The Tampa Bay Lightning got the young defenseman they have been looking for, acquiring Mikhail Sergachev from the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in exchange for highly skilled forward Jonathan Drouin.
The teams announced the deal about 48 hours before the NHL’s trade freeze prior to the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. Along with Sergachev, Tampa Bay got a conditional 2018 second-round pick and Montreal a 2018 conditional sixth-rounder.
”Ultimately our biggest need and our biggest goal was to acquire a puck-moving defenseman and we were able to do that,” Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman said on a conference call.
Yzerman said the condition on the picks is that if Sergachev plays 40 regular-season and playoff games next season, they are not exchanged.
The 22-year-old Drouin set career highs last season with 21 goals, 32 assists and 53 points. Hours after the trade, the Canadiens signed Drouin to a $33 million, six-year contract that means he will count $5.5 million against the salary cap through 2022-23
Drouin has had a rocky tenure with the Lighting since being the third pick in 2013, asking for a trade in 2015-16 and coming back to play a prominent role this past season in the absence of injured captain Steven Stamkos. Asked about trading Drouin within the Atlantic Division, Yzerman said there’s risk in every trade but was doing what’s best for the Lightning and wishes his former player all the best in Montreal.
While it wasn’t the central goal of the deal, by trading Drouin Tampa Bay can protect an extra forward in the expansion draft and has more salary-cap space moving forward with other players in need of new deals.
”We were able to acquire a player that we do not have to protect,” Yzerman said. ”It gives us a little more clarity there.”
Sergachev, who turns 19 next week, was the ninth pick in the 2016 draft. Considered one of the top defensive prospects in hockey, the Russian had 10 goals and 33 assists for 43 points with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires this past season and was a point-a-game player as they won the Memorial Cup.
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