Steven Stamkos Re-Signing Great for Lightning, Terrible for Free-Agency Drama

Man, what a time it's going to be Friday at noon Eastern. What a free-agent frenzy this will be! There's a big fish to catch, more like a whale, and it's going to be the greatest reality show of the summer, with former 60-goal scorer Steven Stamkos—Steven Stamkos!—about to hit the open mark...wait, what's that? Stamkos just re-signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning? 

Oh. OK then. Well, maybe there's a rerun of Seinfeld on then or something. 

Wow, talk about a buzzkill. With one fell swoop of Stamkos' pen on a new contract Wednesday with the Lightning, the excitement promised for Friday went from the dramatic equivalent of Macbeth to Keeping Up with the Kardashians. 

"

Excited to be back for 8 more years @TBLightning ! Here we go .....

— Steven Stamkos (@RealStamkos91) June 29, 2016"

That sobbing you hear from up north is from Canadian sports television executives, not to mention the approximately 4,845 "Insider" hockey rumor blogs that were set to report breathless details of Stamkos' supposed every move after becoming a free man at noon. 

Wait, did our telephoto lens just catch Stamkos making the sign of a Maple Leaf with his finger? What's he holding a lightsaber for? We know he's a Star Wars fan, but...START SAVING FOR THOSE BLUE AND YELLOW NO. 91 JERSEYS NOW, BUFFALO!

Oh, the fantastic copy it would have all made. Instead, Stamkos had to spoil the fun by choosing to remain with the only team he's known, a terrific team that plays in terrific weather in a state with no income tax.

What the heck is wrong with him? 

But seriously, good for Stamkos, and good for the Tampa Bay Lightning. His choice to stay, to forsake more money he could have made elsewhere, reflects well on him. He chose loyalty over being a mercenary. His stock in the locker room, where he was already team captain, just went up appreciably. 

"If this guy took less money to stay with us, then I need to rededicate myself to Tampa Bay Lightning hockey too," more than one Lightning player probably told himself after this. 

Let's not make Stamkos out to be Robin Hood on skates though, either. Yeah, he took less money than he could have made elsewhere, like Toronto or Buffalo or Detroit and maybe a few other places, but he's still getting a whopper of a contract from Tampa Bay. According to the Tampa Bay Times' Joe Smith, the 26-year-old center signed for $68 million over the next eight years. At an $8.5 million annual rate, that's a good raise over the $7.5 million cap hit he had before. 

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Under NHL collective bargaining agreement bylaws, Stamkos could have signed for a maximum of seven years as an unrestricted free agent, with any team, including the Lightning. But by signing an extension before Friday's noon opening bell of the market, he was allowed to sign for eight years with his same team. That's a significant extra chunk of money with that extra year.

Also, Stamkos will pay no income tax on that $68 million to the state of Florida. As Smith pointed out in an analysis of various income-tax scenarios, Stamkos actually guaranteed himself more take-home pay by signing with Tampa Bay than if he'd signed a seven-year, $70 million deal in places such as New York, Toronto or Detroit. 

Per Smith, under prevailing tax laws, Stamkos will take home $36.8 million under the eight-year, $68 million deal as a Florida wage-earner. If he had played for $10 million a year for the next seven seasons in Buffalo or for any other New York team, his net pay in the end would have been $33.6 million. If he'd have signed such a deal with Toronto, his total net pay on the contract would have been $29.7 million.

Would Toronto, Detroit, Buffalo and others have offered more than $10 million a year? Probably, but the difference obviously wasn't great enough to convince Stamkos to leave. Besides, why would a guy want to go from a team where he was already comfortable that's been to the final four of the playoffs the last two years to rebuilding situations elsewhere? 

The Lightning, which also are keeping Jonathan Drouin after that mess from before (can we just make Steve Yzerman retroactively the General Manager of the Year now?) will remain a top Cup contender for years still, probably at least eight more. 

Of course, those are things hockey media people with interests in ratings were hoping Stamkos wouldn't hear too much. They wanted the Stamkos Sweepstakes to be on, and it would have been a ratings winner, no question about it.

But, hey, take heart sports media execs: Jiri Hudler and Mikkel Boedker are still out there.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.