.
"It was easy transition [coming here], and I feel like all the guys have since I came here have been have been great. It's been a it's been a lot of fun and yeah, I feel like just even with with [Patrick Kane] and [Johnathan Toews], two guys that are have been around forever and they're pretty easy to come to the rink with every day and get along with, even coming in this year with the new guys we got it's it's been a lot of fun."
