Lightning GM Julien BriseBois: Steven Stamkos is not getting traded

TAMPA — So many things could happen to the Lightning’s season in the eight weeks before the March 8 trade deadline. But no matter how things play out, general manager Julien BriseBois made clear Tuesday the one thing that won’t:

The Lightning aren’t trading Steven Stamkos.

During his midseason media availability, BriseBois got ahead of any rumors that the Lightning could deal their captain and longtime face of the franchise as he approaches unrestricted free agency this offseason.

“We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to improve our chances of being successful, and this trade deadline is not different,” BriseBois said. “The one thing I would say, just to get it out there, because I know as we get closer to the deadline a popular and interesting and frequent topic is who’s going to get traded, who won’t get traded.

“Steven Stamkos isn’t getting traded. You can all write that. Steven Stamkos is not getting traded, so we can put that one to bed if anyone was speculating on that. That’s not going to change between now and the deadline under any circumstances.”

In September, Stamkos was frustrated the team didn’t engage him in extension talks going into the final season of his eight-year, $68 million contract. BriseBois said at the time the team wouldn’t make Stamkos a new offer until the end of the season. Stamkos has a full no-move clause, so he’d have to agree to any trade.

The Lightning entered Tuesday in the eighth and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference, with four teams within three points of them. They’ve helped themselves over the past month by winning eight of their last 12 games, a span in which they’ve allowed fewer than three goals a game (2.92).

‘Potential to accomplish great things’

BriseBois said that looking at his team’s analytics — specifically expected goals for and goals against — the Lightning should have more points than they do. But he added that over the past month, the Lightning have started to show their capabilities.

“I don’t think we’ve played up to our potential yet, certainly not on a consistent basis,” BriseBois said. “We haven’t been able to put all the pieces together at one time over a sustained period of time. But I believe in these players and I believe in this coaching staff, and I think this group has the potential to accomplish great things this season.

“Most of our games, we’ve had the upper hand for 40, 45, 50 minutes. It’s the 10 to 20 minutes where we would fall flat that have been costing us, and I think in the last month we’ve done a better job of competing for 60 minutes. That’s been the biggest difference. And when we do that, all of our skill, all of our talent, all of our different pieces, that should form a really strong, cohesive group that gets to come together and produce results.”

The Lightning have played well despite losing key players to injury. Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and Haydn Fleury are on long-term injured reserve and BriseBois said they aren’t expected to return before the All-Star break (Feb. 1-4). Forward Tanner Jeannot is also week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

Their absence has meant opportunity for prospects playing in AHL Syracuse as the Lightning have debuted eight rookies this season, including six over the past two months.

“Because of injuries this year, we’ve had more opportunities to call up different players and they’ve all come up and they’ve helped us win games,” BriseBois said. “So all that is trending in the right direction and bodes well for the future of the franchise.”

‘Always about the collective’

BriseBois emphasized that he still sees Stamkos as part of the Lightning’s future beyond this season.

“After the season, we’re going to sit down and we’re going to evaluate where we are as a team and where Steven is,” he said, “and we’ll see how we can make all the parts work together.”

BriseBois has had to say goodbye to players he wanted to keep. Whether it was Blake Coleman or Barclay Goodrow or Ondrej Palat or Alex Killorn, he was hamstrung by cap constraints and watched those players walk.

“My job is to try to build the team that has the greatest odds of winning a Stanley Cup,” he said. “So it’s never (about) one thing, it’s always about the collective.”

But asked if keeping the face of the franchise (Stamkos) factors into the decision-making, BriseBois said flatly: ”It obviously factors in.”

Asked about the long-term future of another cornerstone player, defenseman Victor Hedman (who becomes a free agent after the 2024-25 season), BriseBois said: “At the end of this season, we’ll take stock of where we are as a franchise, and in large part based on the results of this season.”

The Lightning can add an additional $4 million in cap space as the cap grows to $87.5 million, which BriseBois said is critical in trying to keep players like Hedman and Stamkos.

“It would make it very difficult if it wasn’t going up that much,” BriseBois said. “Obviously, we’ve been planning on going up. As we’ve been signing players to contracts the last few years we kind of knew what to expect. We knew what the projections were. So it’s really going to provide us with some flexibility. We have some big contracts that need to be addressed as well this coming year as well as the following year. So we’re going to be using every dollar of that cap space, I expect.”

“Our focus right now is on being successful this season and getting into the playoffs,” BriseBois added.

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