The much-anticipated Steven Stamkos sweepstakes was over before it began.
Rather than enter the NHL’s free agency period as perhaps the most highly sought-after UFA in league history, Stamkos opted to bypass the circus, reaching an agreement Wednesday on an eight-year, $68 million contract extension with his current team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The deal, which was first reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie and later confirmed by Stamkos, represents a huge win for the Lightning, who are strapped for salary cap space, and a telling gesture by the player, whom many predicted could have fetched north of $10 million per year on the open market.
If the reported details of his new contract are accurate, the 26-year-old center’s cap hit this season will be $8.5 million, tied with New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist for the ninth-highest in the NHL and just a modest raise from the $7.5 million Stamkos earned in the final season of his previous deal.
Among forwards, he’s set to make less this season than Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Anze Kopitar, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry.
In taking that hometown discount, Stamkos showed contending for a Stanley Cup is more important to him than being one of the highest-paid players at his position.
While he easlily would have been able to land a more lucrative payday elsewhere, none of his reported suitors (Detroit, Buffalo, Toronto, Boston, Montreal, Vancouver, etc.) are closer to Cup contention than the Lightning are. Tampa Bay reached the Cup Final in 2015, then breezed through the first two rounds of the 2016 playoffs before falling to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
With the core of their roster set to return in 2016-17 — key restricted free agents Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov were tendered qualifying offers earlier this week, and Jonathan Drouin should only improve after a strong playoff run — the Lightning once again will enter the season as a favorite in the watered-down East.
If Stamkos, who has more goals since 2008-09 than anyone not named Ovechkin, has “win a Stanley Cup” penciled in as his No. 1 goal, then staying put was the best thing he could have done.
Thumbnail photo via Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports Images
