Steven Stamkos finds fountain of youth for Predators with four-goal game

The Predators signed Stamkos to a four-year contract in free agency prior to the start of the 2024-25 season in the hopes he could bring top-line goal-scoring to a lineup that badly needed it. Throughout the bulk of his career he had been the second-best goal-scorer of his generation, trailing only Alex Ovechkin. He was also coming off a 40-goal season in 2023-24.

There was an element of risk to signing him given that he was going to be 34 years old when the contract began.

But even if he did not score at a 40-goal pace anymore there was still the hope he could be a top-line scorer.

His first season in Nashville saw him score 27 goals, a 13-goal drop from the year before and one of the lowest-totals of his career in a full season.

He opened this season with an even worse start, scoring two goals in his first 15 games and only four goals in his first 22 games. 

Not great. 

But with his four-goal effort on Thursday, he has now scored eight goals in his past eight games.

This is not going to be enough to salvage the Predators season as they are one of the worst teams in the NHL, but it could help boost his trade value if they want to start re-tooling for the future. That might be his biggest value to the Predators right now. As a potential trade chip.