The best source possible confirmed it: Steven Stamkos is staying put. With rumors swirling that the Tampa Bay Lightning may have been looking at their captain as a potential avenue to clear much-needed cap space, Stamkos himself put an end to the chatter. Speaking with Nick Kypreos, he made clear that he plans to play out the duration of his contract in Tampa:
The old saying is that when one door closes, another one opens. The unfortunate reality for GM Julien BriseBois is that no door appears open for him when it comes to that need to clear cap space. His Lightning are in an unenviable spot, with virtually no room to sign restricted free agents Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak.
Perhaps the most troubling thing about the Lightning’s cap situation is that, the longer it drags out unsolved, the higher the cost to fix it is likely to be. Teams already have oodles of leverage in any negotiations with BriseBois; they’ll be in an even stronger negotiating position if we’re moments away from a return to play, with the Lightning still in dire need of space.
With such an unequivocal need to make a move (or two… or three…) in play, the lack of noise around the team is quite surprising. Outside of the Stamkos talk, and the Johnson waivers, there just hasn’t been much in the way of Lightning rumors over the last few weeks. Nothing about this management group’s previous history suggests that they don’t have some kind of plan in the works, but time is ticking.
Until the clock stops, we have nothing to do but wait in this holding pattern. The Stanley Cup win takes some of the sting out of it.
As always, thanks for reading.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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