Nikita Kucherov’s standoff with the Tampa Bay Lightning is reaching a critical point, and a story from former teammate Steven Stamkos may shed light on what’s driving it.
Negotiations between the Lightning and Kucherov’s 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, “It was never about the money.”
Kucherov Believes He’s Among the NHL’s Absolute Best
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’t see him in the same light as Kucherov sees himself — on par with or better than the league’s top stars.
An insulted Kucherov has now made up his mind, and he’ll be leaving at the end of the season if he’s not traded first. His plan? According to Emily Kaplan, Kucherov “has his eyes set on playing with another one of the league’s top superstars and has a few players/teams in mind.”
Where Does MacKinnon Fit Into All Of This?
Figuring out where Nathan MacKinnon fits requires understanding it’s not how most people might think. There’s been no direct link between Kucherov and the Colorado Avalanche, or between the winger and MacKinnon.
That detail is in Stamkos’s comments about how Kucherov thinks. Recalling a late-night celebration after Tampa’s second Stanley Cup, he described a conversation that stuck with him.
“After 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.”
Stamkos added: “It’s just someone that is never satisfied. If you don’t really know Kuch, sometimes that doesn’t come across the best way because we could win a game, he could have two or three points, and it still doesn’t look like he’s happy.”
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.
Kucherov seems to be the kind of player with a chip on his shoulder, and the Lightning just made it bigger.
The Avalanche Never Would Have Treated MacKinnon This Way
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.
Tampa has now done it twice, once with Stamkos and now with Kucherov.
Whatever happens, Stamkos’s story offers a rare look at the mindset behind one of the league’s most intense competitors, and his mindset that he’s in the same company as someone like MacKinnon suggests he’ll be chasing something more than a bigger contract.
Nathan MacKinnon May Be a Hidden Factor in Kucherov’s Tampa Standoff