NHL trade grades: Anthony Duclair gives Lightning a middle-six boost

Tampa Bay Lightning get: Forward Anthony Duclair, seventh-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft

San Jose Sharks get: Defenseman Jack Thompson, third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft

Corey Pronman: Anthony Duclair is an excellent skater with very good offensive skills. He makes a lot of plays and can do so at a quick tempo. He’s very talented, but also not that big and can be inconsistent, which has led to him bouncing around between various NHL organizations. He is a legit middle-six wing in the NHL, though. This isn’t the primary issue that ails Tampa, but it’s a start, and the price was bearable.

Jack Thompson is a smart puck-mover with a good point shot who has scored at the OHL and AHL levels. His skating is just OK, though, and given that he’s average-sized, whether he can defend at the NHL level is a question mark. He has a chance to play in the NHL but is no sure thing. The third-round pick is probably the main asset San Jose got back for a player in Duclair who didn’t have a ton of value given his player type and position.

Tampa Bay: B
San Jose: B-

Sean Gentille: Checking in on Anthony Duclair throughout this season had been a bummer. That, largely, was due to the quality of his team — because this edition of the San Jose Sharks is built to be bad and, hoo buddy, they’ve achieved their objective. Given they’ve won fewer games than the Blackhawks, we may have veered into “overkill” territory.

And on a team that putrid, it’s hard not to feel bad for the players involved, because their aims certainly extended beyond the bottom of the standings. In Duclair’s case, he was trying to rehab his value in his first full season after tearing his Achilles tendon. Unrestricted free agency loomed, and the 31-goal season he had with Florida in 2021-22 was getting further away. The logic was simple enough: He’d get plenty of opportunity to score a bunch of goals, and the Sharks would get a player who’d have value at the trade deadline. Then, in the first 52 games of the season, Duclair put up 11 goals and eight assists. Whoops.

He pulled it together just in time, though, scoring five goals times in his final four games with the Sharks and showing the speed and finishing ability that had periodically popped in his first eight NHL seasons. Now, he gets to chase a Cup instead of playing out the string. For the Lightning, he’ll add skill and scoring to a middle six that could use it. There’s also something to be said for mixing in fresh faces to a roster that’s won as much as Tampa Bay’s over the last several years. He’s not Noah Hanifin, but that’s OK.

As for San Jose, the return is solid enough. Thompson is a scratch-off ticket, and third-round picks have value. There are plenty of rental wingers on the market, too. Plenty seem destined to bring back less.

Lightning grade: B-
Sharks grade: B-

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)