Stamkos Signs on the Dotted Line

Technically, the biggest free agent this Summer, albeit a restricted free agent, has now come to terms, as Steven Stamkos has now officially signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, putting pen to paper on a new 5-year deal, said to be worth $37.5 million.  This means that Stamkos will have a cap hit of $7.5 million per season for the Lightning, a very respectable cap hit for a potential 50-goal scorer every season, 2nd on the team to Vincent Lecavalier, who signed his monster deal in 2008.

There is no real doubt that Stamkos has the potential for 50 goals, having already done it once in 2010, so flashes of his potential have already been seen.  Stamkos now belongs in the argument for being taken 1st overall in any hockey pool draft, along with the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and the Sedin twins.

In 2011, Stamkos finished 7th overall in pool scoring, 5th among all forwards, 2nd on the Lightning, with 91 points (45 goals and 46 assists) in all 82 games, which was somewhat down from his 2010 numbers, but still mightily impressive.  A slight hiccup in his overall production really cost Stamkos a scoring title in 2011, both the Art Ross and the Rocket Richard, but you would have to believe that he will be back in the mix in 2012.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Martin St. Louis	Brett Clark	Dwayne Roloson
Steven Stamkos	Victor Hedman	Mathieu Garon
Vincent Lecavalier	Pavel Kubina
Ryan Malone	Eric Brewer
Dominic Moore	Matt Gilroy
Steve Downie	Marc-Andre Bergeron
Ryan Shannon	Bruno Gervais
Nate Thompson	Mattias Ohlund
Adam Hall
Dana Tyrell
Tom Pyatt

The addition of Stamkos nearly rounds out the team table for the Lightning, who have done a good bit of re-toolling in this off-season, looking to improve upon their run in 2011. With 11 forwards, eight defensemen, two goalies and two buyouts on the books, their current projected cap number now stands at $57 million, giving them $7.3 million left to spend on a couple of forwards, if needed.  The Lightning are setting up well for a good run, both on paper and on the budget.