Inside Steven Stamkos’ emotional homecoming in Tampa

Greg Wyshynski, ESPNOct 31, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

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TAMPA — Everywhere Steven Stamkos looked, there was another memory.

The Tampa waterfront where he and his teammates celebrated two Stanley Cup championships on jet skis and party boats. The arena ice where he tallied so many of his goals (555) and points (1,137) in 1,082 games, all of them the most in Tampa Bay Lightning history. The long concourse he’d walk down on countless gamedays, past a narrow concrete rink where his son Carter would practice slapshots like his dad’s. The Zamboni entrance where Carter would gleefully obsess over the ice resurfacing machines in his father’s arms.

“Most of my life has been here,” Stamkos said, glancing around a lounge inside Amalie Arena. “This is where it all began as an 18-year-old kid. Where I grew up from a boy to a man to a Stanley Cup champion. Where I became a husband and a father.”

It still felt like home, but now he was a visitor. Stamkos stepped on the ice for warmups on Monday in a No. 91 Nashville Predators jersey: His new team, the one that handed him a four-year free-agent contract after a very public, very contentious negotiation with the Lightning failed to produce a new deal.

After 16 seasons, Steven Stamkos is no longer a member of the Lightning; and for the first time in 16 seasons, the Lightning didn’t have Steven Stamkos as their star on and off the ice.

“Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to be synonymous with each other until the end of time. He did everything we asked of him for many, many years,” coach Jon Cooper said.

That is, until the Lightning asked something of Stamkos that he refused to do: Sign a significantly discounted contract extension to give them salary-cap flexibility.

Despite some potential for bitter feelings at how his Lightning tenure ended, Stamkos returned to a hero’s welcome at Amalie Arena on Monday night. Mike Carlson/Getty Images

Entering the final year of an eight-year, $68 million contract in 2023-24, Stamkos indicated he wanted to extend that deal and finish his career with the Lightning. But at training camp last year, Stamkos told the media he was “disappointed” to not have engaged in meaningful contract talks with GM Julien BriseBois.

At the time, BriseBois said he also wanted Stamkos to retire with the Lightning and that they shared a mutual goal of winning another Stanley Cup. But he said there wouldn’t be a blank check for this star captain when the team had other roster considerations. “In order for us to [contend] in future years, we’re going to need to spend our cap dollars as wisely as possible,” the GM said.

Stamkos had 40 goals — his seventh season with 40-plus tallies — and 81 points in 79 games last season, a strong final argument to keep him around. What he didn’t have was a contract offer to his liking, with multiple reports stating that Tampa Bay had offered just $3 million annually to the 34-year-old star.

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Even after BriseBois traded defenseman Mikhail Sergachev ($8.5 million average annual value) to Utah and forward Tanner Jeannot ($2.665 million AAV) to the Los Angeles Kings in the offseason, their offer to Stamkos didn’t increase ahead of free agency.

“You didn’t really know what’s going on. Stammer wasn’t talking about it. Obviously, the team’s not talking about it,” Lightning forward Nick Paul said. “So we were watching like everyone else and just kind of like, ‘Is it going to happen? Are they going to do it?’ And then things went the way they went.”

BriseBois told Stamkos’ agent they were letting him explore the free-agent market. “We have to see what’s best for the Lightning organization and Steven has to do what’s best for him, his career and his family,” he said.

What was best for the Lightning: Signing free-agent winger Jake Guentzel, four years younger than their captain, to a seven-year, $63 million contract to take Stamkos’ spot on the team’s top line with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.

What Stamkos had to do for him and his family: Inking a four-year deal with the Predators, ending his time with the only NHL team he’d known.

“It’s not for a lack of effort on my side to make things work out in Tampa, but it’s not fair to Nashville for me to sit here and say I really wanted to be in Tampa,” Stamkos told TSN at the time. “Everyone knows I did. It didn’t work out, and I’m just as thrilled to be joining the Nashville Predators, for a multitude of reasons.”

Monday was the awkward, heartfelt and somewhat cathartic reunion between a homegrown superstar going to his former home. It was a chance to celebrate a singular legacy in Tampa sports history. It was a moment for Steven Stamkos to turn the page on his past, as he struggles to forge a new legacy in Nashville.

“Breakups are hard. It’s the soap opera of sports. It’s why we watch it,” Cooper said. “It’s for moments like this. To see how the drama of life is going to unfold.”

