I don't know (don't think) this was the case for the general fanbase, but it seemed that many Lightning fans here on HF were lower on Stamkos than I felt he deserved in his last several years with the team
Yeah, I find hockey fans in general are harder on Stamkos than he deserves... It's sort of crazy because he's a definite Hall of Famer
and the team has had great success while he's there
and he's been the team captain. It's like... What more did people expect?
The guy has had seven 40-60 goal seasons for Tampa (would be
nine but for injury / work-stoppage), two Richard trophies, and four top-5 scoring finishes (six times top-10). He's the 2nd best goal scorer of an entire era of NHL history.
Unless you were expecting Stamkos to be Crosby (which no one should have), he's fulfilled all realistic expectations. He also deserves credit because he recovered from his severe leg injury -- he was never quite the same after that, but he adapted his game and continued to put the puck in the net. Which is not easy.
There's also this whole "sucks in playoffs" narrative about Stamkos, which has been way over-stated. He was a little disappointing for a while, but has had some solid runs, too. People need to realize that Kucherov is as good a player as Crosby -- you can't expect Stamkos, post-leg injury, to match Kucherov's production in the playoff runs. Stamkos has had four 16+ point playoffs, and there's probably only a handful or two of guys who've done that, currently. Stamkos's playoff numbers aren't great, but they're not bad either.
This is a long-winded way of saying... I agree.