3 KEYS

1. We continue with Stamkos

The Lightning are entering the first season of the post-Steven Stamkos era. Stamkos, Tampa Bay’s all-time leading scorer with 555 goals and 1,137 points in 1,082 games from 2008 to 2024, signed a four-year, $32 million ($8 million average annual value) contract with the Nashville Predators on July 1. The Lightning made the move to move on from Stamkos, who at this point last season expressed displeasure that there were no talks of a new contract. He wanted to stay, but the two sides couldn’t agree on a contract and the Lightning instead signed forward Jake Guentzel, who signed a seven-year, $63 million ($9 million AAV) deal on July 1. Victor Hedman takes over as Lightning captain, a role Stamkos has held for the past 10 years. It’s a big change for Tampa Bay; Stamkos was the clear leader, scoring 81 points (40 goals, 41 assists) in 79 games last season. There’s a lot to replace and the Lightning need to find a way to mitigate the impact of waiving Stamkos.

2. Guentzel’s impact

Guentzel is not Stamkos. They score points in different ways. But Guentzel needs to be an effective scorer for the Lightning, like Stamkos was, albeit more balanced if possible. Stamkos scored 40 goals last season, including 19 on the power play. Tampa Bay is hoping that Guentzel can make a bigger impact in scoring at even strength while also helping keep the power play at or near the top of the league. The Lightning were No. 1 in the NHL on the power play last season at 28.6 percent. Guentzel scored 30 goals in 67 games between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes last season; 25 were of equal strength. Since 2020/21, Güntzel has scored 129 goals in 277 games, 100 of which were at even strength. Stamkos has scored 133 goals in 279 games, including 74 at even strength.

3. Kucherov’s Encore

What will Nikita Kucherov do next? If he’s the Kucherov from previous seasons, you can pretty much have a 100-point season when he’s healthy. But the Lightning will see their power play in a new light due to the absence of Stamkos and the inclusion of Guentzel. Kucherov is the catalyst of the power play, so his adjustment will play a big role in whether Tampa Bay’s power play is successful or not. Kucherov led the league with an NHL career-high 144 points (44 goals, 100 assists) last season. He became the fifth player in league history to record 100 assists in a single season, joining Connor McDavid, who also had 100 assists last season, Wayne Gretzky (11 times), Mario Lemieux (1988–89) and Bobby Orr ( 1970–71). ). Kucherov has scored at least 100 points four times in the last seven seasons. The three times he didn’t reach 100 points, he played fewer than 70 games. Due to COVID, Kucherov was limited to 68 games in the 2019-20 season, he did not play a regular season game in the 2020-21 season, and he played 47 games in the 2021-22 season due to a groin injury.