Stamkos was heading to unrestricted free agency, and though he did consider other destinations, he ultimately decided to remain with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Ya gotta have fun. We were looking for a unique angle for our 2016 Free Agency Preview, and the idea of multiple Stamkoses (Stamki?) was the winner. But how would we get the class photo? Well, our staffers and interns all put on gear and jerseys and posed, with the heads photoshopped out for Steven Stamkos’ face by then senior designer and now art director Shea Berencsi. The result? Pretty good, if you ask us.
Stamkos was heading to unrestricted free agency, and though he did consider other destinations, he ultimately decided to remain with the Tampa Bay Lightning, re-signing for $68 million over eight years.
Elsewhere in the issue, a mock draft for 2016 had Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine at the top – no surprise – but, as a fun wrinkle, we also included mock trades. For example, Montreal trading up with Edmonton to get Matthew Tkachuk at No. 4, with the Oilers taking Mikhail Sergachev at No. 9. In reality, Edmonton kept the pick and took Jesse Puljujarvi, while Montreal selected Sergachev (eventually trading him to Tampa Bay for Jonathan Drouin).
THN Archives is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archives at THN.com/archives and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com