Lightning trade Volkov to Ducks for prospect, pick

The Tampa Bay Lightning traded forward Alexander Volkov to the Anaheim Ducks for a conditional 2023 seventh-round pick and prospect Antoine Morand, the team announced Wednesday.

Lightning GM Julien BriseBois chalked up the deal as a cap dump.

"With more cap space, I would have liked to hold on to Alex but considering how tight we are against the salary cap, and with Mitch Stephens coming back in the not too distant future, something had to give," BriseBois said, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Volkov, 23, has collected three goals and three assists in 28 career regular-season NHL games. The Bolts picked him in the second round of the 2017 draft.

The 6-foot-1 winger is in the last year of a contract carrying the league-minimum $700,000 cap hit. He'll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season's end, according to CapFriendly.

Morand, 22, was also a second-round pick in 2017 by the Ducks. The forward has recorded no goals and five assists in 20 games this year with the AHL's San Diego Gulls.

If Anaheim's 2023 seventh-round pick is unavailable due to conditions of a previous trade, the Lightning will receive the Ducks' 2024 seventh-rounder.

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