NHL Odds, Props: When will Steven Stamkos hit 500 goals?

Approaching the midpoint of his 15th NHL season, Steven Stamkos is already a two-time Stanley Cup champion, a former 60-goal scorer and Rocket Richard Trophy winner and a perennial All-Star.  The 32-year-old is about to reach another major milestone as he sits just two goals short of reaching 500 for his career, a number less than 50 players in NHL history have managed to hit.  There’s no doubt Stammer will hit the mark, so the only question left is which game he’ll do it in?

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Milestone Moment

This is a milestone season for Stamkos.  In early December, he became the first player in Tampa Bay Lightning history to reach 1,000 career points wearing a Bolts jersey and his 19th goal this season (sitting at 17 goals as of Tuesday morning) will be the 500th of his career.  Stamkos will join Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin as the only active players with 500 career regular-season NHL goals.

Tampa Bay is next in action at home against Columbus on Tuesday, followed by another home date versus Vancouver on Thursday.  Stamkos already has three multi-goal games this season, so it’s very plausible to think he could hit the 500-goal plateau this week.  The main issue at this point is Stamkos is mired in a bit of a scoring slump.  He’s second on the Lightning in goals this season, but he hasn’t scored in three straight games and he’s only found the back of the net once in his past 10 games.

Will Stammer Strike Soon?

Currently, Stamkos is favoured to hit 500 goals next week on the road against Edmonton (+354).  That would be six games away.  The biggest long shot is Stamkos not reaching the mark until Feb. 9 against Colorado (+2500), a span of 13 games.  It’s worth noting that he’s averaging just under half a goal per game this season and his shooting percentage (13.5 per cent) is the third-lowest of his career.

The value pick for this prop is Stamkos hitting 500 goals either on Tuesday against Columbus (+654) or Thursday against Vancouver (+483).  Stamkos isn’t the same sniper he once was, but he’s proven he can still be a dangerous player who can put the puck in the back of the net.  He’s a key member of Tampa’s power play and his dangerous shot has helped him score a team-best eight goals with the man advantage this season.

You can also bet teammates know how close Stamkos is to history and they will likely try to feed him the puck a bit more to help him reach this milestone at home.  We’re calling our shot and saying Stamkos gets No. 499 on the power play and No. 500 is buried into the empty net.