Our next player preview here on Predlines is forward Steven Stamkos. Stamkos found himself as Nashville's number one centerman for the majority of the season; will that change this season?
Steven Stamkos' Stats Last Season
Nashville Predators: 82 games, 27 goals, 26 assists
Stamkos Will Need to Feed into the Hype He Once Had Entering Smashville
The Nashville Predators signing Stamkos to a 4-year, $32 million contract was the most entertaining move made in day one of the 2024 NHL Free Agency. As someone who's grown up in the greater Tampa Bay area, Stamkos was one of the players I watched the most and quickly became a favorite of mine. Hearing that Nashville did the unthinkable, it was almost a dream come true.
As the 2024-25 season began, that dream began to fade away game by game. We all know how the team ended in the standings by April 17th this year. However, a rough shakeup of the roster is set to potentially pump air back into Nashville's tires as the 2025-26 season begins.
Stamkos should hopefully see a boost in his overall performance after experiencing a near 30-point drop-off from his last season with the Lightning. His 53 points were the third most for Nashville. He also scored the second most goals in the 2024-25 season with 27 with a shooting percentage of around 15.5%.
While at first glance it may seem Stamkos had an extremely disappointing season offensively, when looking a bit deeper, you'd see that things stayed relatively the same. Stammer typically records more goals than expected and he did it with Nashville yet again. Per Moneypuck, he had an xG of 22.7 and he ended up scoring 27.
He also started 24.2% of his shifts in the offensive zone which is the 5th highest in his 17-year career. Stamkos was given more opportunities to land the puck into the net as shown by not only his stats but his line placement.
He was slotted on the left side on the first power play line which is basically his second home. His 14 goals on the PP this season is about average for Stamkos' standards. An average season sees him record around 13.4 PP goals, so his performance here is nothing out of the ordinary.
Defensively is Where Stamkos Needs to Improve the Most
Stamkos isn't the most two-way guy on Nashville. On offense, Stammer is a beast but defensively, oh boy, that's a different story. A stat that made many fans nervous was his plus/minus he recorded the year before joining the Predators. In his final season with Tampa Bay, He had a -21 on the same team that had Viktor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy, ouch.
For the first time in his career, he posted two straight seasons with a negative +/-, with last season coming in at a career low -36. Despite only starting 5.4% of his shifts in the defensive zone, he still found a way to record something on there.
Not all the team's failures should be blamed on Stamkos, however. The crazy introduction of multiple core pieces basically screwed up Nashville's prior rhythm and put them on a wrong note for the majority of the year. With the team hopefully in equilibrium and better defensively with Nicolas Hague and Nick Perbix, Stamkos and the team's blueline game should get better.
If Stamkos does want to bring the team back to contention, he most became more aware of his surroundings. Learning from someone like former Selke-winning centerman Ryan O'Reilly might be the best thing to do.
Realistically, Stamkos Should Return to the Wing
Stamkos isn't the greatest center and while his primary position it marked as center by Puckpedia, that doesn't mean he should play it necessarily. Tell me, would you want someone like Alex Ovechkin playing center minutes when he's clearly shown his greatest at the wing, no. This is the same logic that should apply to Stammer.
Moneypuck's shot map shows that he scored the most goals when he is on the left wing. His one-timers are what he's most notorious for. He is in the 89th percentile for average shot speed (MPH). The league average stands at around 57 MPH and Stamkos is ahead of that with 63 MPH. He's a volume shooter and is extremely effective at his craft. If given the proper environment, he'll surely thrive.
In the end, shoving Stamkos on the wing makes the most sense not only for himself but for his teammates. O'Reilly is arguably one of the best veteran centerman in the league with his elite faceoff taking abilities. Respectively, O'Reilly should be Nashville's top line center.
Additionally, General Manager Bary Trotz has made it his goal to give Fedor Svechkov top six center minutes. If Stamkos were to move to the wing on the second line—making sure he is both on the left side and not taking away a spot from Filip Forsberg on the first line—Svech would perfectly slot in.
Stamkos is a leader at heart and it's likely that he'll gladly go down a line to allow his younger teammates get the same opportunities he got when he was their age.