Tampa Bay Lightning: Impact Of A $8.5 Million Dollar Per Year Contract For Steven Stamkos

Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos‘ contract extension has been talked about for many months now. We could soon have our answer.

With the recent Drouinsanity that has been going on over the last few weeks, it was time for a new rumor of piece of news to digest. Well Tampa Bay Lightning fans, we just got that news, and it potentially could be great.

According to Elloitte Friedman from Sportsnet’s Hockey Night In Canada, the Tampa Bay Lightning has extended an offer to Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos that would give the Lightning sniper an average of $8.5 million per season over the course of the next eight years for a total of $68 million.

Wow, that sure came out of left field. You knew the two parties of General Manager Steve Yzerman and Stamkos’ representatives have had some sort of conversation in terms of getting a new long-term extension done. However, the details of this contract could have a huge affect on the rest of the roster as a whole.

In past articles, speculation has been made that Stamkos, a pending unrestricted free agent, could earn as much as $12 million dollar on the open market. Projections had Stamkos earning between $10-11 million over 7-10 years if he were to stay with the Lightning, meaning the Lightning captain would become one of the highest payed players in the NHL .

On January 16th, Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar agreed to an eight-year, $80 million dollar contract that would have the center making $10 million dollars per season. With that deal done, it was thought that the market had now been set for a potential Steven Stamkos contract. With Stamkos being regarded as one of the top scorers in the game, there was no doubt that Stamkos would receive atleast the same amount of money as Kopitar, if not more.

That might not be the case.

With this news of a contract offer to Stamkos’ camp now out, interestingly close to the NHL All-Star break, there are now a whole range of possibilities to explore. Though we are not even certain Stamkos’ camp will even agree to this deal, the possibility of this even happening could open many opportunities for the makeup of the entire roster.

Nikita Kucherov, who currently leads the team in points, is scheduled to be a restricted free agency at the end of this season. There is no doubt that the Lightning forward has earned a substantial raised, more than what was previously thought when the season began. Then you have Vladislav Namestnikov, J.T. Brown, and Cedric Paquette to think about at the end of the season as well. Each have earned a healthy raise themselves and the extra money saved from the potential Stamkos contract could get all of these players signed. Glad to see Andrej Sustr and Ondrej Palat still has another year left on their deals, or the team could be in big trouble.

All of this is speculation, but there is no doubt that if this proposed offer is signed, Steven Stamkos will be the face of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization for many years to come and he may be able to raise a few Stanley Cup’s in the process due to the willingness to take a pay cut in order to make the team better.

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