Before his 2016-17 seasonended abruptlyonly 17 games in, Steven Stamkos was tearing up the league offensively, posting one of the hottest starts of his career. Taking up right where he left off, a fully healthy Stamkos has led theLightning to the NHLs best record so far, with the best goal differential. The hot start from the Lightning has been primarily driven by offense, as theyre only a middle-of-the-pack team in goals against, but lead the NHL in goals for with 53. Stamkos has been on Armon Watts Jersey the ice for 28 goals, and of those 28, he'sregistered a point on 24. MORE: Getting points on nearly 86 percentof the goals youre on the ice for probably isnt sustainable, but whats remarkable about Stamkos point production so far is how much it differs from his career norm. His six goals so far is very respectable, but its the 18 a sists that have people surprised. Using 5-vs-5 play as a controllable variable, we can look at Stamkos over the last three years to see how much his offensive game has changed. Stamkos a sist numbers have risen rapidly over the last three years, though we have to be a little careful looking at the last two seasons when they only combine for 30 games so far. With that added versatility to his game, Stamkos has seen his Game Score (a measure of total impact a player has developed, ) rise significantly as well. Whats somewhat surprising about Stamkos evolution as a Jamie Gillan Jersey playmaker is that he hasnt seen his shooting drop off at all in terms of shots on goal or shot attempts. In fact, his shot attempts at 5-vs-5 are currently at the third-highest rate of his career. POWER RANKINGS: So it isnt like Stamkos is pa sing up shots in favor of looking for Nikita Kucherov. Iits more about Stamkos making better pa ses, and playing with a sniper as lethal as Kucherovis for the first time. Stamkos has played with excellent playmakers before, like Martin St. Louis, and for a short time, Jonathan Drouin, but hes never had a partner quite like Kucherov to ride shotgun with him. So far, the results have been astonishing. Lawrence Taylor Jersey Its tempting for many who saw Kucherovs ascendance over the last couple of years to shortchange Stamkos a bit here and say its the younger player driving play here. There might be some truth to that offensively, as Kucherovs shooting percentage in the early season is sky high with 13 goals in 13 games. But when it comes to driving po se sion, its been Stamkos running the show. Throughout his career, Stamkos hasnt always been a big po se sion driver, but since the beginning of last season hes been pretty incredible at it, and now that hes with a player of Kucherovs caliber, the two them are driving expected goals and actual goals at an even higher rate than their already impre sive Corsi, . ItsStamkos, not Kucherov, who has been carrying the play so far, with his Corsi-for percentage of 55.41 percenttopping Kucherovs 51.23 percentsignificantly, and his expected goals-for percentage of 55.03 percentdwarfing Kucherovs 49.02 percentdespite sharing lots of ice time. Janoris Jenkins Jersey MORE: Theres definitely some limitations in certain movements, Stamkos said Wednesday about his return from serious leg injuries in 2013-14 and last season, via . I think Im always going to be stuck with that, this leg with the broken leg and the metal rod thats in there and now with knee surgery. I dont know if Ill Curtis Bolton Jersey ever feel 100 percent again, but its just getting to that new norm where youre just going out and playing and not worrying about it and trusting the work youve put in. "I think thats where Im at and for me thats a good place right now. Its supremely unlikely that Stamkos can keep this level of play up all season long. The NHL is just too tough of a league for everything to break right for a player for 82 games. But so far, hes been arguably the best player in the NHL, which is a phenomenal return to form for a player many worried would never be what he once was after repeated major injuries. Not only is Stamkos back, you could argue hes better than ever because hes playing a more complete game.