The notion of the Tampa Bay Lightning trading do-it-all captain Steven Stamkos, especially only a few short months after Stamkos helped lead the team to the Stanley Cup Finals, is beyond farfetched. Stamkos remains one of the best players in the league, even after suffering a devastating broken league during the 2013-14 season. He bounced back this past season, potting 43 goals and adding 29 assists during the regular season and netting seven more markers and 11 more helpers during the Bolts run through the NHL playoffs. Still, Stamkos is set to enter the final year of his contract during the upcoming season and reports and rumors have continued to swirl that the unthinkable really may be possible, that the Lightning really are considering trading the former first-overall pick of the 2008 NHL Draft.
In fact, it seems that Stamkos trade talks with at least one team, the Buffalo Sabres, were solid enough as to make their way to Sportsnet.ca's NHL insider, Elliotte Friedman. Friedman, appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960 on Tuesday, as transcribed by Chris Nichols of Today's Slap Shot, revealed that sources had indicated to him that "there were definitely some talks" between the Sabres and Lightning in regards to a Stamkos trade and that there were "varying degrees of belief" as to how close the proposed trade was to consummation.
For the Sabres and GM Tim Murray, a move like this would be right in line with their operating procedure over the past several months. After trading for Evander Kane and drafting Jack Eichel, Murray went out and added Ryan O'Reilly, essentially signaling to the rest of the league that the Sabres are no longer interested in being the NHL's punch line - though that right is probably reserved for the Oilers, anyway.
For the Lightning, it would be hard to see a deal actually happening just because of what Stamkos has meant and continues to mean for their overall success. He didn't fill the stat sheet during the playoffs but he has shown a versatility and a willingness to do all the important little things, perform in whatever position is necessary, for Tampa Bay to win. That being said, the Lightning and GM Steve Yzerman have likely paid ample attention to Chicago, where the Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane deals are said to be "killing" the franchise and have already forced Hawks GM Stan Bowman's hand on several occasions this offseason. They're likely also keeping an eye on Los Angeles, where the Kings are trying to hammer out their own long-term deal for No. 1 center Anze Kopitar and are said to be "a good couple million per season" apart in talks.
Stamkos indicated to Yahoo Sports recently that his next contract, with the Lightning or another team, may not be "all about the money," though of course he's likely looking to top the matching eight-year, $84 million deals the Hawks gave Kane and Toews. A deal like that will undoubtedly handcuff Yzerman in certain instances and will dictate a lot of personnel decision for the teams going forward. There's no doubting that the 25-year-old Stamkos is worth it, but in this day and age of deep rosters and secondary scoring, do you really want to commit so much of your cap space to one player?
In the end, as Friedman notes, a lot of the talks between the Sabres and the Lightning could have simply revolved around curiosity over Stamkos' future. It's quite possible Yzerman told Murray, "hell no," and that was that. But there were talks. Of that Friedman is certain.
"But there are other cases - and one of the teams I mentioned in the piece is Buffalo because I think obviously Tim Murray is a guy, he was very aggressive last year," said Friedman. "He got Evander Kane. He got Ryan O'Reilly, who was heading into the last year of his deal.
"I think that there are some people who believe that the talks with Buffalo went far - I don't know if far is the right word, but they went somewhere."
