by 3 KEYS
1. We continue with Stamkos
The Lightning are entering the first season of the post-Steven Stamkos era. Stamkos, Tampa Bay’s all-time leading scorer with 555 goals and 1,137 points in 1,082 games from 2008 to 2024, signed a four-year, $32 million ($8 million average annual value) contract with the Nashville Predators on July 1. to move from Stamkos, who expressed his dissatisfaction around this time last season that there was no discussion about a new contract. He wanted to stay, but the sides could not agree on a contract and the Lightning instead signed Jake Guentzel, who signed a seven-year, $63 million ($9 million AAV) contract on July 1. Victor Hedman takes over as manager of Lightning. , a role Stamkos has held for the past ten years. It’s a big change for Tampa Bay; Stamkos was the clear leader, scoring 81 points (40 goals, 41 assists) in 79 games last season. There’s a lot that needs to be replaced and the Lightning need to find a way to soften the impact of no longer having Stamkos.
2. Guentzel’s impact
Guentzel is not Stamkos. They score in different ways. But Guentzel should be an impact scorer for the Lightning in the way Stamkos was, albeit in a more balanced way, if possible. Stamkos scored 40 goals last season, 19 of which came on the power play. Tampa Bay hopes Guentzel will make a bigger scoring impact at even strength while continuing to help the power play stay at or near the top of the league. The Lightning were No. 1 in the NHL on the power play last season at 28.6 percent. Guentzel scored 30 goals in 67 games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes last season; 25 were at equal strength. Since 2020/21, Guentzel has scored 129 goals in 277 games, 100 of which have been at even strength. Stamkos scored 133 in 279 matches, 74 of which were at even strength.
3. Kucherov’s encore
What will Nikita Kucherov do now? If he’s the Kucherov of recent seasons, you can pretty much lock in a 100-point season if he’s healthy. But the Lightning will have a new outlook on their power play due to the absence of Stamkos and the inclusion of Guentzel in his place. Kucherov is the catalyst of the power play, so his adjustment will play a huge role in determining the success, or lack thereof, of Tampa Bay’s power play. Kucherov led the league in scoring last season with an NHL career-high 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists). He became the fifth player in League history with 100 assists in a single season. He joins Connor McDavid, who also had 100 assists last season, Wayne Gretzky (11 times), Mario Lemieux (1988-89) and Bobby Orr (1970-71). ). Kucherov has scored at least 100 points four times in the past seven seasons. The three times he did not reach 100 points, he played fewer than 70 games. Kucherov was limited to 68 games in 2019-20 due to COVID, did not play a regular season game in 2020-21 and played 47 games in 2021-22 due to a groin injury.
