Stamkos Watch 2016

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Where oh where will Steven Stamkos be playing hockey in the fall of 2016? The 26 year old superstar will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st if he and his current club, the Tampa Bay Lightning do not agree to a new deal. Stamkos is coming off a season in which he lead his team in ice team and registered 36 goals and 28 assists. Since entering the NHL in 2008, Stamkos has amassed 312 goals and 250 assists (Stamkos Career Numbers). In 2014, he was named the 10th captain in Lightning history (Stamkos Named Captain). The past two years have been extremely successful for him and his team as they reached the Stanley Cup Final and the Eastern Conference Finals respectively.

While it may make the most sense for Stammer to resign with the Lighting, there are a plethora of teams who are rumored to be interested if he is to become a free agent next month. The main players that I think are the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. While I have not looked at each individual teams' cap situation, I would think that if they had an opportunity to sign one of the league's top players, they would find a way to make it work.

I personally think Stamkos will resign with Tampa. They have a great young team and were just two games away from a Cup victory last season. And besides who would wanna pass up living in Florida and playing the game you love? With Stamkos resigned the Lightning will be a threat to win the Cup for the foreseeable future.

The only other team that makes sense to me is Toronto. Stamkos grew up 30 minutes away from the city and playing for your childhood team would be incredible. Later this month the Leafs will draft Auston Matthews with the number one overall pick. Matthews has been rated by scouts as a potential franchise changing player. If all goes well, he will be the leader of Leafs for the next decade. Stamkos could help mentor the young phenom and together the two could put the club back in the playoffs sooner rather than later

I am not naive to truly believe that there is a great chance that Stamkos could sign with my beloved Philadelphia Flyers. But anything is possible and I can only image a one-two punch of Claude Giroux and Steven Stamkos centering the top two lines. Crazier things have happened so perhaps there is a chance number 91 suites up in the Orange and Black this October.

Who do you think Stamkos will sign with and why?

Stanley Cup Final Update

Malkin Celebrates as he puts the Pens up 2-0.

Photo courtesy of ESPN.com /  Ezra Shaw/Getty Images /

 http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/16006233/nhl-2016-stanley-cup-playoffs-pittsburgh-penguins-san-jose-sharks-stanley-cup-finals-game-4-photos

The Pittsburgh Penguins are one win away from their fourth Stanley Cup championship. On Monday night, the Pens outplayed the Sharks to the tune of 3 - 1. Coming off their first ever Stanley Cup Final victory on Saturday night, San Jose came out flat in the first period. An unlike goal coming off the stick of Pittsburgh's Ian Cole 7 minutes into the game took all the energy Metallica built up with an amazing rendition of the national anthem out of the SAP Center. According to NHL.com, this was Cole's first goal in 105 games (Link to Source).

After the Sharks took a penalty early in the second period, the Penguins quickly made it a 2-0 game. Sidney Crosby won the ensuing faceoff back to Kris Letang who passed it to Phil Kessel. Kessel sent a beautiful back door pass to Evengi Malkin who dunked it in for his first goal in six games. San Jose struggled to get their offense going only posting 4 shots the entire second period.

San Jose finally broke Matt Murray's shutout when Melker Karlsson capitalized on a rebound. Assisting on his goal were Chris Tierney and Brenden Dillon. While the Sharks out shot the Penguins 12 - 7 in the third, they were unable to find the back of the net again. With two minutes to play, Pittsburgh's Eric Fehr put the game out of reach, ripping a shot past Martin Jones' blocker side.

Now the series shifts back to Pittsburgh with Game 5 scheduled for Thursday night at 8 pm. If the Penguins win, this will be the first time in their history that they would hoist the cup in front of their home fans.

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About the Author

My name is Evan Rostron and I am a 22 year old from Horsham, PA. I will be graduating from West Chester University in the fall of 2016 with a degree in Communication. In 2014 I received my Associates Degree in Liberal Arts at Montgomery County Community College. At MCCC I also recieved a Specialty Certificate in Public Relations. My dream is to one day work for a NHL team in their Communication department.

My Love for Hockey

I've always been fond of the sport of hockey. Ever since I was a little kid, hockey has been in my life. I started playing at a young age but, eventually stopped. That is probably one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my young life. I'm always hanging out watching hockey, playing roller hockey, or playing the latest hockey video game on Xbox 360. I honestly could not imagine my life without hockey!

With my love for hockey, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to job shadow, Zack Hill, the Senior Director Of Communications for the Philadelphia Flyers. The job shadow took place April 2011 and I learned many valuable lessons from Zack. I also decided that this is the career field that I want to pursue after high school. Zack works mainly as the middle man between the players and the media. 

I believe this is what I want to do, I honestly could not think of a better job for me to do. Working with the world's best hockey players and being surrounded by the game has always been a dream of mine. I believe I am a fairly social person so hopefully I will be able to adapt to whatever this career throws at me and be able to land a job working for a hockey team.

Purpose of Blog

With this blog I hope to better my skills as a writer. This blog is mainly to talk hockey but I will also post about others sports, music, and thoughts on life. I'm very open minded and hope to express that in my writing.

I've loved writing ever since I was little. I used to write poetry and have always loved writing anything down. In addition I am a bit of a statistics geek and I enjoy looking up players stats and comparing them and what not.

My Statistics

Favorite NHL team - Philadelphia Flyers

Favorite Flyers - Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Ryan White

Favorite West team - Los Angeles Kings

Favorite Non Flyers - Alexander Ovechkin, Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa, Sergei Bobrvosky.

Favorite genres of music - I'll listen to anything but some of my favorite include:

Favorite Rock band - Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Taking Back Sunday
Favorite "Rapper" (he's much more than just a rapper) - Mac Miller

Favorite Country Artist - Eric Church

Favorite food - Tony Luke's Wiz Wit, Chipotle, anything my mama cooks!

I hope you enjoy my postings! Feel free to comment and I will respond ASAP.