Steven Stamkos
Posted 10:12 AM ET | Comments 0
I keep reading about the hoopla that is sorrounding him and I have to ask myself some important questions. The first one being, is he really as good as the numbers say he is or is he the benefactor of having St. Louis, Lecavalier, and this year Gagne already on his team? Is he really the man on the Tampa Bay roster or is he part of the bigger entity? The Flyers had something similar where they had a lot of good players (not great) spread out over multiple lines and it made it difficult for the other teams to match up with their defenseman. Can Stamkos go to a team and be the guy that gets the top pair every shift of every game? I think he is a very talented player and it is hard to question back to back 90+ point years but I am anyway. From the Flyers perspective, Is he worth JVR, a kid who seems to have just found himself? My answer to that is no but before I get to that. Is Stamkos better than JVR right now? Yes he is. Will JVR be a Stamkos type player? I do not know, if he plays like he did in the playoffs last year than he can give you 40 to 50 goals playing that dirty front of the net style that made John Leclair a cult hero in this town. I do not think he will ever be the playmaker Stamkos is, that type of vision is just something you are born with. So why do I say no to this deal? the most important thing is once again pinning yourself to the cap, no matter how you would work this deal they will be right at cap maximum as they have been and that is just no way to function. The other thing, and this is definitely just me feeling, I am not sure this team is designed to have someone the world wants to call a "Superstar". I do not think their mentality can handle it. Watching them game in and game out, not just this past year but over my 32 years ( I am 38 but do not remember many of the games before that), when they have "that" guy, they tend to stand on the ice and watch him play (Forsberg anyone?). They are best suited to have a bunch of good players and maybe one or two better than good players than they are to have the one superstar but that's just my opinion!!