AMID THE SEA of No. 91 jerseys mulling around Amalie Arena on Monday was a man in a vintage T-shirt that read “Seen Stamkos?”

That was the team’s marketing campaign leading up to his selection as first overall pick in the 2008 draft. There were shirts and bumper stickers and a lo-fi website that chronicled his accomplishments with the OHL Sarnia Sting and Canada’s junior national team.

The Lightning were in a weird place in 2008. They were four years removed from their first and only Stanley Cup win. They had franchise icons Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis highlighting an otherwise underwhelming roster. Oren Koules, most famous for producing the “Saw” films, and former NHL player Len Barrie purchased the team for what would be a tumultuous ownership run until Jeff Vinik purchased the Lightning in 2010.

After a 46-point rookie season as an 18-year-old center, Stamkos put together three straight 90-point seasons, scoring 51, 45, and 60 goals during that run. Gradually, reinforcements arrived: Defenseman Victor Hedman was the No. 2 overall pick in 2009; star winger Nikita Kucherov was a second-round pick in 2011; goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was taken 19th overall in 2012; and Brayden Point was a third-round pick in 2014. Jon Cooper moved up from the AHL to become head coach in 2013.

“The first time I addressed the team, I remember seeing what I knew was going to be multiple Hall of Famers in that room — including our general manager at the time,” Cooper said, referencing former Lightning architect Steve Yzerman.

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There are many reasons why the Lightning became perhaps the NHL’s greatest “non-traditional market” success story over the last two decades. There was Vinik’s incredible investment in the team and the area surrounding their downtown arena. There was a run of 10 playoff appearances in 11 seasons, including six trips to the conference finals, four trips to the Stanley Cup Final and two Cup wins.

“I know how amazing the fan base is here. To be able to grow up with them, and to see the transition of this whole market into such a hockey-crazed place … it wasn’t always that way,” Stamkos said. “But with the success the organization has had, it’s a pretty, pretty special place.”

Stamkos was the franchise player — the third best goal-scorer of his generation behind Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, and an undeniable draw.

“If people sit here and say, ‘What was the greatest thing about Steven Stamkos?’ it’s like, ‘You know what? You can take his goals and all those things he did on the ice, but he was an unbelievable ambassador for our team and for our league,'” Cooper said. “Those are the things that you just sit there and you marvel about.”

He wasn’t just the face on a billboard or the name on the back of a best-selling jersey. Stamkos was a part of the community. He partnered with Ronald McDonald House Charities of Tampa Bay early in his career, raising funds and awareness for the non-profit organization that supports families with sick children. When he married his wife Sandra, they asked for donations to Ronald McDonald House of Tampa and Canada in lieu of gifts.

On the ice, Stamkos had a quantifiable influence on the Lightning’s success. But behind the scenes, the Tampa Bay captain — taking the C from St. Louis in 2014 — was a leader and a remarkable influence on his teammates.

“He’s always one of the hardest working guys in practice. He sets the example,” said Hedman, who took over as captain when Stamkos left. “He knows when to talk and when to get on guys and get on us as a team. He was just really good at finding ways to push guys’ buttons to increase our chances of winning games. But he’s a genuinely nice guy that makes everyone feel welcome to the team that was new.”

Eventually, Stamkos would take over the captaincy of the Lightning from Martin St. Louis. Scott Audette/NHLI/Getty Images

When the Lightning acquired Paul from Ottawa in 2022, he also saw that side of Stamkos.

“Everything he did, he always did with the person in mind first,” he said. “It was obviously about the team, but it was how he managed the people and how he managed personalities and how he made you feel like he was always there for you first over everything.

“That’s a big deal when you have a captain that cares about everyone in the room, whether you’re a rookie or 10 years in, and you’re going through something, he’s there for you and he knows how to bring everyone together and play at their best.”

Analyst Brian Engblom, who has been a part of Lightning broadcasts since 2015, sees Stamkos as a towering presence in team history.

“I don’t know that there’s been anybody bigger than him. He’s been Mr. Everything here,” Engblom said. “The two Cups. Leadership. Impact in big situations on and off the ice. Personality in the room. He’s as big as it gets here in town.”

That established, Engblom wasn’t surprised to see Stamkos end up playing for a team other than the Lightning.

