Darren Raddysh is 30, shoots right, and is listed at 6'1" and 203 lbs. He is originally from Caledon and played for the Toronto Marlboros as a kid. He has never played for Team Canada.

He has 249 NHL games played over five seasons and broke into the NHL very late.

Yesterday I posted two views of Raddysh from Hockey Viz and Evolving Hockey:

First his history in a summary form:

And his last three seasons in RAPM form:

What we know about the player is that he is with Tampa's loss of Victor Hedman at times this season, Raddysh shot up in ice time, playing 23 minutes per game when the most he'd played before was 19 and he did very well.

That sounds apt. And risking for big rewards is one of the ways the Leafs can improve their team right now, when they have few assets to spend. The cost here (beyond cap space, which is going to be hefty) is the fifth-round pick. The kind of pick Kyle Dubas wouldn't take to help Edmonton sign Zach Hyman.

Meanwhile Toronto gets their defenceman before July 1, sets their cap situation very early and will likely get this contract spread out over the maximum term of eight years. The new contract term limits of six years or seven for the existing team come into effect in September.

As that RAPM chart shows, Raddysh is an offensively gifted defenceman in terms of creating offence and there are signs he has some legitimate skill as a shooter and setup man. Not always the case with offensive defenders.

Now we all know what the Leafs big problem has been. Zone exits. Not necessarily in-zone defending or even getting the puck, they can do that with the people they have, but then they can't get anywhere with it for more than a few seconds. This is the fulcrum upon which their horrible season teetered, not as often mention, Craig Berube's dump and chase ideas.

That article up there from the Athletic quotes the All Three Zones tracking project and it says:

And he wasn’t a passenger either; according to tracking data from Corey Sznajder, Raddysh was elite at breaking the puck out and facilitating offense in-zone.

The NHL provides player tracking data to all teams, and the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs is more than a little familiar with what tracking data of one sort or another can tell you. Don't get fooled by his points, this will be the draw for Toronto with Raddysh.

Dom Luszczyszyn makes a very interesting comparison to Brandon Montour, calling him a one-year wonder. Which is not a universally held opinion. It is if you look at his points where he had an amazing year in Florida and then hasn't put up those numbers since, but HockeyViz thinks he's a stud. Evolving Hockey doesn't. It thinks he's declined along with his points.

This is the true nature of the risk, not just predicting what a player will do in the future, but in accurately identifying what they're contributing right now. Particularly for defenders.

All signs point to Raddysh being better than most of the Maple Leafs defenders at being that fulcrum upon which their fortunes can turn up. If once he's helped get the puck out of the zone, he can do fun things offensively, that's actually just the bonus.

No one player is the answer to everything the Leafs need. Auston Matthews isn't the one person who can make the team win games, no matter what he's paid. Raddysh is just (yes I'm doing it) part of the salad that makes up the team.

UPDATE: a correction of a minor sort. The only way this deal could be 8 years is if it was done before June 30.

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