Lightning captain Steven Stamkos is staying in Tampa Bay.
The 26-year-old Stamkos tweeted Wednesday that he was “excited to be back for 8 more years” and two people familiar with the decision confirmed the move. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press on Wednesday because the Lightning had not announced the decision. Detailed terms weren’t immediately available.
The agreement was reached two days before Stamkos had the opportunity to test free agency, where the two-time NHL scoring champion was expected to command lucrative offers from numerous bidders, including his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins, the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings.
Instead, he chose to stay with the team that made him the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft. Canada’s TSN.com first reported Stamkos’s decision.
The agreement comes as something of a surprise after Stamkos and the Lightning were unable to negotiate a contract extension during the season. The uncertainty led to Stamkos potentially becoming the highest-profile player to hit the free agent market in several years.
His status even loomed over the NHL draft in Buffalo last weekend, where several team executives expressed their interest in making a bid to sign Stamkos. Sabres General Manager Tim Murray was among them, and referred to Stamkos as “the big fish.”
Lightning GM Steve Yzerman remained hopeful that a deal could be reached, saying as recently as Saturday that he had not closed the door on re-signing Stamkos.
The Lightning at least had a slight edge over other teams. Under NHL rules, they were allowed to sign Stamkos to an eight-year contract, while other teams were limited to making seven-year offers.
Stamkos has topped 40 goals four times. He won the NHL’s regular-season scoring title twice, including 2011-12, when he had a career-best 60 goals.
Stamkos is coming off a year in which he had 36 goals and 64 points in 77 games, before being sidelined after having surgery on April 4 to treat a blood clot near his right collarbone. Stamkos did not return until he saw limited ice time in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
The Lightning have a deep and talented roster, which Stamkos helped lead to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. The Lightning lost to the Blackhawks in six games.
Tampa’s lineup already includes 23-year-old forward Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Victor Hedman. There’s also forward Jonathan Drouin, who capped an unsettled season – including a demotion to the minors – by scoring five goals and 17 points in the playoffs.
The New Jersey Devils acquired former No. 1 overall draft pick Taylor Hall from the Edmonton Oilers for defenseman Adam Larsson, the teams announced Wednesday.
The trade gives the goal-starved Devils an exciting young left wing, who was the No. 1 pick overall in 2010.
The Oilers get a solid defenseman who was the No. 4 overall selection in 2011. They also get salary cap space to possibly sign free agent Milan Lucic with Hall’s $6 million annual salary heading to New Jersey.
The Devils, who have missed the playoffs the past four seasons, have not had a top-notch goal scorer Zach Parise was lost to free agency in 2012 and Ilya Kovalchuk retired and returned to Russia the following season.
The 24-year-old Hall spent his entire six-year career with the Oilers, scoring 132 goals and 196 assists in 381 games.
Larsson had three goals and 15 assists, playing in all 82 games on the Devils’ top defensive pairing. The 23-year-old Swede has nine goals and 60 assists in 274 games
It’s at least the second time Oilers General Manager Peter Chiarelli has traded away a No. 1 or No. 2 pick over his 10-year career as an NHL executive. Chiarelli, who spent nine seasons with the Boston Bruins, traded away Tyler Seguin, the No. 2 pick in 2010, to the Dallas Stars in 2013.
The Nashville Predators pulled off a blockbuster move by acquiring P.K. Subban from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Shea Weber, a swap of All-Star defensemen.
Subban won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2013 and had six goals and 45 assists last season before suffering an injury. The offensive-minded, dynamic 27-year-old has 63 goals and 215 assists in 434 career games, all with the Canadiens.
Weber, who turns 31 on Aug. 14, had been with Nashville since the start of his NHL career in 2005. He signed a $110 million, 14-year offer sheet with Philadelphia as a restricted free agent in 2012, but Nashville matched it to keep him. The three-time Norris Trophy finalist was a team captain and had 20 goals and 31 assists last season.
News of all three of these major moves – Stamkos re-signing with the Lightning, the Hall-Larsson trade and the Subban-Weber deal – broke within 23 minutes of each other, between 3:34 and 3:57 p.m. Wednesday.