Fantasy Take: McDonagh Moves to Nashville

The Tampa Bay Lightning have traded defenseman Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Philippe Myers and forward Grant Mismash.

Not surprisingly, this trade is purely for salary cap reasons for the Lightning. McDonagh has four seasons remaining on a seven-year, $47.25 million contract ($6.75 million AAV). The Bolts already made the decision to sign Nick Paul to a seven-year contact ($3.15 AAV), and they are reportedly still attempting to re-sign Ondrej Palat and Jan Rutta before they hit free agency.

McDonagh should provide the Predators with an established top-4 blueliner that can fit in with Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm. He's a known commodity in that he won't provide a ton of offense (20-30 PT pace over past 3 seasons), and at 33 years of age he may not have a lot of tread left on his tires. That being said, Nashville has traditionally been built around defense, and adding another experienced defenseman should only help Juuse Saros. McDonagh might see a small dip in scoring by moving to Nashville, but any declines in his scoring can also be associated with wear and tear.

With McDonagh's departure, Mikhail Sergachev is expected to take on an expanded role, perhaps in the form of increased even-strength minutes. Those increased minutes could provide a slight bump to Sergachev's scoring and peripherals.

As for Myers, he split time between the NHL and AHL last season. The Lightning are not expected to buy him out, and he should compete for a spot on the roster. His value may depend somewhat on whether the Lightning can retain Rutta.

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Players this helps, in order:

Sergachev

Saros

Palat (likely better value if he stays in TB)

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Players this hurts, in order: