bonesmccoy
Banned
The difference is that all those players contribute something to the team other than goals, and don't take nights off. Stamkos has become a huge liability away from the puck, and his effort some nights is extremely questionable. None of those players actually play with Stamkos either except on the PP, which is garbage.
Also your mistake is assuming that Stamkos is somehow still on the same level of a Toews or Kane. He's not. And he wants to be paid the same level as those guys, but hasn't won a damn thing to be deserving of it.
I'm not assuming anything about the guy - the little analysis I did was to compare his tenure/production to this group of guys whom the franchise (apparently) now values more.
But I get Tampa's vibe here. They dropped mega-coin on a guy who completely fell apart as a player as he aged. I can completely understand why a franchise would be eager to avoid a situation like that again.
lol at comparing Johnson, Palat, and Kucherov to fucking Versteeg though.
You misunderstood. I meant it in the sense of keeping secondary players at the expense of a star or 'core' player.