TAMPA — The banners remain, the heartbeat is gone.
Just like that, the most accomplished era in Tampa Bay sports has ended. Four Eastern Conference titles, two Stanley Cup championships, one Presidents’ Trophy and countless memories walked out the door with Steven Stamkos on Monday.
And now the future seems unrecognizable, and the past feels bittersweet.
In a 48-hour span, the Lightning have been remade, repackaged and, potentially, reinvigorated, but the cost was higher than many fans seemed willing to pay. Stammer in a Nashville jersey? A Supreme Court justice once defined obscenity by saying he knew it when he saw it.
And, no, this is not our first go-around with losing a local legend. Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Warren Sapp were all released by the Bucs. Marty St. Louis and Evan Longoria were traded. And the Lightning have been carefully removing salary cap impediments every offseason since 2020.
The difference is those previous cap moves were made grudgingly. Regretfully. The Lightning couldn’t afford Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. They had no money for Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn. There weren’t enough guaranteed roster spots to protect Yanni Gourde in the expansion draft.
But this move was purposeful. This was strategic. The Lightning cleared salary cap space Saturday, traded for Jake Guentzel on Sunday and called a cab for Stamkos on Monday. This was a conscious choice to let a future Hall of Famer skate away.
Whether you support or assail the strategy, we can all agree on this:
The Lightning had better be right.
Specifically, general manager Julien BriseBois had better hope this works.
It’s one thing to putter around the regular season and lose in the first round of the playoffs when everyone’s bestie is on the roster, but there will be much less tolerance for shortcomings now that Stamkos will be the beneficiary of ovations in some other arena.
“I know the fans are disappointed. I know Steven is disappointed and I’m disappointed,” BriseBois said. “Like everyone, I wanted Stammer to stay in Tampa and finish his career with the Lightning. But like for every player … I felt like there were limits that we could allocate in terms of cap space to him.”
While the logic is sound, I thought the execution was flawed. BriseBois seriously erred by not making it clear weeks ago that his priorities did not include a 34-year-old forward who excels on the power play but had a minus-26 rating in even-strength situations the past two seasons. Going back to February, BriseBois specifically said Stamkos’ stature in the community and on the team would be factors in negotiations.
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Explore all your optionsRelated: Steven Stamkos through the years with the Tampa Bay Lightning
In retrospect, that wasn’t true. This was an unsympathetic decision based strictly on value versus compensation. And the result is that Stamkos — and particularly Tampa Bay fans — were holding out hope for a happy ending that was never really in the cards.
There have been reports that the Lightning offered a longer-term deal, but with an annual salary in the $3 million range. For a player coming off a 40-goal season and with 16 years of loyalty and goodwill in his pocket, that’s a stunningly low number. I think Nashville seriously overpaid with a four-year, $32 million deal, but it certainly justified Stamkos’ reluctance to accept a much smaller contract.
“I knew both sides were going to try to get something done and do something that was mutually beneficial,” Stamkos said. “It just felt like, you know, I was the one that was making a lot of the concessions.”
Criticizing BriseBois for the rollout is not the same thing as saying he made a mistake by letting Stamkos leave. Personally, I agree with the idea that the Lightning needed to get younger, deeper and stronger on defense. The moves of the past month were designed to address every Lightning weakness.
Ryan McDonagh replacing Mikhail Sergachev? Makes the Lightning harder to play against.
Guentzel replacing Stamkos? Makes the Lightning more balanced in 5-on-5 situations, and every general manager in the NHL would agree.
Clearing cap space? Provides more depth among the bottom-six forwards.
Along the way, the Lightning also picked up much-needed draft picks, and newly acquired Conor Geekie immediately becomes their best minor-league prospect.
BriseBois may be taking a savage beating on social media from Lightning fans, but his philosophy was sound. He did not get blinded by emotion, and he did not get frightened by the criticism. He took a huge risk, but it was supported by logic.
Does that matter to Lightning fans in July? Maybe not.
Will it matter to them next April when the postseason begins? It better.
Otherwise, BriseBois may have rewritten his own legacy along with Stamkos.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
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