Leafs: Dealing With the Sting of Steven Stamkos Staying in Tampa
By Chris Mckee
Leafs fans were left with a bitter taste after Steven Stamkos re-signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning, something which we can probably all relate to in other areas of our life.
Many moons ago when I was a younger man, I went on a date with a very attractive woman. She told me she was in the midst of breaking up with her boyfriend of eight years and that I shouldn’t feel concerned by him, because he’d be out of the picture soon enough. It turned out she ended up marrying the boyfriend just a few weeks later and was simply using me to make him jealous and help him realize what he’d be missing out on if she left him. I was out $150 after dinner and a few drinks plus the $40 cab I ended up riding home in……by myself.
The feeling I had after that date is eerily similar to that following the news of Steven Stamkos re-signing with the Tampa Bay Lightening for eight years and $68 million (U.S). Going back as far as 18 months ago, Leafs nation began to hear chatter about how he could end up with the Leafs
The general theory was that once his contract ran out with Tampa in the summer of 2016, the Markham, Ontario native was coming home to play for the team he grew up supporting. In the process, he was possibly going to help save the franchise.
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However, this is something many Toronto-born, GTHL raised hockey players have avoided, in the same manner many of us avoid dancing at the company Christmas party. You tell the woman in HR you’ll dance with her when you hear a song that’s “more up your alley,” but you never end up doing so and escape out the back door while the bunny hop line is forming.
Looking back on the entire Stamkos ordeal and how it all played out, you come to realize the genius of Stamkos’ agent Don Meehan and his orchestration of the entire process. As an agent, you can’t drive up your client’s asking price unless you have a bunny hop line of teams of your own lined up to pursue your player, which will help up the ante in negotiations.
What more of a perfect second fiddle to play off of Tampa than the very deep pockets of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sitting in his Mississauga based office, Meehan was a masterful puppeteer who tugged on the heart strings of Leafs fans.
He gave them false hope of scoring the most attractive free agents in years. Alas, Leafs fans were left with a lonely ride home which was much the same as mine following that date.
The pundits on both major sports networks and the local media teased us for well over a year with the notion of No. 91 donning the blue and white. However, when all was said and done, it appeared that Stamkos never really had any interest in leaving Tampa.
Just look at the financial details of what his contract value means, with no state income tax in Florida compared to Ontario’s 53.53 percent combined federal and provincial tax. Combined this with the lifestyle of living in Florida and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he opted stay put in Tampa, but that doesn’t help take the sting off of his decision to Toronto fans.
The arrival of Auston Matthews to the squad does ease some of the sting of losing the Stamkos sweepstakes. It provides Leafs fans with a glimmer of hope for the future that he, along with the likes of Mitch Marner and William Nylander, can eventually turn around the fortune of this franchise.
However, it doesn’t eliminate the fact the Leafs haven’t been able to attract a big name free-agent in many years. At the same time, It’s also concerning that very few Toronto-born players want to come home and play for the Leafs.
Next: Did Leafs sale pitch scare off Steven Stamkos?
I just hope Leafs nation remembers how this all played out when the same chatter begins in a year or so about how John Tavares is going to come home, after his contract expires with New York in 2018.