Steven Stamkos wonders if Leafs game felt weird for us
Steven Stamkos wasn’t available before the Tampa Bay Lightning’s game at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, so the Toronto media had to wait until after the Bolts’ 5-4 win to watch him dutifully avoid questions about signing with his hometown team as an unrestricted free agent next summer.
“I didn’t feel that weird — did it feel weird to you guys? I don’t think there was any difference once the puck dropped,” he said after the game. “I always like coming to see friends and family. It’s exciting that way. To be honest, it felt like any other game.”
Well, sorta. Stamkos admitted that the round-the-clock media speculation about his contract status and NHL future has been relayed by those aforementioned friends and family.
“You’re aware of it. I have a lot of friends and family here, like I said. You know what’s going on. But by no means is it something I’m letting get to me or get to the guys on the team,” he said.
Is he tired of hearing about his pending free agency?
“It hasn’t been that bad. It’s more of a story for you guys,” he said to the media. “I play in Tampa. It’s not so bad down there.”
Bruce Arthur, the best darn columnist in Canada, had a great take about Stamkos and that he could be another in a long line of prodigal sons that … well, didn’t come home:
If the Leafs get a chance to recruit Stamkos — assuming he makes it to free agency, which isn’t a certainty until it is — they can’t do it with the atmosphere in this building this season, where fans are essentially cheering for laundry and scaffolding. No, the Leafs will need Brendan Shanahan and Mike Babcock to sell the vision, the dream, the aspiration, and a leading role in future glory.
Of course, Toronto has a long history of local-boy superstars who were supposed to come here. Wayne Gretzky, late in his career and afterwards. There were daydreams of John Tavares if he tired of the Islanders, of P.K. Subban if the marriage with the Habs broke apart, of Rick Nash. Sadly, the Leafs weren’t on his trade list.
Will he come home? As Stamkos said on Tuesday night: “Time’s going to tell. It’ll figure itself out.”
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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