Steven Stamkos
Steven Stamkos
Steven Stamkos
Steven Stamkos
Steven Stamkos
Steven Stamkos Biography
Steven Stamkos is a Canadian hockey player who was born on February 7th 1990 in Ontario. He played junior hockey in the OHL for the Sarnia Sting. In his first season with the Sting, Stamkos scored 42 goals and added 50 assists for an impressive 92 points in only 63 games as a rookie.
Stamkos pulled even better numbers in his second season in Sarnia, finishing second in the OHL for goals with 58 in 61 games (almost 1 goal per game) and adding 47 assists for 105 points. He also added a Gold medal to his collection by helping Canada win their 14th gold medal in IIHF World Under 20 Championships.
For over a year, Stamkos was the number one prospect in the country, so it was no surprise when the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning made him the 2008 NHL entry Draft first overall pick in Ottawa on June 20th 2008.
Armed with his accurate shot and his natural goal scoring abilities, Steven Stamkos was expected to start his NHL career as early as the 2008-2009 season with Tampa.
And he did. Stamkos played his first NHL game for Tampa Bay in the 2008-09 NHL season. Stamkos recorded 46 points in 79 games, 23 goals and 23 assists. While 46 points is more than acceptable for a rookie, Stamkos was somewhat criticized by some for his lack of points. A small controversy arose, when, about a month after being fired on November 14 2008, Barry Melrose stated in an interview that Stamkos was not ready for the NHL, and that although he’d one day make a good hockey player, he wasn’t strong enough to compete at the moment. That said, Stamkos enjoyed less than 10 minutes of ice time per game for a good part of the year. Still, he finished the 08-09 season with 19 points in his 20 last games. After this rookie season, it was now a question of seeing how Stamkos would react to the mounting pressure for a young 1st round draft pick.
The 2009-2010 season turned out to be the break out season for Steven Stamkos. He finished the season with an impressive 95 points in 82 games, 1 more than line-mate Martin St-Louis’ 94 points to be Tampa Bay’s leading scorer. His 51 goals and 44 assists made him the 5th NHL leading scorer for the season. Stamkos’ 51 goals tied Crosby for the year, and both shared the Maurice Richard trophy. Stamkos, Crosby and Ovechkin (with 50 goals) were the only players to break the 50 goals barrier that season.
Steven Stamkos’ great form in the 2009-2010 has created a lot of expectation from him for the 2010-2011 NHL season, which has started very well for him so far. After one month of play, Stamkos is the leading scorer in the NHL.
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