Lightning sign defenseman J.J. Moser to 8-year extension

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Dec 27, 2025

Published in Hockey

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SUNRISE, Fla. — The way Lightning defenseman J.J. Moser has played this season, he was eventually due a big pay day.

Moser, 25, quietly has emerged as one of the league’s top defensemen, his plus-24 ratio trailing only Colorado’s Cale Makar (plus-32) and Josh Manson (plus-25) among all NHL defensemen.

And right before the Lightning returned to action Saturday coming out of the holiday break, the team announced an eight-year extension for Moser worth an average annual value of $6.75 million.

When the Lightning acquired Moser two offseasons ago from Utah along with forward Conor Geekie in exchange for fan favorite defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, they saw a player who could be a foundational piece of their blue line for the next decade.

Moser was slated to enter this offseason as an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent. Coming out of a two-year bridge deal (worth $3.375 million annual), he was due a long-term contract. And now the Lightning have ensured that Moser will be under team control through the 2033-34 season.

After the Lightning signed veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh to a three-year, $4.1 million extension earlier this month, it appeared that getting an extension done with Moser was next on general manager Julien BriseBois’ to-do list.

After securing both players, an unrestricted free-agent list that includes Oliver Bjorkstrand, Darren Raddysh and Charle-Edouard D’Astous seems a lot less ominous as the salary cap increases by $8.5 million next season to $104 million.

This season alone, Moser has shown his immense value to the team. He opened the season playing on the right side in a top-pairing role with Victor Hedman, but after injuries to Hedman and McDonagh, Moser returned to the left side. He has meshed well with Raddysh to form one of the league’s top defenseman pairings. He’s also played a larger role on the Lightning’s third-ranked penalty-kill unit.

Going into Saturday’s clash with the Panthers, Moser was averaging 23:32 of ice time over the previous 16 games.

In recent years, BriseBois has locked up several members of the Lightning’s young core to eight-year extensions, beginning with Brayden Point in 2021, Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak and Sergachev in 2022 and Brandon Hagel in 2023.