Darren Raddysh is one of the more fascinating players in the 2026 free agent class
The list of the top-10 scoring defensemen this season features plenty of familiar names. Evan Bouchard, Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, Quinn Hughes; these are all well-known, high-end offensive defensemen with established pedigrees. There’s one name of that list, however, that almost nobody could’ve predicted: Darren Raddysh.
To say the Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman is having a career year would be an understatement. With 17 goals and 41 assists for 58 points in 56 games, Raddysh is scoring at over a point-per-game clip. The 30-year-old, who went undrafted, had compiled just 73 points in 176 career NHL games prior to this season. What’s even more interesting is that he’s currently in the final season of a two-year, $1.95 million contract, meaning he is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Whether the Lightning pay up to keep him, or he hits the open market, Raddysh looks poised to cash in on his breakout season.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Matt Larkin discussed the demand Raddysh could garner in free agency.
Matt Larkin: The guy that I’m really wondering about in terms of overpays on the market, the most fascinating player, is Darren Raddysh. This guy is going to be 30 years old on July 1st. He’s a point-per-game defenseman who’s never even made a million dollars in a season. So what do you do? If you’re Raddysh, even if Tampa Bay makes you a good offer, don’t you want to go to market just once in your life with this value? To me that’s going to be the most interesting player to watch.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Defensemen that don’t even come close to having the type of season that Raddysh is having, they get overpaid in free agency. You’re right, the fact that he’s 30, the fact that his point total has doubled this year, it’s going to leave a lot of teams really intrigued, because it’s one of those things where they slid him in, he got the opportunity and he made the most of it. There will be a team who convinces themselves that this isn’t an anomaly, this is just him finally getting the opportunity to have this success. You’re right, this isn’t a guy who’s made $3 million to $4 million for the last five or six years who would maybe sit there and go “You know what, I’ll take a two-year deal and if I prove myself over a two-year deal, then maybe I sign an even bigger ticket after that.” I think he’s going max term, highest bidder, because his career earnings are under $10 million and he’s almost 30.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…