New NHL Trade Rumors on Steven Stamkos, '3-4' Potential Landing Spots for Predators Star at Deadline

Ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline, Nashville Predators veteran forward Steven Stamkos is reportedly drawing interest from multiple teams.

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, three-to-four Eastern Conference teams have reached out to the Predators to inquire about Stamkos in recent days.

LeBrun added that while he does not believe a "firm trade offer" has been made for Stamkos yet, he is on the radar of contending teams.

Stamkos, 36, is in the midst of his second season in Nashville after spending the first 16 seasons of his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft carved out a Hall-of-Fame-caliber career for himself in Tampa, racking up 555 goals and 582 assists for 1,137 points in 1,082 regular-season games for the franchise.

Stamkos was a seven-time All-Star in Tampa, plus he twice won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal scorer, and he won a pair of Stanley Cups with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.

After recording the seventh 40-goal season of his career in 2023-24, Stamkos signed a four-year, $32 million deal with the Preds in free agency.

Nashville was expected to be a force in the Western Conference last season thanks to the arrivals of Stamkos and forward Jonathan Marchessault in free agency, but things did not go according to plan.

Nashville missed the playoffs with 68 points, and Stamkos had his worst season over a full campaign since his rookie year, as he finished with 27 goals and 26 assists for 53 points in 82 games, to go along with a career-worst rating of minus-36.

Things haven't gone much better for the Predators this season, as they are currently five points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Stamkos has enjoyed a bounce-back year, though, as he has already scored 30 goals through 61 games to go along with 17 assists.

Nashville is technically still in the playoff mix, so it isn't a guarantee that the organization will sell off pieces at the deadline, but it did already trade forward Michael McCarron to the Minnesota Wild this week, which could be a sign of things to come.

If a team does trade for Stamkos, it will likely be with an eye toward improving the power play, as Stamkos is tied with Brendan Shanahan for the seventh-most power-play goals in NHL history with 237.

Things are highly competitive in the Eastern Conference this season, as 12 teams have at least 67 points entering play on Thursday. That is significant since 67 points is good enough for the final playoff spot out West.

Very little separates many of the teams in the East, so acquiring a future Hall of Famer with scoring ability and a ton of playoff experience like Stamkos could go a long way toward shifting the balance of power.