You may or may not have noticed that we haven’t posted anything in-depth about Steven Stamkos’ departure from Tampa just yet. Honestly, we’re still letting the emotions die down a bit. The man was every bit a legend in this town and if there were to be a Mt. Rushmore of Tampa-area athletes his handsome face would be chiseled up there. At some point we will collect our thoughts and write them down, but not just yet.
As for The Captain, he published his good-bye to his adopted home town via The Players’ Tribune. From “walking up and down Dale Mabry…looking for a place to buy a phone” as a rookie to leaving the bubble to be with his wife during a difficult pregnancy to “Sharing it [the Stanley Cup] with you, Tampa” he talks about his journey as a player over the 16 years he spent in the area.
He mentions the injuries and the painful losses and how Jon Cooper talked about the team needing a little “swagger”. Those he learned from and what he hopes to leave as a legacy are also part of the article.
It’s still weird to think of him ripping one-times in a jersey other than the Lightning’s, but that’s the way these things happen. It’s obvious he still thinks of the area as home, and who knows, after four seasons maybe he makes it back this way for one more season. Nashville already traded one of the Cup heroes back to Tampa, why not a second one down the road somewhere?
Other Hockey News
The player reviews are rolling out as fast as Dave Andreychuk used to skate down the ice, but they’re still rolling. We’re almost done with the ex-players as Matt Dumba was reviewed yesterday [Raw Charge].
The restricted free agents keep signing contracts. Over on the Left Coast, Quinton Byfield signed a five-year deal with an AAV of $6,250,000 [LA Kings]. The 21-year-old started to come into his own last season as he posted 20 goals and 35 assists for the Kings in 80 games. Los Angeles is banking on him only getting better over the next few years.
Even though they picked up their new number one netminder in Linus Ullmark, the Ottawa Senators still need some back-ups and they signed Mads Sogaard to a two-year, two-way (for the first year) deal to compete for the role [Sportsnet]. Ottawa also made a small trade as they picked up Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson from Edmonton for Roby Jarventie and a 2025 fourth-round pick [Edmonton Oilers Twitter].
With Sogaard and Anton Forsberg under contract to back-up Ullmark, the Senators completed a second deal, sending netminder Kevin Mandolese and a 2026 seventh-round pick to Colorado for a 2026 sixth-round pick [Mile High Hockey]. After being drafted in 2018, Mandolese has spent most of his time shuttling between the AHL and ECHL.
Are the Caps rebuilding or are they chasing another playoff spot? After making a bit of a surprise run to the postseason last season, the Washington Capitals have had a busy offseason picking up Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Logan Thompson, Jakob Chychrun, and Matt Roy. Consider it more of a retooling than a true rebuild [Daily FaceOff].
With the impact free agents off the board, teams looking for a drastic makeover will have to go the trade route for the rest of the summer. One of the more intriguing names that has been floated out there is Patrick Laine. New Columbus GM Don Waddell is still hopeful he can pull of a deal for the talented winger [The Score]. They’d have to work out the money, but Waddell’s former team, the Carolina Hurricanes, could be an interesting destination.
