Nothing is off the table for GM Julien BriseBois as the Lightning approach the NHL Trade Deadline

For the first time in the past few years, the Tampa Bay Lightning will head into the March 7 NHL Trade Deadline with money to spend. They find themselves in the third place spot in the Atlantic Division, just four points out of first place.

Overall the team has improved since last season. Back in June, the Lightning had the opportunity to re-acquire veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh from Nashville, a player who helped them win back-to-back Stanley Cups. McDonagh brings a quality that the players have described as “total calmness” to the Lightning blue line. Right now they’re leading with defense and it’s helping them win games.

“He brings a lot of stability when he's on the ice, he stabilizes everything out there,” said BriseBois. “If someone makes a mistake, he's usually there to erase it. He gives us a lot of quality minutes. He goes up against the best players in the league, night in and night out, phenomenal on the penalty kill, calming presence on the bench and in the locker room, lots of experience for our younger players to draw upon.”

A tight NHL salary cap forced BriseBois to trade McDonagh to Nashville back in the summer of 2022, after making their third straight Stanley Cup Final appearance. BriseBois never imagined that he’d have a chance to bring McDonagh back just two years later.

“I didn't see it play out that way, but things change in a hurry," said BriseBois. "The only reason we ever moved on to start with, is because we ended up with a pandemic that potentially kept the salary cap from increasing for five years in a row. I could not have predicted that when we signed him, and I’m really happy that he's back now.”

The Lightning have been aggressive this season when it comes to accruing cap space. According to PuckPedia, BriseBois can go after more than just one player at the trade deadline and still be within the cap. The Lightning can make acquisitions for players who have an annual cap hit of just over $6 million.

“It's different. We’ve been really aggressive. We've only carried six and 12 for a stretch here, trying to maximize every dollar,” said BriseBois. “The difference between this year and years past is that at the trade deadline, it won't necessarily have to be dollar in for dollar out or dollar out for dollar in. We have accrued some cap space. We will continue to try to accrue as much as we can between now and the deadline so that there might be more opportunities available to us to add a player.”

This summer BriseBois traded long-time Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to Utah in exchange for J.J. Moser and Conor Geekie. It was a gutsy move that was immediately criticized by outsiders, but proved to be the right fit for the team.

“When we acquire players, we think we're going to help them become better players,” said BriseBois. “I think it worked with Brandon Hagel and it worked with Nick Paul, to name two that are still on our team. It didn’t work as well with Tanner Jeannot. That was part of the mindset, was that we would we would be able to get more out of him.”

Tampa Bay acquired Jeannot from Nashville in exchange for 5 future draft picks, but later moved on, trading him to the L.A. Kings.

As the Lightning move closer towards their goal of being a competitive cup contender for years to come, the approach will continue to be the same as it was last year heading into the deadline, with BriseBois leaving nothing off the table.

“We’re trying to accomplish difficult, challenging, hard things here, and we can't limit ourselves in terms of what we're willing to do to accomplish those great things.”