Lightning add winger Anthony Duclair in trade with Sharks

Anthony Duclair is returning to Florida. This time, it will be as a member of the Lightning, after Tampa Bay landed the winger in a trade Thursday from the San Jose Sharks.

Duclair and a 2025 seventh-round pick will head to the Lightning in exchange for a 2024 third-round pick and prospect defenseman Jack Thompson. The Sharks did not retain any salary, with Duclair in the final season of a three-year contract carrying a $3 million cap hit.

Duclair gives the Lightning a top-nine winger who could slide to their second line alongside Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel. Duclair has scored 16 goals and has 27 points this season and is on pace to reach 22 goals, which would be his fourth career campaign of more than 20 goals.

His arrival also comes with the expectation that he might replicate what he did last season when he helped the Florida Panthers reach the Stanley Cup Final. Duclair had four goals and 11 points in 20 games for the Panthers as they eventually lost in five games to theVegas Golden Knights.

CapFriendly projects that the Lightning will have $2.9 million available in deadline cap space to facilitate ahead of the 3 p.m. ET trade deadline Friday.

Tampa Bay (33-24-6) entered Thursday occupying the last Eastern Conference wild-card spot. It held a four-point edge over the New York Islanders. Both the Lightning and Detroit Red Wingsalso were eight points behind the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings.

As for the Sharks, moving on from Duclair ahead of the deadline was believed to be a possibility going back to when they acquired him during the offseason when the Panthers were seeking to shed salary.

The trade the Sharks received from the Lightning gives them five picks in the first three rounds of this year's draft. Four of them will be in the first two rounds, and they have nine total.

Collecting draft capital has remained the priority for a Sharks franchise that is in the midst of a rebuild. They have four pending unrestricted free agents who could be traded, including forwardAlexander Barabanov, who was sat prior to their game against the Islanders for trade-related reasons.

The Sharks (15-39-7) are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks for the fewest points in the NHL and the best odds to win the draft lottery. Whoever wins the lottery will have the chance to draft Boston University center Macklin Celebrini, the consensus No. 1 prospect in this year's class.