“I gave up thinking about stuff like that after Gretz got traded,” he said, in reference to the 1988 blockbuster that saw the Edmonton Oilers trade icon Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings. “Gordie Howe left Detroit. Bryan Trottier left the Islanders. And now this.”

THE MEMORIES REMAINED for Steven Stamkos when he walked through the arena on Monday.

Everything else was different. “It’s a little weird going in through the other door,” he said of the visitors’ dressing room.

Engblom, a former NHL goaltender, said it can be disorienting for a player returning to his longtime home on another team.

“You’re on the wrong side of the ice. You’re going down the wrong hallway. Everything is backwards,” he said. “You don’t feel good. You know you’re in a familiar place but it’s like somebody turned it all upside down.”

It’s also disorienting to have friends all of a sudden become foes.

“It’s tough. Not just for the player coming back, but for the players that played with him,” Engblom said. “Victor Hedman and Stammer are blood brothers. It’s a tough game for him to go out and play.”

Victor Hedman and Steven Stamkos went through it all as teammates, forging a bond beyond the ice. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sportsd

Hedman and Stamkos hung out last weekend at Hedman’s house, where Stamkos’ wife Sandra stayed for the game in a guest bedroom. (Their two sons remained back in Nashville for school.)

“We’ve been together for a very long time. We can still get on each other and try to push each other to be better,” Hedman said.

Does Hedman have a healthy text relationship with Stamkos?

“Healthy?” he responded, grinning.

OK, what about a frequent text relationship?

“Yeah, I mean, we are still friends and that’s never gonna change,” he said. “It’s been weird not having him around, but we know we’re just a phone call away or a text away. We’re there for each other whenever it’s needed.”

Stamkos had dinner with a large number of former teammates on Sunday night.

“It’s weird. I have dinner with some of the guys last night and it’s like I never left, right? That’s just the bond that you have. And then you get on the ice, there’s the competitive nature in both sides that comes out, so there’s not much chit-chat. Then you see each other right after the game and it’s like we were just back to last night,” he said. “So that’s the life of an athlete. It’s cliché that there’s no friends on the ice, and you’re obviously not looking to kill anyone out there, but you want to win just as bad as they want to win.”

When Stamkos skated out for warmups, Lightning fans had crowded the lower bowl around the visitors’ tunnel. They cheered him loudly. Many had signs in support of their former captain. Some protested management about not bringing him back, including one woman near the glass who prominently displayed a “My GM Sucks” shirt.

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Stamkos was in the starting lineup for Nashville on Monday night against the Lightning.

“It was weird to see him standing on the blue line, not in our jersey, for the anthem and that opening faceoff,” Cooper said. “But then all of a sudden it turns into a hockey game.”

Early in the game, Stamkos and Hedman skated back to chase a loose puck, awkwardly bumping into each other, neither really looking all that comfortable with their new roles as rivals. There was tension for the first few minutes of the game, as everyone anticipated the tribute video that loomed in the first period.

Around seven minutes into the game, the scoreboard lit up with photos of a young Stamkos in his hockey gear. Lightning fans rose to their feet as the tribute began: a two-minute montage of Stamkos’ journey, filled with highlights, clutch moments, his brotherhood with teammates and relationship with fans.

The electronic scoreboards around the rink lit up with his career stats, awards and accomplishments, along with the slogan “Forever 91” and thank you messages.

“I was thinking about how soft I’ve gone in my elder years. I just started welling up,” Cooper said as he watched the video. “How do you fit 16 years into a two-minute video? It almost doesn’t feel right. It was extremely well done. But in the end, it doesn’t matter how well you do it. You’ll never do it justice.”

At the conclusion of the video, the spotlights hit Stamkos, who skated from the Predators bench — where Nashville players were engrossed by the video tribute — to the middle of the rink, raising his stick to the fans as the arena projected his No. 91 on the ice, as has become tradition when former Lightning stars return to Tampa on new teams.

When play began again, Lightning fans loudly chanted “Ste-ven Stamkos” in honor of their former captain.

“I don’t think it’s goodbye. I think it’s more of a ‘thank you, see you later’ type of thing,” Stamkos said.

Stamkos still has many fans in Tampa — and some who might be switching their allegiance after his departure. Greg Wyshynski, ESPN

Stamkos helped the Predators hit the scoreboard in the second period after the Lightning built a 2-0 lead on goals by Brayden Point and Mitchell Chaffee in the first. The Tampa fans went from booing the announcement of the goal to cheering Stamkos’ name for having helped create it.

