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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – NOVEMBER 02: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche warms up prior to the game against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on November 02, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Nikita Kucherov\u2019s standoff with the Tampa Bay Lightning is reaching a critical point, and a story from former teammate Steven Stamkos<\/a> may shed light on what\u2019s driving it.<\/p>\n Negotiations between the Lightning and Kucherov\u2019s camp reportedly remain far apart. The 33-year-old becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer and is due for a significant raise. He believes it should place him in the upper tier of NHL players. Given what Stamkos said about Kucherov and the way he thinks, that should come as no surprise, even if Kucherov himself said, \u201cIt was never about the money.\u201d<\/p>\n Kucherov Believes He\u2019s Among the NHL\u2019s Absolute Best<\/p>\n Kucherov is beyond frustrated with Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois. After only two conversations about his contract, BriseBois essentially drew a line in the sand and told Kucherov the free-agency door is open if he feels so inclined to use it. That struck a nerve, basically suggesting the Lightning don\u2019t see him in the same light as Kucherov sees himself \u2014 on par with or better than the league\u2019s top stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n An insulted Kucherov has now made up his mind, and he\u2019ll be leaving at the end of the season if he\u2019s not traded first. His plan? According to Emily Kaplan, Kucherov \u201chas his eyes set on playing with another one of the league\u2019s top superstars and has a few players\/teams in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Where Does MacKinnon Fit Into All Of This?<\/p>\n Figuring out where Nathan MacKinnon fits requires understanding it\u2019s not how most people might think. There\u2019s been no direct link between Kucherov and the Colorado Avalanche, or between the winger and MacKinnon.<\/p>\n That detail is in Stamkos\u2019s comments about how Kucherov thinks. Recalling a late-night celebration after Tampa\u2019s second Stanley Cup, he described a conversation that stuck with him.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter we won the second Cup in Tampa, a bunch of guys came over to my house after, it was like 3 or 4 in the morning, we had the Stanley Cup, and he (Kucherov) was talking about McDavid and MacKinnon, and he thought they were in this like huge tier above him, and he wanted to get into that tier.\u201d<\/p>\n Stamkos added: \u201cIt\u2019s just someone that is never satisfied. If you don\u2019t really know Kuch, sometimes that doesn\u2019t come across the best way because we could win a game, he could have two or three points, and it still doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019s happy.\u201d<\/p>\n If Kucherov measures himself against someone like MacKinnon, it makes sense that he would want to a) get the same percentage of the salary cap MacKinnon got when he signed his new deal and b) potentially play where he can put up the same kind of numbers, if not better ones. Could that be alongside MacKinnon? Maybe. More likely, the Avalanche superstar simply remains a constant motivator.<\/p>\n Kucherov seems to be the kind of player with a chip on his shoulder, and the Lightning just made it bigger.<\/p>\n The Avalanche Never Would Have Treated MacKinnon This Way<\/p>\n Kucherov recently won the 2026 Hart Trophy, with MacKinnon and McDavid finishing alongside him as finalists. He beat both, yet the Lightning seem ready and willing to let him walk away. The idea that Colorado or Edmonton would ever do that with their respective stars sounds absurd.<\/p>\n Tampa has now done it twice, once with Stamkos and now with Kucherov.<\/p>\n Whatever happens, Stamkos\u2019s story offers a rare look at the mindset behind one of the league\u2019s most intense competitors, and his mindset that he\u2019s in the same company as someone like MacKinnon suggests he\u2019ll be chasing something more than a bigger contract.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tJim Parsons<\/a> is an experienced freelance writer, and full-time credentialed journalist covering the Edmonton Oilers. Other content contributions include: NHLtradetalk.com, The Hockey News, The Hockey Writers and now Heavy.com More about Jim Parsons<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – NOVEMBER 02: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche warms up prior to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-446432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}