Well, the Lightning offered him 8 years x $3 million and Stamkos declined. So it wasn't exactly the Lightning who moved on from Stamkos as it was Stamkos who moved on from the Lightning.
Unless you're in a camp that believes that the Lightning knew 100% that Stamkos wasn't going to take that offer because it was ''insulting'' and offered it to make him go to free agency.
We don’t actually know what was offered, but that was indeed the rumor and probably accurate. It was also said the offer given to Stamkos wouldn’t change, so it was take it or leave it.
100% the team wanted to move on from him. Every player we wanna keep we re-sign a year out before they hit free agency. Like, everyone. Look at what we did for Hedman, we didn’t do that for Stammer.
JBB put forth this bullshit about needing cost certainty while also saying he’s an essential part of the team. If he’s a player you value, why re-sign the other guys early but not Stamkos? We don’t need cost certainty for them?
I’m not going to say that the $$$ being offered is insulting, but you don’t send a deadline take it or leave it offer to the face of your franchise if you want to keep him, that is what I disliked as a Lightning fan. Everyone knew he was cooked and that the team didn’t want him, but our GM kept saying “naw it’ll be fine we want him back” while self sabotaging his ability to actually sign him. He treated Stamkos and the fans like idiots.
If he said Stamkos would need to take a massive pay cut and a diminished role to stay, I think fans would be more understanding