{"id":270908,"date":"2026-05-14T14:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270908\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:30:10","slug":"moser-heads-to-iihf-worlds-after-steady-season-for-tampa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270908\/","title":{"rendered":"Moser heads to IIHF Worlds after steady season for Tampa Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

It might be difficult to use the word \u2018underrated\u2019 to describe Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman JJ Moser after this season.<\/p>\n

The top players from each of Tampa Bay\u2019s 31 NHL opponents know well the talents within Moser\u2019s toolbox after 2025-26, his second season with the Lightning.<\/p>\n

Moser won\u2019t fly under the radar against any team next season. He has arrived to the prime of his NHL career, and he\u2019s done so with great momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cMo\u2019s a special player\u2026I think he\u2019s one of the best defensive defensemen in the league,\u201d teammate Darren Raddysh said. \u201cHe\u2019s killing plays, he\u2019s always skating. He can kind of do everything, and being on the other side of him made my job a lot easier\u2026Mo\u2019s a special one, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another global pursuit<\/p>\n

Raddysh joined Moser on Tampa Bay\u2019s top defensive pairing for most of this past season, the same year in which Moser played for Team Switzerland at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

Moser will again represent Switzerland on the global stage this month at the 2026 IIHF World Championship, which is being hosted by his home country. Team Switzerland opens play on Friday against Team USA and Lightning defenseman Declan Carlile.<\/p>\n

Before that tournament, the 25-year-old defenseman reflected on his development into a steady cog for the Lightning this season. His continued growth led to the team\u00a0signing Moser to an 8-year extension<\/a>\u00a0in December.<\/p>\n

Moser\u2019s 21 minutes, 34 seconds of time on ice per game was the second-highest on the team behind only Raddysh\u2019s 22:42. Moser\u2019s 91 blocked shots ranked second (Erik Cernak 91), and his plus-41 rating in plus-minus tied for fourth among all NHL defensemen.<\/p>\n

Teammate Ryan McDonagh credited both Moser and Raddysh for their breakout seasons, calling the players who were thrust into bigger roles this season \u201ccoachable”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey take criticism the right way when you’re trying to help them out and then they apply it. They go out and they want to be those guys\u2026That’s all you want from a group is guys that are willing to do whatever’s asked of them and go out and try to do it to the best of their ability,\u201d McDonagh said. “But specifically those two guys, how important they were to our team’s success this year was huge, and credit to them. They stepped up and have really cemented themselves as a huge piece for our team going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might be difficult to use the word \u2018underrated\u2019 to describe Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman JJ Moser after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-270908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}