The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to look a whole lot different without Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos this season, but that might not be such a bad thing, according to re-acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
“I’ve heard it from a handful of guys, ‘We haven’t gotten out of the first round two years in a row,'” said the 35-year-old, per NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. “That’s probably what fans are looking at, what management is looking at. The coaching staff too. What’s gone on here? Why haven’t we gotten out of the first round?”
The two-time Stanley Cup champion added: “I don’t want to take away anything from Stamkos and Sergachev. They’re some of my closest teammates and obviously I’ve won with them, but they’ll tell you just like I will that there’s a business side to it and with management you have to believe in their decisions. We train, do this for a living, and our goal is to win the Cup.
“It’ll be a unique challenge when you lose two pillar pieces like that in the offseason, but we have a great group of veterans, a young core that has been together for a long time and is hungry to get over that hump and get back to having a deep run and playoff success.”
McDonagh spent four full seasons with the Bolts, and along with Stamkos and Sergachev helped the franchise reach back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. They beat the Dallas Stars in 2020 and Montreal Canadiens in 2021 before failing to three peat against the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.
McDonagh was traded after the six-game loss to the Avs, joining the Nashville Predators where he played two campaigns. He was re-acquired back in May of this year, returning to Tampa Bay in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 seventh-round selection.
And he’ll rejoin a Bolts team that looks a ton different than it did during those three deep postseason runs not so long ago.
Steven Stamkos, Mikhail Sergachev were heart-and-soul players for Lightning
Instead of re-signing Stamkos, who has played his entire career with the franchise, general manager Julien BriseBois instead opted to target Jake Guentzel in free agency. Guentzel was acquired and given a seven-year, $63 million contract on July 1.
“Obviously it’s well documented how successful he was with Crosby for so many years, so you’re thinking and hoping and you believe that he can play with players who think the game at a high level like [Nikita] Kucherov and [Brayden] Point,” McDonagh said of the addition. “I can see him taking his game to another level from where it was at before, which was already a pretty high level.”
Along with signing Guentzel, BriseBois traded Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club this summer, with JJ Moser heading back to Florida in the deal. Along with a couple other transactions, the Lightning’s roster is much different than the one that won two Cups, although the core is the same — minus the captain.
It will be intriguing to see if the decision to move on from Stamkos and Sergachev backfires, or if Tampa Bay can make a few more deep playoff runs without the two.
