After the lift comes the letdown.
On Thursday night in Pittsburgh, the hoist Penguins defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Final.
On Friday afternoon, the Bolts players participated in their own exit interviews with the coaching staff and management.
Bolts captain Steven Stamkos spoke candidly on locker clean out day. He spoke about the highs and lows of the 2015-16 season and his own adversities.
The Lightning started slowly and found difficulty in getting their season on track. Their forwards, D, and goaltending were played inconsistently for much of the regular season, they persevered and arguably played their best hockey of the year in the playoffs. The Bolts breezed through the first two rounds against the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders.
Despite losing Bishop during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the team rallied around 21 year old rookie tender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Bolts rallied from a 2-1 ECF series deficit to take a 3-2 edge before losing to two unsung Penguin heroes in 22 year old Matt Murray and 24 year old Bryan Rust in Game 7 in Pittsburgh.
Stamkos is eligible to explore unrestricted free agent on July 1, however he reiterated Friday that he would like to stay and play for the team that drafted him first overall from the OHL Sarnia Sting at the 2008 NHL Draft.
The NHL is a cruel business, as Stamkos and his Lightning players, coaches, and management know all too well. The Bolts finished just one victory away from representing the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. For the second straight year.
Bridesmaid. Not a bride. Yet.
"I certainly hope to be back. We obviously have unfinished business here," Stamkos told the team's website.
Thanks, Lightning.com
"This group has been unbelievable. The city (of Tampa) has been unbelievable for me," he said. "I can't believe it's been eight years already. Time flies."
The 26-year-old center turned winger missed the first 16 games of the Lightning's Stanley Cup playoff run before returning to the lineup for Game 7 on Thursday night. Stamkos was forced to sit out 57 days of action after undergoing surgery to treat a blood clot discovered near his right collarbone.
Stamkos' surgeon and the Bolts' medical team gave the Canadian Sniper the clearance to play in Game 7.
Stamkos described his past eight weeks dealing with his health and wellness as grueling. His anxiety level was kicked up a notch or 91 when the uncertainty of his future with the Lightning slammed headlong into his blood clot diagnosis and the ensuing plan of care that his doctors prescribed to him. Stamkos was given blood thinners to help mitigate the growth of additional blood clots. Anyone who has ever played ice hockey will tell you that cut and abrasions happen to players on every shift of every played. The slightest of paper cuts can lead to disastrous results for the blood clot patient. For Stamkos, the risks to his long term health far out weighed the rewards of playing. Thus, he was forced to sit. watch and ponder his future for two months while his team played lights out hockey. That is until they ran head first into Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel and the pesky Penguins.
Of course Stamkos wants to stay and play in Tampa. Who wouldn't want to drive the convertible Bentley to the rink everyday with the top down, rocking shorts, shades, flip flops, and then hit a PGA golf course for q8 holes of therapy after work? Who among us wouldn't want to keep 100% of his pay check due to zero state sales tax in Florida?
Ladies and Gentlemen, kids of all ages. The decision for Stamkos to stay ultimately rests on his the player's shoulders. Stamkos has a no move clause.
GM Steve Yzerman said Friday re-signing Stamkos is one of "many priorities" for a team that also has two A-List veterans who will require immediate attention. All World defenseman Victor Hedman and Conn Smythe and Vezina level goalie Ben Bishop each have one year remaining on their current contracts. Yzerman also has several young restricted free agents in Nikita Kucherov, Alex illorn, J.T. Brown, Cedric Paquette, Vlad Namestnikov, and Nikita Nesterov. Having proven their worth on back to back Eastern Conference Final team, all of the Tampa RFAs will be looking for hefty pay raises.
Yzerman doesn't have a sky high palm with an unlimited money supply in his backyard.
"I've said all along we hope to sign Stammer," the GM said, "and that hasn't changed."
Hope. Hope? Hope?!
Yzerman hopes to re-sign Stamkos, who's current AAV is $7.5 million.
I'll go ahead and translate Stevie Y's comment for you:
We would like for Steven Stamkos to continue playing for the Tampa Lightning, however, we are demanding that he accepted a substantial home town haircut in order to get a deal done.
Yzerman is said to have offered Stamkos an 8 year deal at an $8M AAV. Stamkos' agent at Newport Sports have likely told Stevie Y. that he needs to go shake the money tree and come back with an AAV of $9M+ per season.
Hedman will earn $4 million in the final year of his current deal. Bishop will earn $5.9 million. Hedman will be looking for a fat max-out contract in the 8 year, $80 million range. Bishop may be traded in order to free up cap space to give to Kucherov, who will be looking for $6 million per season after his entry level contract expires. Trading Bishop is a gamble because Vasilevskiy has never played a 50+ game regular season in the NHL. He is a rookie with a small body of work, albeit an impressive dance card. Latvian folk hero Kristers Gudlevskis would be Vaslievskiy's back up in the event that Bishop gets traded. Frankly, I like Bishop and I can't see trading him at the June NHL Draft and giving Vasilevskiy the starting job.
To recap:
Stamkos hopes to stay in Tampa. Yzerman hopes to re-sign him.
I still think Stamkos is long gone. I cite irreconcilable differences.
If he truly wanted to stay, he'd give Yzerman the hometown deal that he has been grinding his captain's agent for. If Yzerman really wanted to keep Stamkos, he would have re-signed him last June before 91's no move clause kicked in on July 1, 2016.
Hope doesn't get deals done, boys.
You can't use hope as currency to pay the salary one of the top five players in the NHL. Otherwise, every team would have a star player like Stamkos.
Money talks. I can't see Yzerman upping the ante to pay Stamkos to stay in Tampa. Especially not now that he has seen the manifestation of the talents of young forward Nikita Kucherov and Jonathon Drouin, who combined, will provide more offense than Stamkos' typical 75-85 point season totals.
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