Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show on the Tampa Bay Lightning and pending unrestricted free agent forward Steven Stamkos.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Now John Cooper was asked about Steven Stamkos. And he said what I think we all believe that Stamkos should be there and belongs there and should be a Tampa Bay Lightning. You believe so, I believe so. I would argue that the majority of the listeners/viewers right now are of the same belief.
The problem is, none of us hold the pen. That’s just Julian BriseBois. He’s the one holding the pen on this one. Do you have a sense of which way the wind is blowing on Stamkos in Tampa? We started this conversation in early October, and here he are now that Tampa’s out and we’ll pick up the conversation.
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Friedman: “I heard, you know, listening to Cooper night, you know, I, Cooper was it was interesting. H made it sound like I mean, I’m assuming while without knowing exactly what’s going on, I’m sure you’d have a good idea of what’s going on. He made it sound like it didn’t have to be a long conversation.
And, again, it’s emotional. It’s right after the season ended. And I don’t want to guess but he sure made it sound like there’s a deal to be made there. And he made it sound like the Lightning themselves know how important it is to make a deal.
Like the one thing just based on pure hockey, Jeff, Stamkos was one of their best players in the first round. He played as hard as, he played as hard as anybody did. He was productive.
You know, like, like to me, Tampa Bay without Stamkos, nevermind all, how much he means to them and they mean to him, they’re just not as good a team without Stamkos there unless they think they’ve got something they can do to can make them better.
I just think and I’ve said this a lot, the Lightning know that that’s where he wants to be. They know it. They went through it last time. He had all these big offers on the table, half the league was chasing after him and he went back to Tampa, okay. They know that. They know he wants to be there.
I think it’s all going to come down to are they going to make an offer that he feels is legitimate enough. It’s going to be below market I would bet Jeff, but are they going to make him an offer that makes him say, ‘yeah, that’s good enough. I’ll take it.’
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And I think that’s what the line here is going to be for Tampa is, make him an offer that is below market but you know, he’ll take it. And I think that’s what they’re going to do.