Lightning star Steven Stamkos reaches an incredible milestone

Steven Stamkos is a very special NHL player. He is a multiple-time Stanley Cup champion, a captain, and one of the greatest players who ever threw on a sweater. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day, and he deserves to be celebrated.

Some bad injury luck early in his career somewhat took him out of the spotlight, as he missed a lot of games. That didn’t stop him from returning to form and becoming one of the best players of his generation.

On Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks, he reached a milestone that only the best of the best reach. Stamkos scored his 500th career goal off of a nice feed by Alex Killorn. He is the first player in Tampa Bay Lightning history to reach this milestone, scoring them all with them.

Stamkos is the franchise’s all-time leader in goals and points. He is just shy of Martin St. Louis for the franchise lead in assists, but he will certainly break it over the next couple of years. For being a couple of weeks shy of just his 33rd birthday, with all of those games missed, this is very impressive.

Steven Stamkos found a way to take a special night and make it even better.

This was always going to be a special night because of the fact that his 19th goal of the season was so important for him on a personal level. However, he scored two more goals to complete the hat trick and get the Lightning a 5-2 victory over Vancouver.

It is going to go down as one of the most memorable nights of Stamkos’s regular season NHL career. Now, he sits at 502 goals with two Stanley Cups in his pocket with a chance to win one or two more.

With guys like Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Victor Hedman there with him leading the way, anything is possible for this group. Stamkos is a huge part of it as the captain and one of the driving forces offensively.

So where does Steven Stamkos go from here now that he has 500 tucks in the books? Well, he is obviously going to be concerned with the Tampa Bay Lightning’s chances of winning their third Stanley Cup in four years (which would be their fourth straight trip to the Final).

On a personal level, Stamkos will reach his 1000th career game later this season (within the final few games) if he stays healthy for all of them. He also can, as mentioned before, pass St. Louis for the franchise lead in assists, which would be pretty cool to see.

The Lightning made a wonderful choice when they made him the first overall pick all of those years ago. He has lived up to every expectation placed on him when he was in junior and then some. Next on the personal goals list is 600, and you better believe he will get there.