Bolts Add McDonagh & Miller

			2018 Season				July 1st, 2018
To Tampa Bay	POS	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Ryan McDonagh	D	28	49	2	26	$4.7 mil	1	$4.7 mil
J.T. Miller	F	24	63	13	40	$2.75 mil	0	RFA
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To New York	POS	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Vladislav Namestnikov	F	25	62	20	44	$1.94 mil	0	RFA
Libor Hajek	D	20	0	0	0	$864k	2	$864k
Brett Howden	F	19	0	0	0	$894k	2	$894k
2018 1st Round Draft Pick
2019 Conditional 2nd Round Draft Pick

The biggest and most exciting deal of the day was one of the last ones to drop, as the Tampa Bay Lightning were certainly shopping around for the best deal around and it looks like they came away with a doozy, when they stopped by the New York Rangers' fire sale.

The Lightning walked out of the deal with two new roster players to compliment their style of play, giving up one of their own and a handful of futures and not terrible ones either.  Granted, their acquisition of Ryan McDonagh is quite impressive and quite possibly worth all the prospects and picks.  Yes, McDonagh and J.T. Miller head to Tampa for their playoff run and in return came Vladislav Namestnikov, top end prospects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden, as well as two top picks in 2018 and 2019.

The Lightning have been in the rumour mill floating around for a while, connected to a couple of big name defensemen, but they had to wait for a price that seemed a little more reasonable and it looks like they got a good player to join the ranks that already boasts Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev, among others.

The Rangers don't come away empty-handed at all here.  Namestnikov will be inserted into the lineup immediately and is expected to do okay, while the prospects they acquired are both in junior still and both have some excellent upside.  The 2018 1st rounder is a sure thing and the 2nd rounder in 2019 can be a 1st rounder, if the Lightning win the Cup in either of the next two seasons.  Actually, I think the Rangers come away like bandits in this deal.

Hockey pool-wise, three pool players were exchanged... Dale C. has McDonagh, Stacey M. has Miller and Ryan has Namestnikov and I would have to think that the two players moving to Tampa are going to get the better end of the shake, since there is going to be some more excitement in that city, rather than the boat that is racing to shore before it takes on too much water.  Dale and Stacey are 11th and 12th in the standings, both outside of the top 10 by at least 15 points, so this deal likely isn't going to be enough to get them up and over the hump and into the top 10, but it could help... you know, once McDonagh is back to full health.