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[RUMOR] Apparently Stamkos Heading to Free Agency per LeBrun


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4 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

 

He's older than Guentzel, certainly, but he's been an elite tier forward for the longest time and they tend to age better 

 

Stamkos with Pettersson could be absolute money 


Wonder if Pavelski is retiring? He is the new ageless wonder. 

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2 minutes ago, Junkyard Dog said:


Wonder if Pavelski is retiring? He is the new ageless wonder. 

 

Came out earlier this month, he hasn't officially retired but he's said his plan isn't to play next season

 

Could always change

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6 hours ago, stawns said:

 

If say Van can be as attractive to him as Det.........aside from the close to home factor and Stevie Y, but I think the trio of JR, PA and RT are a pretty formidable 

It's not a far fetched concept. Maybe he wants to experience the Canadian market, we can offer pretty good money. Playing with EP is appealing as well. It's slim, but it's not an outrageous dream.

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Just now, RakuRaku said:

Anyone knows if he's been mostly a centre now or winger?? Would be so nice to get him and Skinner to upgrade our offense!!


I mean if we get two 2nd line(I am using this term very loosely as Stammer could be cheaper than the top guys but can play like one) guys as plan B for not getting a top guy that would be a great alternative. 

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6 minutes ago, RakuRaku said:

Anyone knows if he's been mostly a centre now or winger?? Would be so nice to get him and Skinner to upgrade our offense!!

He's listed as a LW/C and I think he mostly played LW last year so he could play with wither Petey or Miller. 

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He should here help us win our 1st Stanley Cup and he will be remembered as a very big piece theirs nothing left in Tampa and they aren't even offering the guy 5 mil+ for all his loyalty and hardworking for this team.

 

10 mill a year for 2-3 years our window right now to get a cup next season.

Edited by Madskillz
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8 hours ago, Rip The Mesh said:

I really don't want Toffoli here again. Just a similar but now lesser player then Boeser. We can do Guentzel, I think. 

On a side not; Nice Avatar. That took Guts... 😎

Yeah, of the three (Tof, Jake, Stam), clearly Tof is the least skilled, but he's also the cheapest. Thankfully I'm not GM, but in terms of how a player's contract + skill affects the team overall, I'd take him. JG is still young and uber talented, but he's gonna cost. 

 

Side note: still my dream car 😉

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5 hours ago, Coconuts said:

 

 

Reading between the lines, this makes me feel that they're just not willing to pay him what he feels he's worth. TB has the space now, but "can't" do it? Basically that means they just don't want to.

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7 minutes ago, GreenTercel said:

Reading between the lines, this makes me feel that they're just not willing to pay him what he feels he's worth. TB has the space now, but "can't" do it? Basically that means they just don't want to.

 

Weird way to treat the guy who holds pretty much all franchise records for forwards

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5 hours ago, HKSR said:

So TBL made a lowball offer to Stamkos that he rejects... then...

 

TBL makes a bunch of trades to free up cap space... then...

 

Word is that TBL is gonna go hard after Guentzel.

 

Talk about slapping your franchise icon in the face.

Please be true... gives us a chance to sign Stamkos... would fit like hand in glove here...

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9 minutes ago, spook007 said:

Please be true... gives us a chance to sign Stamkos... would fit like hand in glove here...

Would he though? If you're signing elite talent to fit in the team, he has to fit every aspect. 5 on 5 with Petey I think he would be a near perfect fit. But on the powerplay he isn't a very good fit at all, and that would be a major part of the job for whoever we sign this summer.

Edited by MeanSeanBean
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1 minute ago, MeanSeanBean said:

Would he though? If you're signing elite talent to fit in the team, he has to fit every aspect. 5 on 5 with Petey I think he would be a near perfect fit. But on the powerplay he isn't a very good fit at all, and that would be a major part of the job for whoever we sign this summer.

Why wouldn't he be a good fir on the PP?

 

But more importantly he would be a dream on a line with Petey... and exactly what Petey needs.. Enough of paying him 11.6M and then play him with 4th liners...

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The Steven Stamkos era with the Tampa Bay Lightning could very well be coming to an end.

After opening up significant salary cap space by trading defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to the Utah Hockey Club and forward Tanner Jeannot to the Los Angeles Kings, Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois met with Don Meehan, the representative for the long-time Tampa Bay captain, during Day 2 of the 2024 Upper Deck Draft at Sphere on Saturday. The conclusion from those discussions: Stamkos is poised to seek greener pastures.

“The plan is for Steven to test the free agent market,” BriseBois said. “Our respective positions haven't changed following today's trades and I understand that when you get this close to free agency, it can be tempting to see what the market has to offer to you. That was a risk I was taking when I didn't go to Steven a year early to try to lock him up and get a contract done.

“And to be fair I did tell Donny today that I think it's in the best interest of our organization to explore all options in the coming days, whether it be via trades or by getting to free agency and seeing how we can use this cap space to improve the makeup of our team.”

The 2023-24 season was the last of an eight-year, $68 million contract ($8.5 million average annual value) that Stamkos signed on June 29, 2016, and he can become an unrestricted free agent when the market opens at 12 p.m. ET on Monday.

 

"As of now, we've both agreed to get to July 1,” BriseBois said. “It doesn't mean we can't circle back to one another, but we're both going to go ahead and follow through with our due diligence, seeing what's out there and seeing what's best.

“My responsibility is to see what's best for the Lightning organization, and Steven has to do what's best for him, his career and his family. So, unless something changes between now and July 1 -- and it doesn't look like it will -- we will get to July 1.”

Stamkos was vocal with his displeasure at the beginning of last season that the Lightning had opted not to give him an offer of an extension last summer. Obviously the disappointment still resonates with the 34-year-old.

