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Just about everything came up Milhouse for the Tampa Bay Lightning last season.
After a highly successful offseason plan in 2014 which netted names like
Anton Stralman and
Brian Boyle, the Lightning surged to a 50-win, 108-point campaign. Their plus-51 goal differential was the second-best in the National Hockey League (only the Rangers’ plus-60 was better). Head coach Jon Cooper put forth a Jack Adams-worthy campaign, Tampa Bay’s famed Triplets Line gave fans a peek of the future, and captain
Steven Stamkos was still, well, Steven Stamkos.
But before Stamkos and the Lightning could even finish exiting the ice following their handshake line of disappointment following a fourth-round defeat at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks, the focus of Tampa Bay’s offseason shifted to the status of No. 91. Stamkos, whose 43 goals were second to Alexander Ovechkin’s league-leading 53 strikes for the most in the league, was entering the summer without a long-term extension to his name. Such remained the case as the summer came to a close.
“I’m still the captain of this team. Nothing has changed in the way I approach the game,” Stamkos, who has been with the Lightning his entire NHL career, told the
Toronto Sun. “I definitely love being here. We want to win a championship, and I want to be part of that.
“The guys understand it’s a business. They know me as a player, as a leader. It hasn’t changed the way I’ve approached anything. It hasn’t changed my mentality coming into camp,” Stamkos added.
“The guys know what they are going to get and what to expect from me.”
What Stamkos’ teammates have come to expect from the Markham, Ont. native is simply put, the best.
Over the last five seasons, Stamkos is third among NHLers with 357 points in 331 games. Only Ovechkin and Philadelphia captain
Claude Giroux have recorded more points over that span. And Stamkos’ 202 goals over that run are just second to Ovechkin’s 206. The Great Eight has played in 33 more games over that stretch, too. No. 91’s worth to the Bolts goes without saying at this point, and keeping him in town should be on all that’s on the minds of the braintrust in Tampa.
But with other pieces of their (even) younger core up for new deals within the next few years, it’s a situation that’s entirely more complicated than general manager
Steve Yzerman would like to admit. And that’s why Yzerman seems set on keeping things private when it comes to Stamkos talks.
“I’m not going to elaborate. I’m not going to give regular updates on it,” Yzerman told the Sun of the situation. “Talking with Steven and Don Meehan and his colleagues at Newport Sports, we’re going to keep it between us and hopefully work toward getting an extension done at some point.”
It’s natural to anticipate Stamkos asking for a contract similar to that of the Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews extensions in Chicago. Kane and Toews ultimately landed max extensions worth $84 million over eight seasons ($10.5 million cap-hit). Such a contract would give Stamkos a $3 million raise from his current contract, and potentially put the Bolts in a tough situation when it comes time to re-sign restricted free agent
Nikita Kucherov in 2016, along with fellow RFAs
Jonathan Drouin,
Tyler Johnson, and
Ondrej Palat in the summer of 2017.
The reality of a NHL cap world is that there’s only so much cash to go around.
But if Stamkos can’t find it in Tampa Bay, there’s no doubt he’ll find it elsewhere on July 1st, 2016.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
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