Rumors have been swirling around sniper Steven Stamkos in recent weeks, and nobody really knows what is going to happen with the All-Star forward. As of today, the dynamic goal-scorer has yet to sign a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning and negotiations appear to be at a standstill behind Stamkos and the organization.

So far this season, the native of Markham, Ontario, has recorded only 22 goals and 20 assists for 42 points in 55 games with the Lightning, numbers that are inferior to his usual production. We all know that Stamkos and head coach Jon Cooper don’t always see eye to eye, which is one of the reasons why Stamkos is not having his best offensive campaign. Add injuries to Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat, as well as the lack of production from Ryan Callahan and the Drouin-gate and you have a season filled with ups and downs.

With several restricted free agents due for a new contract, the Lightning will have a hard time finding enough money to re-sign the former 60-goal scorer to a long-term pact. Forwards Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, J.T. Brown, Cedric Paquette, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Jonathan Marchessault, as well as defenseman Nikita Nesterov all need a new contract for the 2016-17 season.

With only Braydon Coburn and Steven Stamkos as impending UFAs, General Manager Steve Yzerman will be hard pressed to find enough money to re-sign all the above RFAs.

The above situation has led several NHL insiders to speculate where the 26-year-old center could sign in July:

"Stamkos will pick a Canadian team in my opinion, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto… He's not going to Buffalo." – @RealKyper

— Michael Grosso (@RumorBreak) February 14, 2016

We have all heard the Stamkos-to-Toronto rumor because TSN and Sporstnet insiders are all based in Toronto and have a hard-on when it comes to the Maple Leafs even if that franchise has become the laughing stock of the league.

Nick Kypreos on Steven Stamkos FA sweepstakes: "My money is on Montreal" pic.twitter.com/Pg3DjInLw1

— HabsLinks (@HabsLinks) February 14, 2016

While this rumor would make a lot of Habs fans happy, General Manager Marc Bergevin would have to shed a few contracts in order to make Steven Stamkos‘ long-term salary fit under the cap. Bergevin doesn’t have a good history of signing coveted free agents in the summer, and I don’t see him give Stamkos as much money as his childhood friend P.K. Subban, who is currently earning $9 million annually.

Bergevin would have to get rid of a few bad contracts such as David Desharnais, Lars Eller, Alexei Emelin and/or Andrei Markov in order to sign Even Steven. Known as a very passive GM, Bergevin is not aggressive enough to outbid the other teams and win the Stamkos sweepstakes come July!

Still, the best way to land Stamkos this summer would be to get rid of impending UFAs at the deadline, namely Dale Weise, Tom Gilbert and Tomas Fleischmann, and try to find takers for the likes of Eller and Desharnais.

You can see in the above video that Pernell Karl Subban and Steven Stamkos have been friends since childhood and with Carey Price and Subban as the cornerstones of the Canadiens, Stamkos could very well be enticed enough to sign with Montreal and finally play in Canada for the first time of his career.

Imagine Stamkos centering Max Pacioretty on the Habs first line or Stammer playing the point with Subban, giving the team two deadly weapons on the power play!

The Canadiens could adopt the Chicago Blackhawks philosophy of having four or five superstars and completing the roster with talented young players and cheap veterans.

A core of Price, Subban, Stamkos, Pacioretty and Galchenyuk sounds like an interesting proposition if Bergevin is able to surround them well enough to have a competitive team year after year.

We are all allowed to dream right?

Do you think Steven Stamkos will end up in Montreal as an unrestricted free agent in July?

*********************************

Follow me on Twitter at @FredPoulin98.