To stay in Tampa, or to go.

This has been the NHL's ongoing topic of discussion this season regarding Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos.

The Lightning's first overall draft pick in 2008 has played all 547 games and tallied all 540 points in a Bolts jersey. It is hard to think of Stamkos wearing anything other a Lightning blue and white, however, sooner or later we may see him sport a different team's colors.

Similarly, in the 2011-12 season New Jersey Devils captain Zach Parise played all of his 502 games and tallied all of his 410 points in a Devils jersey.

Despite an unexpected Stanley Cup Finals run, Parise decided to sign a 13-year, $98 million contract with the Minnesota Wild that summer; his hometown team.

Now let's not get ahead of ourselves now. Just because one superstar returned home to play for his hometown team doesn't necessarily mean Steven Stamkos will too; or does it...?

The Parise Situation

In July of 2011, Zach Parise signed a 1-year, $6 million contract with New Jersey after tearing his right meniscus in the previous season. The short term contract was a fairly clear indicator that he wanted to leave New Jersey on a good note.

"By no means is me signing the 1-year deal saying I'm packing up and leaving," Parise said just prior to the 2011-12 season. "We're gonna keep working on it and we're gonna keep trying to get something long-term."

47 games into the 2011-12 season the Devils sat on the outside looking in on the playoffs with 54 points. Speculations of Parise's departure continued to build at the time, however, a New York Post report shut down rumors, including ex-Devils GM Lou Lamoriello dealing Parise at the trade deadline.

"Sources say inquiring general managers are getting the word Devils GM Lou Lamoriello is not dealing unrestricted free agent-to-be Zach Parise before the NHL's Feb. 27 trade deadline."

Lo and behold, Parise would remain a Devil the rest of the season. He, along with teammates Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, and Adam Henrique, would do the near impossible and lead New Jersey far into the playoffs.

Overshadowed by a surprise Stanley Cup Finals appearance from the sixth-seeded Devils, Lamoriello was determined to strike a deal with his captain, as seen from a June of 2012 Bergen Record piece.

“First of all, he’s a priority; we’ve said that from Day One and he will remain a priority,” Lamoriello said Wednesday after the players gathered for a meeting and end-of-the-season team photo at Prudential Center. “But other than that, I don’t have anything else to add.”

Although it was Lamoriello’s number one priority, contract negotiations were reportedly non-existent, and a deal was never reached between the two parties.

Fast forward to July 1st, 2012 and Zach Parise is now a member of his hometown Minnesota Wild for 13 years with $98 million in his pocket.

Now back to the near present, March of 2014.

Steven Stamkos, fresh off of five months of rehabilitation after right tibia surgery in November, played the remaining 20 games of the 2013-14 season, but was swept by Montréal in the first round of the postseason.

Hungry for more, Stamkos captained his team to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in the 2014-15 season, but ultimately fell to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Looking to end on a better note than the previous season, Stamkos continues to play for Tampa Bay in the final year on his contract, but has made little progress with contract negotiations.

“When we cross that bridge, we'll go over it then,” Stamkos said in a Tampa Bay Times piece. “There's still a lot of time before then. A lot of things can happen. It's probably not something I can give an answer to right now. Still a couple months away. There's a lot of things that can happen before then.”

So far this season, Stamkos sits second in team scoring with 42 points in 55 games and with 27 games left in the regular season, Lightning GM Steve Yzerman plans on not trading Stamkos at the trade deadline; sound familiar?

“As February 29th approaches, I am stating today that Steven Stamkos will not be traded before the NHL’s trade deadline,” Yzerman said in a statement on February 15th. “I have said repeatedly that it is our hope to reach an agreement with Steven on a new contract at some point, and with 27 games remaining in the season, our entire organization, Steven included, wants to focus on making the playoffs.”

The similar contract situations between Parise and Stamkos do not end there.

Both cap spaces of the New Jersey Devils of 2011-12 and Tampa Bay Lightning of 2015-16 are just over $2 million. 

Both teams had/have key defensemen locked up for long periods of time (Volchenkov, Tallinder, Greene/Carle, Garrison, Stralman), but still had/have big paydays ahead for great, young defensemen (Larsson/Hedman).

Both teams had/have just one more season with important forwards (Zajac, Clarkson, Henrique/Johnson, Palat, Boyle).

Based on the Devils path, Tampa Bay will not be able to re-sign the players they need to keep unless their highest paid player (Kovalchuk/Stamkos) leaves.

It is pretty clear that Stamkos is going to walk out of Tampa Bay for a huge contract, unless something drastically changes in the next four months; the question is where will he go?

For starters, there was the ‘liked on Twitter saga’, in which Stamkos liked a tweet titled “Should the Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) pursue Stamkos?”.

Additionally, Stamkos is not only a Toronto hometown boy, but was raised a part of Leafs Nation.

“I’m from around here and grew up cheering for the Leafs, so any time I get a chance to come back here I enjoy it,” Stamkos said in July of 2014. “Any time I get a chance to play against the Leafs it’s fun.”

This isn’t the only evidence of Stamkos’ relationship with Toronto. Prior to being an NHLer, the then 18-year-old Stamkos had this to say in a pre-draft interview with Paul Hendrick of LeafsTV in 2008.

“Growing up in the Toronto area they were definitely my favorite team growing up…from when I can remember I had a Leaf jersey on,” 18-year old Stamkos said. “For a hometown boy like me it’d be a a dream come true to put that Leaf jersey on.”

Just last week, Dion Phaneuf and his monster 7-year, $49 million contract was the third of the terrible Leafs contracts (Kessel 8-years, $64 million and Clarkson 7-year $36.7 million) to be traded for additional cap room.

The evidence is there, or at least enough to speculate. Now it is up to one person to make the final decision.

For Leafs Nation, July 1st couldn’t come any sooner.