Real Discussions between Steven Stamkos and Lightning to Begin Next Month

Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Carter Hutton on the Sirius XM NHL Network Power Play Segment when asked about Steven Stamkos and when discussions will start with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Steve Kouleas: “Dave Pagnotta Sirius XM Insider. Now we’re in the middle of May. We have long weekends, then we get to June, and silly season, I guess, officially starts and heats up on June the first. Quiet in certain places.

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That doesn’t mean a Steve Stamkos can’t be re-signed and certain players pending UFAs don’t let out the little chatter about where they might end up in the future. What’s your gut say about Steve Stamkos? And when the year ended, they basically said they haven’t talked. When are they going to talk?”

Dave Pagnotta: “I think the time is now. Certainly time to get things going and have a proper discussion and same similar circumstances here from a coaching side of things. You want to map out your game plan. And where does everybody fall? We’re does Stamkos fall within the long-term plan of the Tampa Bay Lightning, not just, you know, obviously the next couple of seasons? Where does he fit financially?

Where does Victor Hedman fit financially with that, with that club as well? He’s got another year left on his contract and he’s somebody that Julien BriseBois wants to address to have a proper understanding of what the future would look like for him in Tampa financially.

So obviously a few different balls in the air but from Steven Stamkos perspective, now there were discussions, loose discussions with the team in his camp, but now it’s time to get to a more serious state and I think that will pick up in the not too distant future to at least get everybody going.

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Okay, first of all, let’s all decompress after what they felt was a was a shortened season for them. And let’s all come back to the table and get a good understanding of where everybody’s at. Where the dollars make sense. And how do we meet in a happy place? And I think Tampa would like to have a pretty good idea on that in and around the beginning of June.

Like you said, that’s kind of when things start to pick up for the rest of the team. You get to a point where you’re less than a month from the draft, the trade discussions, start to pick up. The inquiries, the calls, all of that stuff really intensifies around that time. So from Tampa’s perspective, you want to get a good feel as to where you are with your captain at that point.”