Lightning captain Steven Stamkos dealing with illness, will not play vs. Kraken

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos will not play on Saturday night against the Seattle Kraken, due to an illness.

This will be the third game Stamkos hasn’t played in this year, having missed back-to-back games in October with a lower-body injury.

Stamkos, 33, has 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points this season. In 26 games, Stamkos is averaging 18:30 of ice time throughout the 2023-24 campaign.

The Tampa Bay captain is in his 16th NHL season, scoring 525 goals, 557 assists and 1082 points through 1029 career games played. Stamkos has twice led the league in goals, taking home the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy in both the 2009-10 and 2011-12 campaigns.

The Lightning are 12-11-5 with 29 points through their first 28 games, ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division, with a minus-eight goal differential. Forward Nikita Kucherov leads the team in scoring with 17 goals and 27 assists for 44 points, while defenseman Victor Hedman, who recently played his 1,000th career regular-season game, has five goals and 22 assists for 27 points in 28 games.

Following Saturday’s game in Seattle, the Lightning will travel to British Columbia to face the Vancouver Canucks next Tuesday, then head east to Alberta to take on both the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames.

The team is coming off their first campaign in four seasons that they did not reach the Stanley Cup Final, having been eliminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs last spring.