Steven Stamkos spent one season in Nashville hearing plenty of doubt, and then turned around and erased most of it.
When he arrived with the Predators in 2024 after an 81-point season in Tampa Bay, plenty of people wondered whether the move would end with a drop-off. That suspicion looked justified at first.
In 2024-25, Stamkos played all 82 games for the first time since 2018-19, but he finished with just 27 goals and 53 points. It was his worst statistical season since his rookie year in 2008-09, and by the end of it, the then-35-year-old looked like a player whose NHL clock might be winding down.
Then came 2025-26.
Stamkos answered with a 42-goal season, which tied for the sixth-best mark of his career. His 20.4 shooting percentage was a career high, topping his 2013-13 total of 20.2%. MoneyPuck’s tracking backed up the eye test, showing that his finishing was more steady than the year before and that his goals came from a wider range of spots, especially in front of the net and from the left side rather than only the left side.
That shift says a lot about how he played. Stamkos wasn’t locked into one favorite area anymore.
He moved with the play, planted himself around the crease for tips, quick shots and deflections, and worked within the system instead of forcing the system to work around him. The result was a season that looked a lot more like the Stamkos everyone knows.
A big part of that rebound came from the company he kept. Using MoneyPuck’s advanced lines tool, Stamkos spent just under 60% of the season alongside Luke Evangelista and Ryan O'Reilly.
That trio was Nashville’s most productive offensive line, posting the highest expected goals for at 14.5%. Overall, it was the team’s third-best line by expected goals percentage at .599, behind Wiesblatt-McCarron-Smith and Bunting-Haula-Evangelista.
Those top two lines are no longer intact, though, because two of the three names on each line are now on different teams. That leaves the Stamkos-Evangelista-O'Reilly group in position to be the Predators’ top line heading into next season. Across outlets such as the Daily Faceoff and PuckPedia, the expectation is that the line stays together.
That matters because Nashville can now spread out its scoring. Having a 40-goal scorer who can anchor one line while another dangerous unit works behind it gives the Predators more flexibility, and it also blurs the old idea of Filip Forsberg as the clear-cut No. 1 winger. If anything, it looks more like a 1A and 1B setup now.
The offseason additions could help Stamkos keep rolling, too. Mavrik Bourque brings playmaking skill and shoots right, which gives Nashville another option on Stamkos’ side when Evangelista isn’t available. Bourque can also play center, so if O'Reilly is out - or, as the source notes, presumably traded at some point - he can still feed Stamkos the kind of passes that open up clean shooting lanes.
Ross Colton, another familiar face, is also in the mix. Together, those additions could push Stamkos even further. A 50-goal season may be out of reach, but another 40-goal year is very much on the table.
At 36, Stamkos has already done the one thing his critics were waiting for him not to do: he shut down the regression talk.
In Other News...
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Brady Martin, Cameron Reid, Alex Huang and Jack Ivankovic will wear Canada colors, while Wyatt Cullen, Tommy Bleyl and Jacob Rombach are headed to the U.S. side, giving the Predators a rare seven-player footprint at a major summer event. Martin is one name to watch closely after already getting a taste of pro hockey, and Bleyls rise has been hard to ignore after a standout season in junior. For Nashville, the larger takeaway is less about one showcase and more about how many of these prospects are now pushing toward the next level at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
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For the Blackhawks, the bigger question is what this means for the rest of the roster and how aggressively they plan to keep pushing in that direction. Kanes return is the kind of move that can change the tone around a team, especially one trying to balance development with urgency, and it will be watched closely by anyone trying to read Chicagos long-term intentions. The contract details make the commitment obvious, but the larger picture around how the Blackhawks intend to build from here is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]