Tampa Bay Lightning legend Steven Stamkos praised NHL superstar Nikita Kucherov, his long-time teammate with the Bolts.
Though they may no longer be teammates, Stamkos still has a lot of love for Kucherov, and he spoke glowingly about him in a recent interview with NHL.com.
Steven Stamkos Offers High Praise for Nikita Kucherov
In the interview, Stamkos spoke highly of Kucherov and explained what makes him so great.
“The crazy thing with ‘Kuch’ is no one really knew about him when he first came over. He was a second-round pick, not a lot of hype or fanfare around him. So, I don’t think we really expected much. He came in and you’re immediately like, ‘OK, this guy has got some skill.’ He played a little bit in the minors, came up, played, didn’t have out-of-this-world numbers, so if you would have asked any of us back then if we thought he would be what he is now, I don’t think anyone would have said yes. But as his confidence grew, his role on the team grew, you just saw a player blossom right in front of your eyes. All of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Wow, Kuch just had 70 points this year.’ And then it was, ‘Wow, Kuch had 85 or 90 points.’ The next year it’s like, ‘Geez, he just had 110 points.’ Now he’s one of the top five, top 10 players in the League and it just all happened organically,” Stamkos said.
“Like I said, there was no huge fanfare with him when he came over, but what you saw on a day-to-day basis back then was a young kid that was eager to learn, eager to be part of the group and just wanted to work on his craft. Then you could see the skill start to come out with the confidence, and you saw the elite hockey IQ and the playmaking that he has. He’s a perfectionist in terms of his craft and wanting to continue to get better every year. It just became an obsession for him. I don’t know exactly when it was that he started pretty much skating every day in the summer but it has to be at least seven or eight years ago now. That’s when we were like, ‘OK, he’s different.’ That’s what made him so great.”
Nikita Kucherov Following in Steven Stamkos’s Footsteps
Kucherov has been in the news the last few days after asking for a trade away from Tampa Bay, the only NHL team he’s ever known during his 14 years in the league.
Stamkos, his former linemate in Tampa Bay, was in a similar situation to Kucherov was in, as he spent 16 seasons with the Lightning before leaving to the Nashville Predators as a free agent.
So, in many ways, Kucherov is once again following in Stamkos’s footsteps, only this time not on the ice, but rather off the ice, as it appears he will soon be following Stamkos out of Tampa Bay after being one of the team’s superstars for well over a decade.
Nikita Kucherov Praised by Lightning Legend Steven Stamkos