Lightning clear a considerable amount of cap space, trade defenseman Ryan McDonagh

McDonagh originally came over to the Lightning at the deadline in 2018 as a pending free agent and subsequently inked a 7-year extension with the Bolts on July 1st, 2018, which contained a full no-trade clause until the final year of the deal. The Bolts had asked McDonagh to waive his NTC this past week and wasted to no time in moving the 33-year-old.

For the Preds, they didn't give up much of anything in order to bring in McDonagh, a two-time Stanley Cup Champion, who plays a fearless two-way game. He's never been a player who is going to light the scoreboard on fire, but he's always been a player who plays hard and shows no quit. It's hard to hate anything about this deal from a Nashville perspective, other than the fact that he'll be 36 in the final season of the deal.

From Tampa's perspective, they've just gained a bit of breathing room from a financial perspective, but there is still some work to be done, as the Bolts still remain $933K over the salary cap. They do, however, have the Brent Seabrook contract on the books that will provide them with LTIR relief.

This could mean that the Bolts will take a good hard run at re-signing pending UFA winger Ondrej Palat, who has played his entire career with the Lightning and is considered a very important piece up front.