Report: Lightning working with Ryan McDonagh to find trade partner

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to find a way to move Ryan McDonagh and his $6.75 million annual salary.

“It’s not news the Tampa Bay Lightning have some very difficult decisions to make. They want to try to keep unrestricted free agents Ondrej Palat and Nick Paul (among others), which is impossible without painful choices elsewhere,” Friedman said on Thursday. “According to multiple sources, the Lightning are working with Ryan McDonagh to see if there’s another team he’d consider a trade to.”

McDonagh has four years left on the seven-year, $47.25 million deal he signed with the Lightning back in July of 2018. He carries an average annual salary of $6.75 million and has a full no-trade clause.

As Friedman said, the Lightning are working with McDonagh to figure out if there’s a place he’d like to be traded to, as he controls his own destiny here with the no-trade clause in his deal.

McDonagh scored 26 points in 71 games and logged an average of 22:27 per game for the Lightning during the regular season and was a key shutdown defender during Tampa’s bid for a third consecutive Stanley Cup.

He’s still a very good defenseman in the NHL, but, at 33 years of age, teams will surely pause at the idea of taking on four years at $6.75 million annually.

The Lightning have the majority of their team from the 2022 playoffs locked up for next season, but Ondrej Palat and Nick Paul are eligible to hit the open market as unrestricted free agents.

Palat has scored 143 goals and 423 points over 10 seasons with the Lightning, while Paul scored 14 regular-season points and nine playoff points after being acquired from the Ottawa Senators at the trade deadline.