Scattered Thoughts on the Eve of Free Agency: Stamkos, Richards and Much More

Can one?s thoughts be anything but scattered at this time of year?

I mean, hell, just look at Jaromir Jagr, who apparently disappeared off the face of the planet just when everyone was expecting him back in Pittsburgh. (How no one aside from myself has implicated the infamous Deven Dark in his apparent abduction to this point is beyond me. I mean, have you heard anything from ?The NHL Guardians? since All-Star Weekend? Well? Have you?)

Aside from that, here?s a look at what else is burning up my remaining brain cells at the moment:

***I suppose I ought to start in my own neck of the woods and right about now, there?s no appropriate topic to kick that off other than what the wittiest members of the Twitterverse have dubbed either #Stamkosteria or #Stammergeddon. That Steven Stamkos has yet to be inked to a new deal by the Tampa Bay Lightning, with restricted free agency, oh, a little over 15 hours away, is neither cause for a panic attack nor a sure sign of the end of the world (chew on that, Mayans pointing to the NHL12 cover). However, with each passing minute (okay, maybe with each passing hour?) the situation becomes a little bit less comfortable, I guess we can say, for everyone involved.

All I can add to whatever you?ve read anyeverywhere else is that I?ve crunched numbers from every angle and no matter what, at this point, I see the Lightning as having to make some significant residual move or another after Stamkos is retained (and I most certainly do believe that, one way or another, that will still be the end result) not so much to fit everyone in under next season?s salary cap but to do so with some flexibility for both the long and the short term.

Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/bose/comments/scattered_thoughts_on_the_eve_of_free_agency/

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