Steven Stamkos Re-Signs with Lightning: Latest Contract Details and Reaction

We can officially end all talk of a Steven Stamkos departure. He's staying in Tampa for the foreseeable future. The Lightning and their star center greed to a new contract Wednesday that will keep him from hitting free agency.

Stamkos confirmed the agreement on his Twitter account:

Bob McKenzie of TSN first reported the deal, noting the eight-year agreement carries an average annual value of $8.5 million. 

Stamkos, 26, just played the final season of a five-year, $37.5 million deal he signed in 2011. That deal came at a time when Stamkos was among the league's best young players—a status he still somehow holds now as an eight-year veteran.

Stamkos has been named to three All-Star Games, including this past season. He's been the NHL's top goal scorer twice and has two All-Star team selections. Since debuting, Stamkos has led the Lightning in goals in six of his eight seasons. The lone exceptions were his rookie year and an injury-riddled 2013-14 campaign.

The Lightning have also become perennial contenders in the Eastern Conference, having followed up a Stanley Cup Final berth in 2015 with a Game 7 loss in this year's Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins. 

"The last couple of years you finally begin to see that light. You still haven't got to it, but it's true. It's dangling right in front of us," Stamkos told reporters. "When you start something, you want to finish it. I really hope that can be the case."

Josh Yohe of DKPittsburghSports.com noted what Stamkos' return means for the rest of the Eastern Conference:

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Jan. 23 that Tampa offered Stamkos an eight-year deal with an average annual value of $8.5 million (h/t NHL.com). Six months later, he agreed to those terms.  

As it stands, the two sides found an amenable middle ground. Stamkos can now go forward as the face of the franchise in Tampa, while the Lightning have one of the game's best players locked up. Even if the two parties decide a few years from now they'd rather part ways, Tampa now wields the power and can hold out for a better deal than it would have received by trading him around the deadline.