“Steven's earned the right to test free agency,” BriseBois said. “I didn't go to him last season to get a deal done. I did go to him quickly after this season, and I was taking a risk by doing that that we may end up here, and now here we are. And to be fair, I think both parties have tried to get a deal done up to this point. We just haven't been able to yet.”

If the projected parting of the ways between Stamkos and the Lightning does occur, it closes one of the most storied chapters in franchise history.

The Markham, Ontario native was the face of the franchise before he’d ever played for the team. Months prior to the Lightning selecting Stamkos first overall in the 2008 draft, the slogan “Seen Stamkos?” was omnipresent in the Tampa area, splattered on T-shirts and on billboards.

He didn’t disappoint.

 

Named captain on March 6, 2014, he has been a member of the Lightning for the entirety of his 16-season career, playing 1,082 games and scoring 1,137 points (555 goals, 582 assists), including 81 points (40 goals, 41 assists) in 79 games this season.

He’s Tampa Bay's all-time leader in games played, goals, points, even-strength goals (336), even-strength points (707), power-play goals (214), power-play points (422), overtime goals (13), game-winning goals (85) and shots (3,332). He was a member of the Lightning’s Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021, and has 101 points (50 goals, 51 assists) in 128 playoff games.

 

With Stamkos looking to be headed elsewhere, BriseBois said the Lightning are looking to get stronger up front, given the newfound financial flexibility the team has.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday that the Lightning could be eyeing free agent wing Jake Guentzel, who has 227 goals in 520 career games.

Another path could be via trade for Maple Leafs wing Mitch Marner, who Lightning coach Jon Cooper said in the past is one of his favorite players after coaching him while the two represented Canada at the 2017 World Hockey Championship. Marner is entering the final season of a six-year, $65.358 million contract ($10.893 million average annual value) he signed Sept. 13, 2019.

 

Whatever direction the Lightning choose to go, BriseBois said the team now has more options to improve.

“As a group, we got younger and we now have a war chest of cap space to go out and improve our team in free agency,” Brisebois said. “And the hope is that this newfound cap space, our favorable taxation situation, the opportunity to be on a competitive team and to play with some great players, should make us an appealing destination when free agents have to make decisions on where to sign come July 1.

 

"The unexpected consequence of this newfound cap space today is that a number of teams are now reaching out about players that might be available. ... That's another avenue that we will be exploring in the coming days here.”

As for the trades earlier in the day, the Lightning acquired defenseman J.J. Moser, forward Conor Geekie, pick No. 199, used to select wing Noah Steen, and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from Utah in exchange for Sergachev.

Not long afterward, Tampa Bay netted pick No. 118, used to select defenseman Jan Golicic, and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Kings for Jeannot.

“I don't know exactly how we're going to use our cap space,” BriseBois said. “I just know that we had very little of it this morning, and now we have more of it to invest in improving our team.”

A team that likely won’t feature arguably the greatest player in franchise history in Stamkos.

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Looks like Stamkos is staying. There's no way they aren't re-signing their 2 time cup winning captain who scored 40 goals last season when they actually have the cap space to do it. Guentzels probably staying in Carolina, Reinhart says he wants to stay in Florida. Pretty sure management will upgrade this team, may be just not the big names. 

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14 minutes ago, Drakrami said:

Looks like Stamkos is staying. There's no way they aren't re-signing their 2 time cup winning captain who scored 40 goals last season when they actually have the cap space to do it. Guentzels probably staying in Carolina, Reinhart says he wants to stay in Florida. Pretty sure management will upgrade this team, may be just not the big names. 

Guentzel has the Carolina offer from yesterday morning, but hasn't signed it. He's going to free agency. Stamkos has soured on Tampa. He's not staying in Tampa. Guentzel will probably go to Tampa

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1 hour ago, spook007 said:

Why wouldn't he be a good fir on the PP?

 

But more importantly he would be a dream on a line with Petey... and exactly what Petey needs.. Enough of paying him 11.6M and then play him with 4th liners...

He plays the exact same position as Miller on the powerplay. They are both very good at playing that position. If we run a power play with them both, one would have to switch away from their natural strongest position. While I'm sure they are both talent enough to make it work, it's not a natural fit by any means.

 

Playing with Petey is a different story, I would love to see that.

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8 minutes ago, Bure10Kuzmenko96 said:

Guentzel has the Carolina offer from yesterday morning, but hasn't signed it. He's going to free agency. Stamkos has soured on Tampa. He's not staying in Tampa. Guentzel will probably go to Tampa

Sounds more like the media drumming up stories to be honest. 

 

Seems like Tampa still want to keep on competing for the next few years while they have Kucherov/Point/Hedman etc.. Dumping Stamkos to be replaced with Guentzel makes little sense. For one Stamkos is better than Guentzel. This will only be the 3rd or 4th time Stamkos has soured on Tampa but just to end up signing with them. 

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2 hours ago, Bob Long said:

 

People?

This is what gets me about sports journalism. 'People, I think, chatter, I could see, xx is a good fit' They are always vague and non-committal in their words. These guys haven't a clue but they just read some shit online and say 'people are talking about him going to Nashville'. Literally all you have to do is look at what team is competitive, has cap space, needs scoring help, is in an american market with favourable taxation. Boom - Nashville. How hard is that?

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52 minutes ago, I.Am.Ironman said:

This is what gets me about sports journalism. 'People, I think, chatter, I could see, xx is a good fit' They are always vague and non-committal in their words. These guys haven't a clue but they just read some shit online and say 'people are talking about him going to Nashville'. Literally all you have to do is look at what team is competitive, has cap space, needs scoring help, is in an american market with favourable taxation. Boom - Nashville. How hard is that?

 

It's more like info-tainment 

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