Lightning trade Maroon to Wild for 7th-round pick

The Tampa Bay Lightning traded three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Maroon to the Minnesota Wild for a 2024 seventh-round pick, the teams announced.

The Bolts will retain 20% of Maroon's $1-million cap hit as part of the deal. It's the last year of his contract.

Minor-leaguer Max Cajkovic is also heading to Minnesota in the trade.

Maroon, 35, recorded five goals, nine assists, and a league-leading 150 penalty minutes last season in a fourth-line role with the Lightning. He'll bring toughness and championship pedigree to the Wild's lineup, having won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and back-to-back rings with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.

The Wild replace the toughness they lost when Ryan Reaves signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Lightning, meanwhile, will have a new-look fourth line next season. In addition to Maroon leaving, Corey Perry also departed, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is a free agent. The fourth line now projects to consist of Logan Brown, Luke Glendening, and Josh Archibald, who were all signed by the club on Saturday.

Cajkovic, a third-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2019, spent most of the 2022-23 campaign in the ECHL, registering 27 points in 41 games.

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