\u201cI think I\u2019m maybe getting a bit lucky and just trying to fill my role as best as possible and trying to help out as much as possible,\u201d Raddysh said of his offense this year. \u201cObviously more playing time helps out a little bit, but I\u2019m just trying to fill a role and do my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
That job has required more responsibility since the injury of captain Victor Hedman on Dec. 9, who required elbow surgery last week and will be out until February. Raddysh has been more than up for the task so far, joining JJ Moser in playing a bulk of the top pairing minutes while the team has been without Hedman as well as defenseman Erik Cernak.<\/p>\n
Moser enjoys playing alongside Raddysh, saying No. 43 plays a \u201cdynamic\u201d game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unreal to play with him because he’s very active,\u201d Moser said of Raddysh. \u201cHe’s good at breakouts, and he\u2019s good at getting up the ice. So if your side breaks the puck out, he’s always there as an outlet, as a player you can pass to, as a guy that can join the rush and create offense. And then obviously, in the o-zone, he’s very gifted. He sees the game very well, and he has an unreal shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raddysh logged a career-high 28:22 of ice time during a Dec. 13 game against the New York Islanders and has already established a career-high for goals in a season. He is playing 21:02 time on ice per game this season, nearly four minutes more than the 17:18 he averaged a season ago when he scored a career-high 37 points in 73 games.<\/p>\n
Raddysh has recorded 28 shots over 90 mph this season, more than any other NHL player.<\/p>\n
Moser said Raddysh\u2019s shot is among the fastest he\u2019s seen firsthand, competing only with Hedman. That serves as a fitting comparison, considering Raddysh has played with Hedman at times over the past several years while establishing himself as an NHL player.<\/p>\n
Learning from the captain and a defensive mindset<\/p>\n
Raddysh frequently tries to model his game after Hedman\u2019s, particularly in the way Hedman sneaks his shot through traffic to the opposing net.<\/p>\n
Only the captain\u2019s 154 points since the start of the 2023-24 season top the 97 Raddysh has posted over the previous three campaigns among Lightning defensemen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s a future Hall of Famer,\u201d Raddysh said of Hedman. \u201cEspecially on the ice when you’re in the o-zone and trying to pick up those reads and making sure you’re getting pucks through and finding open guys and trying to play with confidence and poise, he does that unbelievably. I try to model my game a little bit after that, so it\u2019s trying to pick up little things here and there and trying to emulate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of that note-taking shows in this year\u2019s NHL leaderboard\u2014Raddysh was tied for 10th in NHL scoring among defensemen after Monday, while his eight goals tied John Klingberg for sixth. Only Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer (five) has more power-play goals among defensemen than Raddysh (four).<\/p>\n
Monday marked Raddysh’s fourth three-point game of the season, tied with Evan Bouchard and Werenski for most by an NHL defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been on an absolute tear,\u201d Moser said of Raddysh. \u201cHe\u2019s been right up there with all the big names, so it\u2019s been very fun to see, and it\u2019s very deservedly so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raddysh\u2019s third point on Monday was the 100th of his NHL career. He hit the mark in his 206th career game, becoming the second-fastest defenseman in team history to reach 100 points behind only Dan Boyle (172 GP).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think I\u2019m maybe getting a bit lucky and just trying to fill my role as best as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-367086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}