It is inevitable that when the NHL free agency signing period begins on Monday, longstanding captain Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning will split ways.
That is still the case even after the Lightning traded defender Mikhail Sergachev (to Utah) and forward Tanner Jeannot (to Los Angeles) on Saturday, freeing up a sizable chunk of salary cost space.
The Lightning will have more than $16 million in salary cap space to spend in free agency thanks to those deals, which also position the team to acquire a key player off the market.
It just doesn’t seem possible that Stamkos will be making a comeback.
After meeting with Stamkos on Saturday, general manager Julien Brisebois stated that nothing had changed regarding their current roles and that they still anticipate Stamkos to be granted unrestricted free agency.
Since the Lightning selected Stamkos first overall in the 2008 draft, he has been a member of the team. In addition to being among the greatest players in Lightning history, he was also the second-best goal scorer of his generation, behind only Alex Ovechkin, during his tenure with the team. He had a major role in the transformation of the Lightning into a league-wide force that has appeared in four Stanley Cup Finals, won two of them, and been a regular in the Eastern Conference Final.
He was still a 40-goal scorer this past season at the age of 34.
However, it appears that the Lightning are uncomfortable making a long-term commitment at this point in his career, which could lead to him moving on to another team.
For a while now, the writing has been on the wall. When a player is eligible to be re-signed, the Lightning usually do so, but they did not do so with Stamkos. Additionally, when players become free agents, they rarely bring them back. At least not with Brisebois leading this current management team.
What the Lightning do with this extra cap room is the question. Since it’s highly likely that they won’t let it go to waste.
They might be able to use the salary cap room to make a trade for Martin Necas of Carolina or Nikolaj Ehlers of Winnipeg, or they might be able to sign a free agent like Jake Guentzel, one of the league’s top goal scorers on the wing.
Whoever it is, the Lightning expect to look drastically different in the upcoming season.
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