Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nIronically, it was Raddysh\u2019s success in rival blue-and-white threads that brought him here.<\/p>\n
The late-blooming, undrafted 30-year-old\u2019s AAV had never exceeded six figures, until now.<\/p>\n
Raddysh\u2019s 22-goal, 70-point outburst with the Tampa Bay Lightning \u2014 a franchise he joined back in 2021-22 \u2014 could not have been better timed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The player sees it as a preparation meeting opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in and out of the lineup,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I was playing, I was playing as a seventh defenceman. Just getting the opportunity to play on power play and get to show my stuff and show what I can do is probably one of the biggest things for this last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Tampa will hold a special place in Raddysh\u2019s heart, GM Julien BriseBois was not prepared to offer the D-man the type of term or payday Chayka was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Leafs showed serious interest in getting ahead of the market Thursday. Raddysh thought of the homecoming as a \u201cno-brainer.\u201d And the Lightning accepted a fifth-round pick for an asset that was bound to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came down to just business,\u201d Raddysh says. \u201cI can\u2019t have anything bad to say about the organization and Julian. I think they wanted to go in a different direction than what we wanted to, and ultimately it led to Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raddysh has already heard from new teammates enthused by the addition of one of this off-season\u2019s marquee names. And he had crossed paths with Chayka back in the 2010s, when he played alongside Dylan Strome and Connor McDavid on the Erie Otters. The young executive would watch their practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an analytic guy,\u201d Raddysh says. \u201cSomething I like to pride myself on is making sure you\u2019re doing all the right things. And I believe that if you do that, good things will come. And I think he sees it the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s excited about this team, is excited to get the team back to where it needs to be. And there\u2019s a lot of good moving pieces coming, and it\u2019s an exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Chayka admits there is risk in such a hefty investment on a player who will be cashing cheques deep into his 30s, Raddysh is inspired to familiarize himself quickly with his teammates and get working with new coach Jim Hiller, whose L.A. teams were always hard to play against.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully start something special,\u201d says Raddysh, who will feature prominently in the top four. \u201cI\u2019m a good two-way defenceman. I like to take pride in my own end first, and I like to take pride in not getting scored on and making sure we’re doing the right things and playing the right way. The offence will come after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before treating Leafs Nation to that elite Howitzer from the point or improving the club\u2019s breakouts with a crisp first pass to the forwards\u2019 blades, Raddysh can take time to simply feel grateful for a deal that, at once, changes his family and honours it.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying in Toronto is something you always dreamed of as a kid,\u201d Raddysh says. \u201cEspecially playing the GTHL, you always watch the Leaf games on Saturday nights. And, yeah, everyone pretty much always wants to come back here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The day after Father\u2019s Day, the newest Toronto Maple Leaf was still thinking about Dad. Dwayne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-753900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753900","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=753900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}