The Tampa Bay Lightning made their big swing on Saturday, acquiring David Savard from the Columbus Blue Jackets, through the Detroit Red Wings (for salary retention purposes). Here's the full trade:

Savard has played his whole 10-year career with the Blue Jackets, and for the last number of years has been a reliable presence on their second pairing. As a pending UFA, the price paid to net the 30-year-old right-hander seems a little steep, but he does make the Lightning defence that much more formidable. With Erik Cernak close to returning as well, the two of them will likely replace Ben Thomas and either Cal Foote or Luke Schenn in the Tampa Bay lineup. 

Savard brings some stability to the defensive end, where he started 63% of his shifts for Columbus. He was also a regular on the penalty kill, though it's tough to see Tampa doing much better than their current 82% kill rate. 

As the above chart shows, Savard's offence has really struggled this year. Then again, so has just about everyone else's in Columbus, so we won't fault him too much for it. The move to Tampa should improve his numbers just by osmosis, but it's not likely that he suddenly becomes an offensive juggernaut. His career worst minus-19 rating that he has racked up to this point in the season should turn around in a hurry though, and he could be a positive player from here on out. A few more secondary assists might trickle onto the scoresheet too, but his career high scoring pace was 36 points back in 2014-15 when he was seeing two minutes per game on the power play. Expecting a point every second game would be the absolute ceiling, and a point every three games is much more realistic (that's double his current pace this season). 

The overall minutes may be a little reduced in Tampa though, as Savard won't be pushing any of the big dogs down the depth chart. That means his ice time will likely drop into more of the 17-18 minutes per game range, and as a result his peripherals will see a small hit. On the flip side though, Savard taking on some of the defensive responsibilities in Tampa means that there may be some easier minutes freed up for the likes of Mikhail Sergachev. He's currently on a cold streak with zero points in his last seven games, so this may be just the kick start he needs. 

In Columbus, there will be quite the shakeup on defence as it's not only Savard gone, but they just lost Zach Werenski to injury as well. As Ian Gooding mentioned in this morning's Ramblings, Seth Jones and Mikko Lehtonenstand to be the ones that take over Werenski's powerplay time, but the even-strength and shorthanded minutes of Savard will also have to be filled. Vladislav Gavrikov and Michael Del Zotto are the next in line for minutes, and they should be seeing the heaviest defensive duties with Savard out of the picture. 

Players this helps: 

David Savard's scoring but not his peripherals

Vladislav Gavrikov & Michael Del Zotto (especially peripherals)

Mikhail Sergachev

Players this hurts: 

Depth Tampa Bay Defencemen (Rutta, Schenn, Foote, and Thomas)

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I also wonder how much this play had to do with Savard being the top asset of interest for the Lightning…