After spending the summer embroiled in a contract stand-off with defenseman Andrej Meszaros Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray resolved the problem on Friday night, dealing Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard plus a first round pick in 2009 which the Lightning had acquired from the San Jose Sharks.

The deal came after speculation in recent days of the Lightning attempting to sign Meszaros to an offer sheet, which they were unable to do as they lacked part of the appropriate compensation, their third round pick in 2009, which they'd dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins back in June for Ryan Malone.

Reportedly the Bolts tried to re-acquire the pick from the Penguins but there were conflicting reports suggesting the Penguins management were unwilling to deal it back or that a deal was in place but the Lightning were trying to directly acquire Meszaros via trade.

Regardless of the aforementioned intrigue the move is yet another in a string of significant roster-altering deals made by the Lightning since new ownership and management took over back in June.

Meszaros is a promising young defenseman but Murray made this move as the young blueliner was reportedly seeking a deal in the range of $4.5-$5 million per season, comparable to the contracts recently signed by Nashville's Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, Washington's Mike Green and Chicago's Brent Seabrook.

The Senators unfortunately lacked the cap space to pay Meszaros that much and still have enough remaining to land a scoring winger, plus there were reports out of Ottawa suggesting that his struggles last season also made Murray leery of committing that kind of coin to him.

Murray got back a pretty good return for Meszaros, fulfilling both a short-term need with the experienced Kuba (who'll likely play on the second pairing with Christoph Schubert) and possibly a long-term one with Picard, who at 22 still has time to develop into a decent NHL defenseman.  Landing a first round pick in next year's draft was also a nice catch, demonstrating perhaps Murray's management experience over that of the Lightning's new group.

Meszaros is a good pickup for the Lightning and could be a key part of their future but he doesn't address their glaring need for more experienced defensive depth. He's only got three years of NHL experience and with Kuba now gone that makes he, Matt Carle and Paul Ranger the Lightning's most experienced defensemen.

That's a promising young defense corps but one that could find itself struggling against strong offensive opponents this season.

This move also means the Bolts will still have to shed some payroll, for while they moved Kuba and Picard's combined $3.8 million salary for this coming season re-signing Meszaros to his anticipated $4.5 million per season salary still leaves them closer to the cap than ownership would prefer.

Perhaps Jussi Jokinen, Michel Ouellet and/or Jason Ward could be packaged for an experienced defenseman, but given new owner Oren Koules' comments this summer over his happiness with his young defense corps it might be picks or prospects those forwards get shopped for.

This deal works well for the Senators as the combined salaries of Kuba and Picard are close to what Murray was originally offering Meszaros ($3.5 million per season) and still leaves enough cap space to pursue a scoring winger .

In the long term this deal could work out for the Lightning but in the short term it appears to favor the Senators.