Mishkin's Musings: On the trades

After the Lightning had made the trades to acquire Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul, GM Julien BriseBois stated: "I like the mix that we have now better. I think the ceiling of this group is higher."

Earlier in the season, BriseBois had been upfront about the challenges of making even one deadline deal, let alone two. Because the Lightning are so close to the salary cap ceiling, any trade would have to be a dollars in/dollars out scenario. By moving three players for two and having Ottawa pick up nearly half of Paul's salary, he was able to make the money work. Here are some other notable aspects of the deals.
- Hagel is a hard-nosed, fierce competitor. He is hard to play against. He can play any of the forward positions. He kills penalties. And, in just his second NHL season, he has eclipsed 20 goals. So from an on-ice standpoint, he will certainly contribute much to the Lightning's roster. But his age and contract status were also big plusses. At 23, he's at the beginning of his career trajectory. Following this season, he still has two years remaining on his current contract. At a $1.5m annual figure, it's a very team-friendly contract. After those next two seasons, he's still going to be a restricted free agent. So the Lightning added a player that will help them not only for this season, but for many years to come. - Unlike Hagel, Paul is an unrestricted free agent after this season. Mathieu Joseph will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. BriseBois indicated that, because of the Lightning's tight cap situation and Joseph's expected pay raise, they likely wouldn't have tendered him a qualifying offer (making him unrestricted). So from the Lightning's perspective, this was a trade involving two UFAs. In Paul, the Lightning have brought in a strong, physical, versatile player. Similar to Hagel, he is hard to play against, can be a center or wing, and has been a regular penalty killer this year. - By the way, the 2024 fourth round pick that went to Ottawa is the Lightning's own pick, not the pick they received from Chicago in the Hagel deal. - As mentioned already, both Hagel and Paul have experience killing penalties. At practice on Monday, Hagel was working on a PK unit with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (essentially moving into Joseph's PK spot). It wouldn't be surprising to see the Lightning work Paul into the PK rotation as well. - In Hagel's Lightning debut on Saturday, he spent most of the night playing on a line with Ross Colton and Joseph. Based on how they ran the lines in Monday's practice, it appears that the Lightning will put Paul with Hagel and Colton for the Carolina game on Tuesday. - BriseBois mentioned that, over the coming weeks, the coaches might have to do some "experiments" with the line combinations to find the best fits. Jon Cooper has never been hesitant to mix up the forward lines when he feels it's called for. Not only can it keep things fresh and provide a spark, it gives the forwards an opportunity to play with a variety of different linemates. It's possible that Hagel and Paul will be afforded that same opportunity over the final 21 games of the regular season. - After these deals, the Lightning's current NHL roster includes just 12 forwards. BriseBois was asked about potential callups. He said their cap situation wouldn't allow it. Unless there's an injury at forward, in which case they could call up a player on an emergency basis (but only after playing short for a game). The other exception would be if a player gets placed on Long Term Injury. In other words, barring injury, the Lightning will go the rest of the way in the regular season with just the 12 forwards. Of course, they also have seven D, so they could opt to dress a lineup with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, if they choose. Once the playoffs begin, however, there are no cap constraints with potential recalls. - This helps explain how and why the Lightning were able to trade for Riley Nash. Since Nash had already cleared waivers with Arizona, he could go straight to Syracuse and not count against the Lightning's cap. - Paul was originally a draft pick of the Dallas Stars, but was traded to Ottawa before turning pro. With Ottawa and Belleville (AHL), he's never played a playoff game in his pro career. But he's no stranger to big games and big moments. He scored the OT winner in the Championship Game last year for Canada at the World Championships. He was a member of Canada's 2015 World Junior Championship team, which also included Brayden Point. And he enjoyed two deep playoff runs while with North Bay in the OHL. Incidentally, one of his teammates during the first of those two postseason appearances was … Barclay Goodrow.