Rawcharge

What’s the point, right? Why run it back with the same line-up only to get the same result? It’s done. The window is closed. Time to start fresh. At various points throughout the season we’ve all had these thoughts, right? So, since the Darren Raddysh drama has reached a conclusion, and we’re still a few days away from the draft, we here at Raw Charge decided to have some fun. We could all use a little more fun, right? Yes, other teams are actually making deals right now.

The week before the NHL Draft has kicked off with a flurry of activity. After the Tampa Bay Lightning started things on Friday by pulling off a sign-and-trade with Toronto, their down-state rival ended the weekend with a blockbuster deal of their own. It started innocently enough as they sent Mackie Samoskevich to Seattle for the 25th pick in the first round (originally the Lightning’s) and a second-round pick in 2027.

If, as Tom Petty once sang, the waiting is indeed the hardest part, then things are about to get a lot easier in the Darren Raddysh saga. The 30-year-old defenseman will not make it to July 1st and free agency. Nor will he be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning next season. The Lightning have announced that they have traded Raddysh to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return for a fifth-round selection in the 2026 NHL draft. Thus ends one of the big question marks for the Lightning and the NHL this summer.

Believe it or not, the 2026 NHL Draft is right around the corner. Soon, all of the top prospects will be gathered in Buffalo, hoping to hear their names called on night one of the draft. There will be hugs and hats. Fans will put too much expectations on their shoulders, and in the end, if even a handful of them have a productive NHL career, it will be considered a successful draft. The Lightning are not drafting on night one.

It didn’t take long for the general managers around the league to start reshaping their rosters. The Carolina Hurricanes have yet to recover from their Las Vegas-sized hangovers and a couple of trades have been pushed through already. The first deal involved a divisional rival and the second contained a couple of familiar names.

We’re in the offseason, folks. There is no more competitive hockey until this fall. While you’re catching up on your laundry and reintroducing yourselves to family members, not all is lost in the world of the NHL. There are still some things coming down the pipe, so here are a few dates to keep an eye on as the summer heats up. The Buyout Window Opens – 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final until 5:00 PM EST, June 30th.

Folks, at long last the 2025-26 NHL season is finally over. Congratulations to Amir Miftakhov and the Carolina Hurricanes for winning the second Stanley Cup in franchise history. Long live the Southeast Division! With things wrapped up nicely in a bow, we can start looking forward to next season, where the Tampa Bay Lightning are +1000 to win the 2026-27 Stanley Cup. Only Carolina (+650) and Colorado (+700) are heavier favorites. Well, let’s not quite move forward yet.

Way back on Friday the NHL announced their First and Second All-Star teams. For a couple members of the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was another chance to see their name in bold print. Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy joined Jason Robertson, Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, and Zach Werenski on the First All-Star team. Of the six Second Team All-Stars, four of them received the honor for the first time.

The individual awards keep rolling in for the Tampa Bay Lightning. After Jon Cooper nabbed his first Jack Adams and Andrei Vasilevskiy was awarded his second Vezina Trophy, Nikita Kucherov became the Lightning’s first multi-Hart Trophy winner as he bested Connor McDavid by ten points in the overall voting. Really wonder who gave McDavid those two fifth-place votes. Depending on how their ballot looked, that might have been the difference.

Another day, and another potential unrestricted free agent is taken off of the board. In this case it’s Michael McCarron choosing Jucy Lucy burgers over free agency as he stays in Minnesota for six years at $3.33 million a year (the Yanni Gourde special!). With the big, bottom-six forward off of the market, things are getting bleak for anyone hoping to improve their offense on the free-agent market.