The cheers were a little more muted when Stamkos set up the tying goal by Gustav Nyquist just over eight minutes later, although many Lightning fans still cheered loudly when his name was announced. The only boos Stamkos received during the game came in overtime, when the Predators patiently controlled the puck rather than attacking offensively.

Overtime ended on a goal by Paul that was assisted by Guentzel, who matched Stamkos’ output with two assists of his own in the game. It was an emotional night for everyone. That undoubtedly included the player who ostensibly replaced Stamkos, too.

“Whenever a captain goes, it’s a big surprise,” Paul said. “But obviously these are changes that management is making because they think it’s the best thing for us to go and win the Stanley Cup. So we’ve got to trust in that.”

Both Cooper and Hedman said they were confident Guentzel understood the dynamics on Stamkos Night — and was OK with them.

“The one thing that I try to impart to him and everybody else is that is he’s not replacing Stamkos, because Stamkos created his own legacy here and Guentzel’s got seven years to create his own legacy,” Cooper said. “We weren’t necessarily looking for a right-handed shooter on the power play. We got a playmaking lefty winger that brings different attributes to the game. “So yeah, the next seven years are Jake Guentzel nights. Tonight is Steven Stamkos’ night.”

For the next four seasons, it’s Nashville that will witness Steven Stamkos nights, as he tries to forge a new legacy with a new team.

It hasn’t been easy for him or the Predators so far.

THE MOST SURPRISING ASPECT of Stamkos’ move to Nashville? His family has handled it much better than he has.

“I probably thought that the family transition was going to be more difficult than the hockey one, and it’s kind of been the opposite,” he said. “But I’d rather have it that way, where my wife and kids are making the transition and then I can figure it out myself.”

Children are adaptable. Stamkos said the “new normal” for Carter and Chase Stamkos is being part of the Nashville Predators family, despite their Tampa roots.

“The mascot came over to our new place the second day we were there and they flipped pretty quickly,” he said. “It’s funny how that works.”

The transition has been much rockier for Stamkos. His two assists against Tampa Bay tripled his point total on the season after nine games, having gone scoreless in his first four games of the season before a goal against Detroit on Oct. 19. His lack of production came during a rough start for the Predators, who were 3-5-1 in their first nine games — a .389 points percentage that ranked 28th in the NHL — despite heavy preseason hype.

Stamkos did not light the world on fire in the early part of this season. John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images

Stamkos was one of three high-profile free agent signings for GM Barry Trotz. The Predators also added forward Jonathan Marchessault, a Conn Smythe winner for the Vegas Golden Knights, and Brady Skjei, a standout defenseman from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Predators center Ryan O’Reilly was in their skates two years ago when he was the big-ticket free agent signing in Nashville. Although the Predators made the playoffs in his first season, O’Reilly said finding chemistry between the imports and those already on the roster is tricky.

“It’s always a challenge, especially bringing three incredible players that are significant free agents,” he said. “It’s not just plugging them into some small roles. They have huge roles here and it takes time to get used to the system and what we’re doing here.”

That’s been especially true for Skjei, who went from a man-on-man defensive system under Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour to a more zone-oriented structure under Andrew Brunette in Nashville.

“Sometimes you catch yourself like, ‘Oh, we’re not doing man-on-man anymore,'” he said. “I mean, at the start, it’s definitely just a different system and you’ve got little habits from the old system that you’ve got to try to break quickly.”

Marchessault had six points in his first nine games in Nashville, and feels that adjustment time is over.

“New environment, new team, new linemates … there’s a period of adjustment. But we’re 10 games into the season, and it’s time for me to step up,” Marchessault said. “I came here not to change a whole lot. There’s a good base here. I wanted to jump into their boat and help them win.”

Stamkos said he’s putting significant pressure on himself to perform better. That’s something Hedman remembers seeing during their days together in Tampa.

“He was very hard on himself at times as well. Maybe too hard,” the defenseman said. “But he wants to be the best every single night, so he puts a lot of that pressure on himself.”

But more than what’s on the stat sheet, Stamkos is struggling with his second act. He was a 16-year veteran in Tampa, surrounded by close friends and wearing the captain’s C on his chest. Now he’s hit the reset button for all of that.