from Scott Cullen of TSN,

Off-Season Game Plan looks at a Lightning club that has lots of talent, but is staring at a major potential departure in free agency.

The Steven Stamkos situation has hung over the Lightning all season, and now that the year is done and Stamkos is on the verge of unrestricted free agency, Tampa Bay has to at least consider the possibility that their premier goal-scorer could be on his way out of town.

Stamkos is a great scorer - his 79 goals over the past two seasons rank second in the league behind Alex Ovechkin - but when he was sidelined late in the year and for most of the playoffs with a blood clot, the Lightning didn't collapse.

That's part of the issue for GM Steve Yzerman: he has a lot of talent on his roster and if Stamkos gets a massive contract, then it becomes difficult (if not impossible) to keep the likes of Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin, all of whom have contracts coming up either this summer or next. These could be considered first-world hockey problems.

So, it's hardly ideal to lose a player of Stamkos' calibre, but that doesn't have to leave the Lightning in a sorry state. They can still be really good if they keep the rest of the band together.

read on