It is the end of an era with the Tampa Bay Lightning as Steven Stamkos went to free agency and signed a four-year contract with the Nashville Predators. Stamkos’s new deal carries an AAV of $8 million.
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The relationship between Steven Stamkos and the Lightning became strained last off-season. Stamkos was eligible for an extension on July 1 as he was entering the final year of his deal. However, there were no talks between him and Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois.
Stamkos expressed his frustration at the start of training camp when he said he was disappointed there were no contract talks, as he saw Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, and Erik Cernak get extensions before he did. There had been talk of a Victor Hedman extension for months, and it was finalized this morning – four years at $8 million per.
All do respect to those players, they are not Steven Stamkos. When meeting with the media on Monday, July 1 Stamkos knew he was likely moving on last summer even though he wanted to stay in Tampa.
“When I didn’t get approached to sign an extension last summer that caught me by surprise and it was something that I expressed that at training camp,” Stamkos said. “Certainly that was probably the start of it, the start of the writing on the wall.”
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This was a long negotiation process, and Stamkos did not let it affect his play. But as the season wore on, the light faded on him staying with the Lightning. He hoped a deal would get done, but in the end, he had to do what was best for him.
“That’s the toughest part is trying to hang on to something that maybe isn’t trying to hang on to you and that was the tough part for sure,” Stamkos said. “But like I said, the memories I’ve had in Tampa will always trump whatever ill will or feelings I’ve had throughout this process. Those are temporary, those are emotional decisions and you know as time passes, those usually go away.”
Many people are asking what happened between the Lightning and Stamkos. We know BriseBois has a history of playing heel with his players. He makes tough decisions. He moved out Ryan McDonagh and then brought him back. Then he just sent out Mikhail Sergachev and Tanner Jeannot. Ondrej Palat was not brought back, nor were Alex Killorn or Tyler Johnson.
But this felt different, and Stamkos asked himself this question throughout the process. Colby Armstrong on Sportsnet asked him about this.
“Yeah, to be completely honest, Army, I finally found myself asking the same question and the more people I talked to, you know, everyone seemed to share that same sentiment, which is puzzling and strange and at the end of the day, there was no question that I was willing to put all that stuff aside to remain a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Like I said, my family and I absolutely love playing for that city and playing for the players that are there. It just seemed like maybe not everyone thought that way, and listen; I’m a big boy; I can handle that. We went about doing our business. I thought I played extremely well this year, regardless of the contract distraction and, and just, you know, told them at the end here that it wasn’t gonna affect my play. And that’s something that I was proud of.”
Lightning GM Julien BriseBois was disappointed that he could not get Stamkos signed to an extension. However, BriseBois acknowledged he went as far as he could with the offer and needed to do what was best for the team.
“He definitely wanted to stay in Tampa but, at the same time, it was clear throughout our process he also had financial expectations that he expected us to meet and, ultimately, I felt and made the decision that, if I agreed to the terms that he wanted in order to get a deal done, I would not be putting ourselves in the best position to chase championships going forward. Ultimately, we need to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team’s success,” BriseBois said.
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The biggest question you must ask is how bringing back McDonagh at his full cap hit of $6.75 million will improve the Lightning. It did not. It might have made them worse.
While signing Jake Guentzel is a good backup plan, he is not Steven Stamkos. You have to wonder how this shakes the locker room at the beginning of the season.
It will be an emotional game when Steven Stamkos returns to Tampa as a member of the Nashville Predators. This could have been avoided, but instead here we are Stamkos is moving on and so are the Lightning.