this surely has been a touchy subject. Here is how i see it. I am not even a tampa fan too btw. We all thought he would play his entire career with one team that team being the bolts and even people like jon cooper said he should and guys around the league like mcdavid as well. Ofc stammer himself wanted to as well and was willing to take quite the discount to do so (until he understandably was too tempted by nashville's offer) after lightning management didn't make enough of an effort themselves. I mean this is a guy who basically single handedly resurrected the lightning in their darkest time and made them into the world class organization since 2008 and captained them into a dynasty like timespan of dominance between 2015-2022. He was right up there with guys like ovi and crosby as the alpha dog of their generational and while he might not be as dominant individually as he was in the 2010s he is still going pretty strong today. Ofc he's one of the most gifted goal scorers ever but he's also one of the best captains ever and he has made so many players around him better as they built around him as the years went on. He also gave every fiber of his being not jsut too the team but the city of tampa. Back to on ice performance even after a couple significant injuries like the broken leg or busted knee he somehow managed to pick up where he left off when most people who are in those positions aren't ever the same again. While I was really hopeful he'd stay in tampa given that they will likely never see a player of his caliber again, i understand if the lightning front office felt differently I just wish they had made a better effort at communicating that to him rather than give one offer than make no further effort whatsoever knowing he'd hesitate at accepting it. Either throw more offers out there like 3 yrs for $4 million, 4 years $4-4.5 million or something like that since he was willing to take a big pay cut and ofc the term not being too long or short or simply say we gotta prioritize the teams long term potential. I am sure he would've been very appreciative to hear either the effort being put in if it meant throwing more offers out or the transparency if they want to go in a different direction. Sorry for long rant lol just a lot to reflect on.
this surely has been a touchy subject. Here is how i see it. I am not even a tampa fan too btw. We all thought he would play his entire career with one team that team being the bolts and even people like jon cooper said he should and guys around the league like mcdavid as well. Ofc stammer himself wanted to as well and was willing to take quite the discount to do so (until he understandably was too tempted by nashville's offer) after lightning management didn't make enough of an effort themselves. I mean this is a guy who basically single handedly resurrected the lightning in their darkest time and made them into the world class organization since 2008 and captained them into a dynasty like timespan of dominance between 2015-2022. He was right up there with guys like ovi and crosby as the alpha dog of their generational and while he might not be as dominant individually as he was in the 2010s he is still going pretty strong today. Ofc he's one of the most gifted goal scorers ever but he's also one of the best captains ever and he has made so many players around him better as they built around him as the years went on. He also gave every fiber of his being not jsut too the team but the city of tampa. Back to on ice performance even after a couple significant injuries like the broken leg or busted knee he somehow managed to pick up where he left off when most people who are in those positions aren't ever the same again. While I was really hopeful he'd stay in tampa given that they will likely never see a player of his caliber again, i understand if the lightning front office felt differently I just wish they had made a better effort at communicating that to him rather than give one offer than make no further effort whatsoever knowing he'd hesitate at accepting it. Either throw more offers out there like 3 yrs for $4 million, 4 years $4-4.5 million or something like that since he was willing to take a big pay cut and ofc the term not being too long or short or simply say we gotta prioritize the teams long term potential. I am sure he would've been very appreciative to hear either the effort being put in if it meant throwing more offers out or the transparency if they want to go in a different direction. Sorry for long rant lol just a lot to reflect on.