Steven Stamkos is the latest forward to be connected to the Vancouver Canucks given their current myriad of injuries. Since debuting during the 2008-2009 season only one player has more goals than Steven Stamkos, NHL all time goals leader Alexander Ovechkin. Stamkos has scored 583 goals in 1177 games since entering the NHL, including seven seasons of at least 40 goals and has a lot of experience playing centre, a position the Canucks are currently desperate to fill.
What led to his departure from Tampa
Stamkos made his debut with the Nashville Predators last season after playing 16 seasons on the Tampa Bay Lightning, but why did the lightning choose to move on from their former Captain, who is also their all time goals and points leader?
In his final season with Tampa, Stamkos put up 81 points, including 40 goals. This seems great on the surface, but 19 of his goals and 40 of his overall points came on the power play and he had by far the worst plus minus of his career at minus 21, which suggests he benefitted greatly from playing on the Lightning’s top power play unit, which also featured Nikita Kucherov who lead the NHL in points that season with 144, with 53 of those points coming on the power play.
Clearly unimpressed with Stamkos’ performance, the Lightning reportedly tried to resign him to an 8-year contract with a lower average annual value per NHL insider Pierre LeBrun, which was too low for Stamkos who instead went to unrestricted free agency and secured a 4-year $32 million dollar deal with the Nashville Predators.
Where is his performance at?
The signing has not worked out well for Nashville. Last season Stamkos put up just 53 points in 82 games with 40% of those points coming on the power play, and his plus minus was by far the worst of his career, an alarming minus 36 which was fifth worst in the NHL. Where it gets worse is on a per 60 minute basis. Stamkos had career worsts in goals per 60 with 1.1, points per 60 with 2.2, and shots per 60 with 7.1.
Furthermore, his takeaway to giveaway ratio was a complete disaster with 18 takeaways to 57 giveaways, a negative trend that actually began during the 2022-2023 season. These numbers would indicate that he is not the same player that he once was, and shows that Tampa moved on from the aging forward at the right time.
Is he a fit for the Canucks?
In terms of immediate team needs, obviously Stamkos is a better option for the Canucks than most of the players they could call up to fill in for their injured forwards. That being said, there is a price to be paid in order to acquire him from Nashville, and Stamkos carries an eight million dollar cap hit for this season and the following two seasons which would force the Canucks to cut cap elsewhere today.
In terms of skillset, outside of being able to occupy the centre position, Stamkos is not what the Canucks need to take a step in the right direction. Vancouver desperately needs a centre who can not only play strong two-way hockey, but also carry the puck and distribute it to their wingers like Jake DeBrusk, Evander Kane and Kiefer Sherwood, who are all willing to get to tough areas in the offensive zone and outwork and out muscle their opponents in order to create scoring chances.
Stamkos has primarily been a trigger man throughout his career playing with Hall of Fame playmakers like Martin St. Louis early in his career, and Nikita Kucherov after that. Right now there are not many redeeming qualities from Stamkos’ game that would suggest a transition to the Canucks would turn everything around for him as his two-way game is seemingly nonexistent and he is likely better suited to play the wing at this stage of his career.