This article is part of our From the Press Box series.
Steven Stamkos' status as a pending unrestricted free agent has become the story in Tampa, as the Lightning have fallen well short of expectations so far this season. Their star is now goalless in his last 10 games while collecting five assists, a slump that's symptomatic for a Lightning team that's seen its goal-scoring average drop by nearly three-quarters of a goal this year.
There's a lot of noise around the club's centerpiece, as his contract status has become a possible distraction. To begin to understand this dynamic, we need to rewind back to last season's playoffs, in which he was shifted to the wing from his usual center position and saw reduced playing time. Coach Jon Cooper implied that Stamkos had a hand injury, but other reports indicated that Stammer was unhappy with the changes.
Those rumors have persisted through the early part of this season, and any underlying tensions between Cooper and Stamkos may only have gotten worse when news broke in early December that Cooper had signed his own contract extension.
We're left to wonder if this is yet another reason that Stamkos contract talks either have not taken place or have stalled completely. With the trade deadline looming at the end of February, there's continuing speculation that the Lightning might like to trade him, but Stamkoas has the right of refusal thanks to his no-trade clause.
Stamkos is younger than almost any big-name player in recent memory, and that makes him very interesting to the
Steven Stamkos' status as a pending unrestricted free agent has become the story in Tampa, as the Lightning have fallen well short of expectations so far this season. Their star is now goalless in his last 10 games while collecting five assists, a slump that's symptomatic for a Lightning team that's seen its goal-scoring average drop by nearly three-quarters of a goal this year.
There's a lot of noise around the club's centerpiece, as his contract status has become a possible distraction. To begin to understand this dynamic, we need to rewind back to last season's playoffs, in which he was shifted to the wing from his usual center position and saw reduced playing time. Coach Jon Cooper implied that Stamkos had a hand injury, but other reports indicated that Stammer was unhappy with the changes.
Those rumors have persisted through the early part of this season, and any underlying tensions between Cooper and Stamkos may only have gotten worse when news broke in early December that Cooper had signed his own contract extension.
We're left to wonder if this is yet another reason that Stamkos contract talks either have not taken place or have stalled completely. With the trade deadline looming at the end of February, there's continuing speculation that the Lightning might like to trade him, but Stamkoas has the right of refusal thanks to his no-trade clause.
Stamkos is younger than almost any big-name player in recent memory, and that makes him very interesting to the 29 other teams in the league. His track record is extremely impressive, as he's hovering around a point per game for his career; that and his unique circumstances should cause observers to dismiss his relatively low scoring totals this season.
If he were 35 years old and/or injury-plagued, there would be a possible danger of overpaying for a Stamkos past his prime. However, he's only 25 and should have many productive years in store.
The star center has made no secret of his love for his hometown city, Toronto, and one can only imagine his off-ice marketability should he sign with the Maple Leafs. This could be a landmark contract, and he knows it.
After starting slow, Bruins rebound
Reports of an imminent Bruins demise this season have been premature, as Boston's once again a playoff contender in the Eastern Conference.
Last season, an injury to David Krejci broke up the Bruins' dependable 1-2 punch at center and placed too much of a burden on Patrice Bergeron. Not only was Krejci's productivity lost, but Bergeron's scoring and rating took hits as he was forced to play harder minutes against top opposing checkers and defensive pairings. On top of that, Zdeno Chara missed a quarter of the schedule with injuries, exposing a talent-thin blue line that lacked experience.
This season, Krejci and Bergeron are healthy and once again leading the club in scoring with 29 points apiece while remaining among the best two-way centers in the game. Throw in the stalwart play of Chara – who looks rejuvenated thus far, with 17 points and a plus-10 rating while playing his typically heavy workload of 24 minutes per game – and the key pieces are in place.
Torey Krug continues to be important in his role as an offensive-minded defender, having chipped in 17 points of his own. The bigger surprise has been the development of Colin and Kevan Miller. The ability of these two young blueliners to take on regular playing time and each play to a plus-5 rating has brought stability to the Bruins' defensive corps after a rough start.
Up front, the Bruins added some new pieces, but it's the play of a couple of holdovers that has had a most positive impact. Brad Marchand was expected to be less of a factor this year after the club lost some toughness with the departure of Milan Lucic. Instead, the feisty little "ball of hate" has responded with a team-leading 15 goals and a plus-14 rating. Likewise, Loui Eriksson is second in goals (11) and third in points (25), enjoying the most prolific of his three seasons in Beantown.
These developments have insulated some of the new faces in the Bruins' lineup and will wind up being a nice bridge while the likes of Ryan Spooner, David Pastrnak (injured at the moment) and Jimmy Hayes continue to grow their games.
Let's not forget Tuukka Rask in goal. While he was off his game at the start of the season, Rask's back in top form, recording a 6-0-2 record while allowing only 12 goals in his last eight games – the sort of elite numbers we got used to seeing in his golden days.
Top-heavy salary distributions having on-ice impact
The Penguins and Canucks have underachieved through the first part of this season, and they may have great difficulty changing their fortunes because of salary-cap issues.
In Vancouver, the Canucks signed the Sedin twins to extensions that will pay them each $7 million per season through their age-37 campaigns (2017-18). They have the 35-year-old Ryan Miller signed for an annual cap hit of $6 million through next season. In addition, their top defenseman, Alex Edler, has $5 million coming to him in each of the next three seasons. These players are the leadership core of the Canucks and are all still playing at a fairly high, consistent level.
However, Chris Tanev is next up at the pay window, and he's poised to collect a $4.45M annual salary through the 2019-20 season. That deal, signed this March, is not looking like a good value at all, as Tanev's produced only four points through 30 games this year. His contract looks like it will pose a big problem for the Canucks. Having a deal that big on the books will limit the roster flexibility in Vancouver for the foreseeable future.
In the last couple of years, the Canucks have seen their blue-line depth depleted so much that a one-time strength has turned into a glaring weakness. This team had a capable top-four defensive unit in place for the last few years. But consider that the next names after Edler and the struggling Tanev on the depth chart are Ben Hutton (nine points, minus-9) and Matt Bartkowski (seven points, minus-4). Neither of them has looked like a reliable, long-term player.
Thus the Canucks, who have struggled to a rather unimpressive 11-13-8 record, may be one of the surprising casualties in this season's playoff race.
Similarly, the Penguins are nowhere near where a team that boasts names like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel should be. They aren't even among the top-scoring clubs, as Malkin is the only one of the big-three who's scoring at a rate approaching his career norms. That trio combines for an annual salary cap hit of $25 million.
Meanwhile, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and David Perron have also underachieved, combining for 32 points while eating up $12 million more on the cap, which has really hurt this club. This offense was expected to insulate a defense that was lacking depth beyond Kris Letang (who's being paid $7.25 million for the 14 points and minus-14 he's posted thus far, and is now on IR again) and Olli Maatta. Instead, the forwards' lack of production has only exposed the Penguins' defensive deficiencies.
Considering these circumstances, the Pens were forced to deal away Rob Scuderi, a veteran defensive-minded blueliner, in exchange for Trevor Daley, who has more offensive upside, but only produced six assists in 29 games after coming to Chicago in an offseason trade.
When we add in the $5.75 million hit for Marc Andre Fleury, who has been sensational in goal (2.29 GAA, .924 save mark), but is now sidelined by a concussion, the Pens are force to fill out their roster with a number of cheap, unheralded options; that's been the recipe for their current 11th-place ranking in the Eastern Conference.
Oddly, they make have caught a break with the forced retirement of Pascal Dupuis, whose $3.75 million contract won't count against the cap for the rest of this season.
The bottom line is that in the salary-cap era, no club can afford to swing and miss on a big contract; every team needs its highest-paid players to produce, so management has never been more important.
