For 16 years, Steven Stamkos walked through the same doors, passed the same people, turned the same corners. The greetings, the interactions, the footsteps became comfortable, familiar, part of the fabric of a life that wrapped around life in the Tampa, Florida area, around the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He got to know them. His family met him.

They became part of it.

When Stamkos returns to Amalie Arena as a visitor for the first time, when he walks through another door and into another locker room, the memories will sting.

This was his life. These were his people. But not anymore.

“That’s probably going to be the hardest part, emotionally, it’s just the relationships that my family has had with everybody,” Stamkos said. “The rink workers, the staff, everyone in the organization, the friends I’ve made through the game. That’s the part that gets you, I guess.”

After spending his entire NHL career with the Lightning since being taken No. 1 overall in the 2008 NHL Draft, Stamkos signed with the Nashville Predators as a free agent on July 1, agreeing to a four-year, 32 million dollars ($8 million). average annual value). On Monday, Stamkos will return to Tampa, playing in the building he called home as a visitor for the first time (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, TVAS) when the Lightning (5-3-0) host the Predators . (3-5-0).

“It’s hard for me to get there mentally or emotionally without being there physically,” Stamkos said earlier in the season. “Someone will bring it up and I’m like, ‘Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of friends and family and stuff going to that game.’ But I think it doesn’t really come together until you’re on your way to the rink and then you start seeing things and seeing people.”

It’s a moment he didn’t really expect to happen.

Until the final minutes, until he signed his name, Stamkos never fully believed this was the end for him with the Lightning. Neither does anyone else.

“It was obviously tough,” said defenseman Victor Hedman, who was named Lightning captain following Stamkos’ exit, replacing the forward. “We kept in touch a lot, but on July 1 when we realized he wasn’t coming back, it was shocking and hard.”

Stamkos had come to define the Lightning in his 16 seasons with them, rising to captaincy in 2014, playing the most games (1,082) in franchise history, also scoring the most goals (555) and points (1,137) and winning the Stanley Cup . Cup twice (2020, 2021).

“One of the best to ever wear a Lightning jersey,” Hedman said in September. “Five hundred goals, 1,000 points, 1,000 games, two Stanley Cups, multiple awards, being the captain for over a decade.

“Everything speaks for itself, but only the person himself will be missed in the locker room, on the road, everywhere. Obviously, it’s going to be very different going into the dressing room and not seeing the number 91.”

Stamkos, who has one goal in eight games with Nashville, returns, likely to a standing ovation, in an arena full of fans who still love him, who know what he meant to them and how much he wanted him back.