Tampa Bay Lightning acquire Anthony Duclair from San Jose Sharks

There are no conditions on the picks acquired by either team, nor is any salary being retained on Duclair through the Sharks or a third-party broker.

Duclair, 28, was ranked 18th on Daily Faceoff Insider Frank Seravalli’s most recent Trade Targets piece, and was 10th among the wingers on Frank’s list. 

With this deal, Duclair returns to the state of Florida after being dealt from the Florida Panthers in the 2023 offseason to the Sharks after three seasons with the team. In Duclair, the Lightning get a solid top six winger to add to their team, and will certainly add a lot more speed to their lineup. It’s unclear as to where he’ll fall in the lineup for the team, but it gives them the possibility of either loading up the top six with Duclair, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Braydon Point, Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel, or provide Tampa with some bottom-six depth by pairing him with Nick Paul on the third line.

Duclair had an okay season with the Sharks but certainly hasn’t played up to expectations (although that can probably be attributed to the team), with 16 goals and 11 assists for 27 points in 56 games.

Duclair is currently in the final year of a three-year contract with a $3 million cap hit, and will be an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason. As mentioned before, no salary was retained, so the Lightning will be getting all $3 million of his cap hit, something they were able to do due to the long-term injury to Mikhail Sergachev.

The Sharks get Thompson in return along with a third-round pick. A 2020 third-round pick, Thompson is currently in his second pro season, mostly played in the NHL. He had 5 goals and 27 assists for 32 points in 46 games with the Syracuse Crunch, and also played one game for the Lightning where he was held pointless.

Daily Faceoff’s prospect expert Steven Ellis had this to say about Thompson on Twitter: