Steven Stamkos has routinely proven that he is one of the most talented forwards of the modern era. Having spent his entire 14-year career so far with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Stamkos made his way onto 2 All-Star teams and even won 2 Maurice Richard Trophies as the leading scorer in the league in both 2010 and 2012.
However, despite his natural talent and ability to score, Stamkos has found himself oft-injured and sometimes ineffective while recovering. In fact, he has only played 5 full seasons in his career, excluding the current season, meaning he has missed time in 9 of his professional seasons. Regardless of injury, Stamkos has provided his personal talents to the Lightning to become a perennial contender, so how many Stanley Cups has Steven Stamkos won?
Steven Stamkos has won 2 Stanley Cups in his career. This should come as no surprise to even casual fans, as the Lightning have won back-to-back Stanley Cups in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Stamkos provided major contributions to these teams and is still a key player for Tamba Bay as they seek to win their third in a row this season.
Stanley Cup Finals 2019-2020: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Dallas Stars
Stamkos, a former first-overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, actually missed a healthy portion of the regular season this year. His injury actually spilled into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, leaving Stamkos to return at the very end of the Cup run. He returned for only one game in the Stanley Cup Finals and incredibly scored a goal in under 3 minutes of ice time. While this may seem underwhelming, it should be noted how hard it would be to miss an extended period of time and come back to score a goal in your first game.
Additionally, Stamkos’ presence as a leader for the Lightning is an intangible factor that cannot be ignored. Not wanting to risk re-injury to Stamkos and feeling as though they had the series in hand, the Lightning benched Stamkos for the rest of the Finals and eventually beat the Stars in 6 games.
Watch: Steven Stamkos scores a goal in his only game of the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals:
Stanley Cup Finals 2020-2021: Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens
After missing over half of the regular season, Stamkos was yet again a question mark going into the playoffs. Fortunately for Tampa, Stamkos found a way to play through the playoffs and played in all 5 Stanley Cup Finals games. The Lightning at this point are filled to the brim with talented skaters, which lessened the burden for Stamkos. Tampa knew they had won the previous year without him, so they came in confident against Montreal, taking the series in 5 games. Stamkos, while playing more of a supplementary role rather than playing the star, still managed to score a power play goal in the series, which was his only goal.
While Stamkos was not an overwhelming presence for the back-to-back Cup runs, his excellence in his career leading up to them had a lot to do with the franchise’s overall success. Additionally, he has maintained his position on the team as the captain since the 2014 season, making him a pivotal leader. This season (2021-2022) has been a trend in the right direction for Stamkos, as he has looked healthy and accumulated 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) through 20 games at the time of writing. When healthy, Stamkos has the potential to lead the league in scoring, and he could possibly lead the Lightning to yet another Cup run should their pieces fall into place.
Jamie is the founder of Hockey Response and he is the chief writer/ lead editor. Jamie has been playing hockey for over 20 years. He was the defenseman of the year in NL and has played Jr A level hockey. Jamie has coached several kids hockey camps and he was the assistant coach of the Western Kings.
