{"id":490995,"date":"2026-05-23T08:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T12:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=490995"},"modified":"2026-05-23T06:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T10:19:36","slug":"tampa-bay-lightning-defence-in-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/05\/23\/tampa-bay-lightning-defence-in-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Lightning Defence Head into 2026-27 in Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the better part of a decade, the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>\u00a0defence began and ended with one name: Victor Hedman<\/a>. No one had to ask the question: Is the Tampa Bay Lightning defence in transition? With the towering Swede anchoring the engine and the face of a blueline that helped deliver two Stanley Cup championships, the simple answer was “no.” But the 2025\u201326 season has forced one of the NHL’s most successful franchises of recent times to confront an uncomfortable truth. That being the era of Hedman as the unquestioned centrepiece of the Lightning defence is giving way to something new.<\/p>\n

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Credit Image: \u00a9 Dirk Shadd\/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n

The story of the Tampa Bay Lightning defence is ultimately one of injury, adaptation, and the emergence of two younger players who seized the moment. While Hedman’s prolonged absences created real concern, Darren Raddysh<\/a> and J.J. Moser<\/a> stepped into the vacuum and didn’t just fill it, they transformed it. Together, they formed one of the most effective defensive pairings in the NHL, a duo that no one had circled on their preseason radar. That the Lightning finished the regular season ranked fourth in the league in goals per game speaks to how effectively the organization adapted around its missing captain.<\/p>\n

Victor Hedman: The Legend in Limbo<\/h3>\n

There is no understating what Victor Hedman means to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is, quite simply, one of the greatest defensemen in NHL history. A Norris Trophy winner, a Conn Smythe recipient, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, and the franchise’s all-time leader in games played. Entering the 2025\u201326 season, he sat at 794 career points, third among all active defencemen in the league. But the season became a painful reminder that even the greatest careers are subject to the indignities of age and injury. Hedman<\/a>, 35, managed just 33 games in the regular season, a career low for a full year.<\/p>\n

He posted only 17 points, his worst output since 2013. The troubles began early, as he missed 12 games with an undisclosed injury in November, then suffered an elbow injury in December that required surgery and cost him 22 more. When he finally returned in February, he was never quite himself, losing his spot atop the power play unit to Raddysh and playing reduced minutes. A final blow came in March when he left the lineup again, this time for personal reasons (mental health<\/a>), which placed him on long-term injured reserve and effectively ended his regular season. He was deemed “doubtful”<\/em> by head coach Jon Cooper for the first-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Darren Raddysh: A Breakout for the Ages<\/h3>\n

If one player defined the Lightning 2025\u201326 season, it was Darren Raddysh. The 30-year-old \u00a0defenceman had shown steady improvement over the previous two seasons, stringing together back-to-back 30-plus point campaigns. But nothing could have predicted what unfolded this year. Raddysh finished with 70 points in 73 games. He joined Hedman as the only defenseman in Lightning history to reach 70 points in a single season. It was the kind of production that doesn’t just turn heads; it reshapes a player’s entire identity and market value.<\/p>\n

Raddysh’s offensive game is built on a devastating shot, one that can touch 100 miles per hour. He increasingly refined his ability to quarterback a power play and a rush. He led Tampa Bay in time on ice at 22 minutes, a workload that would have seemed unthinkable a season ago. He also elevated his defensive game enough to be a credible two-way blueliner, even if the underlying metrics suggest he still leans more toward the offensive side of the ledger. When Hedman’s absence created a void atop Tampa Bay’s power play, Raddysh didn’t hesitate to fix Tampa Bay Lightning defence in transition.<\/p>\n

J.J. Moser: The Quiet Force on the Back End<\/h3>\n

While Raddysh grabbed the headlines with his point totals, J.J. Moser<\/a> was quietly building a case as one of the best defensive defencemen in the NHL. The Swiss blueliner, in his second full season with Tampa Bay, appeared in 79 regular-season games and contributed seven goals and 29 points, tying his career high in goals. Those numbers don’t immediately scream superstar, but they obscure the extraordinary value Moser brings on the defensive side of the ice. His ability to kill plays before they develop, and his talent for matching up with the opponent’s top offensive threats night after night has made him a force.<\/p>\n

With Hedman sidelined, Moser didn’t just step into a bigger role, he became the Lightning best all-around defenceman. He logged 21 minutes of ice time per game, second only to Raddysh on the team. His partnership with Raddysh proved to be the unexpected backbone of Tampa Bay’s defence, with the duo posting a remarkable 57.71% edge in expected goals when sharing the ice at 5-on-5. \u00a0Moser took that excellence into the playoffs, leading all Lightning defencemen with three points in the first-round series against Montreal, including an overtime game-winning goal in Game 2. \u00a0That moment signalled, as loudly as any statistic, that his arrival was complete.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Lightning Defence in Transition: What Comes Next<\/h3>\n

The 2025\u201326 season has permanently altered how the Lightning think about their blueline. For years, the organizational philosophy was simple: put Hedman on the ice in the biggest moments and let the defence flow from there. That model isn’t going away when he’s healthy, \u00a0but it has been meaningfully complicated by the rise of Raddysh and Moser. The team now has an argument for three genuine top-pairing-calibre defencemen, which is an enviable problem to have. McDonagh and Cernak provide the gritty, defensive-minded depth behind them.<\/p>\n

What the Lightning have discovered through hardship is that their blueline is deeper and more versatile than even they may have suspected. Hedman’s shadow looms large over the franchise, and rightfully so. Tampa Bay Lightning defence in transition? Not a problem.<\/p>\n

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Main Photo Credit: Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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For the better part of a decade, the Tampa Bay Lightning\u00a0defence began and ended with one name: Victor Hedman. No one had to ask the question: Is the Tampa Bay Lightning defence in transition? With the towering Swede anchoring the engine and the face of a blueline that helped deliver two Stanley Cup championships, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5453,"featured_media":463909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4547,4548],"tags":[7817,8223,1124],"class_list":["post-490995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lightning","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-darren-raddysh","tag-j-j-moser","tag-victor-hedman"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490995"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491184,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490995\/revisions\/491184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}