Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Traffic permitting, it’s a 45-minute drive to Scotiabank Arena Darren RadishHometown: Caledon, Ont.
But the journey home has felt much longer than that.
Reddish, 30, joined the Toronto Maple Leafs in June in a sign-and-trade deal with Tampa Bay that included a new eight-year contract.
Since he left home at age 16 to play major junior hockey in Erie, Pa., Raddish has faced countless challenges on his way to becoming a regular defenseman in the National Hockey League. Undrafted, he played five seasons in Erie before signing an AHL contract with the Rockford IceHogs in 2017. He parlayed a solid rookie performance into a two-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks, playing 54 more games with the IceHogs before heading to Hartford in a 2019 trade with the New York Rangers.
Reddish re-joined the Rangers and spent the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season with the Wolf Pack. At the end of the season, Raddish was 25 years old and headed for free agency.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, coming off their second straight Stanley Cup championship and possessing a deep blue line corps, signed Radish to a one-year deal. It was a turning point. The assignment to the Syracuse Crunch was almost certain, but it was still a great opportunity. The Lightning already had a track record of seeing something in overlooked, underrated or raw talent and turning them into NHL players. Corey Conacher. Yani Gurd. Jonathan Marchessault. Carter Verhehe.
Skating on Radish was a hit. But an elite shot and ability to move the box gave him some freedom. Moreover, he showed a willingness to play one of his main strengths. he had 303 shots in 111 regular season games with the Crunch. Most of all, the Lightning invested heavily in skill development. Perhaps they could bring his skating up to par.
Raddysh delivered.
“Everybody has the same mindset to help guys get to the next level,” Radish said of the Lightning organization. “It’s just a testament to the whole organization as a whole. I think it was just belief in your game and in yourself.”
The Lightning regularly had their skill development coaches in Syracuse, meaning Reddish had two or three opportunities a week to take his game apart, examine it and rebuild it. The AHL’s tough weekend schedule format lends itself to ample practice time. On a typical Tuesday or Wednesday morning, Raddish and his teammates will have a development session followed by practice. Tampa Bay Director of Player Development JP Côté made himself a regular visitor at Syracuse. Pool those resources—both time and teaching—like a meticulous stickler like the Crunch head coach of yore. Ben Groulxand Raddish’s game quickly improved at Syracuse.
Tampa Bay has proven methods and sticks to them, and they bring in overlooked projects like Raddysh. That success means buy-in from both the player and the organization.
“I think it’s just the belief they had in you,” Reddish continued, “and just trying to help you become the best player and the best version of yourself.”
Cote, who played four AHL seasons in the Tampa Bay organization and won the Calder Cup in 2012, represents that consistency. After retiring in 2018, Cote assumed his current role in 2019 and has remained there ever since. The Lightning paid attention, as they always do with their prospects, rewarding Radish with his NHL debut on Dec. 30, 2021, after 241 regular season appearances in the AHL.
Radish then took a chance on himself. Instead of hitting the open market again, he signed a contract extension with the Lightning in 2022. It was still a two-way deal, paying him a lower salary in the AHL than in the NHL, but it included a second year. And in 2022-23, he had the breakthrough he was working towards. Redish had 13 goals, 38 assists and 51 points in just 50 games with Syracuse, making him a first-team AHL All-Star. He played 17 games with the Lightning, scoring his first NHL goal. And he skated in six games during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
By the following season, Raddish had left the AHL. He signed a two-year extension before the 2023-24 season, then played all 82 games for the Lightning that year. And in 2025-26, he became the NHL’s top defenseman with 70 points (22 goals, 48 assists) and a plus-21 rating in 73 games while averaging more than 22 minutes of ice time a night to lead the team.
However, with Radish on track to become an unrestricted free agent after last season, the Lightning had decisions to make. On June 19, he signed an eight-year, $68 million contract and was traded to Toronto for a fifth-round draft pick. Radish, just a few years removed from the uncertainty of playing for year after year, will enter training camp this month in a much different situation.
The Leafs will have high hopes for him after they missed the Stanley Cup playoffs last season. The pressure will be intense; it’s always in toronto. But Raddysh brings with him a solid foundation, something he built over six seasons in the AHL.
With more than two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was awarded the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league in 2015-16.