Lightning in Play
Suddenly, it appears that Marty St. Louis, rather than Vinny Lecavalier, may be the Tampa Bay Lightning star that could be on the move.
Multiple teams are calling Lightning GM Brian Lawton about St. Louis' availability even though the veteran forward has a no-trade clause in his contract. One of the most interested clubs may be the New York Rangers, particularly since St. Louis' former coach, John Tortorella, is now behind the New York bench.
St. Louis would become the No. 1 forward available before Wednesday's NHL trade deadline if the Lightning were to ask him to waive his no-trade status. Not only is he still an elite and productive forward, the 33-year-old has Stanley Cup championship experience and will be heading into the final two years of a contract next season that will pay him a very affordable $4 million in salary.
By comparison, winger Ryan Malone is another Tampa player who may be available, but he has four years left on a deal that pays him $4.25 million per season.
Other teams are calling, but the offensively challenged Blueshirts might be the team that would benefit most by St. Louis' talents. New York has significant assets in prospects, including Brampton winger Evgeny Grachev.
The waters between the Rangers and Lightning were poisoned to some degree last week when Tortorella, after being hired to coach New York, seemed to make public overtures towards Tampa assistant coach Mike Sullivan, something just not done in the NHL.
The Lightning opted not to pursue tampering charges.
St. Louis is Tampa's leading scorer with 62 points in 63 games, and is a plus-10 on the season.
New York's difficulty in making a move to get a player like St. Louis is complicated by the fact they are up against the salary cap, already may have plans to pick up Sean Avery off re-entry waivers today from Dallas and have several unmoveable contracts, including Wade Redden and Scott Gomez.
ESPN.com and TSN, meanwhile, are reported this afternoon that Atlanta has traded defenceman Niclas Havelid, an unrestricted free agent in July, to New Jersey for defence prospect Anssi Salmela.
The Devils, in town tonight to play the Maple Leafs, had been looking for another puck-moving defenceman as they surge towards the post-season with standout goaltender Martin Brodeur back in harness.
Let me see... Malone and St Louis get over 4 million. Moore is at 900,000. Andropov is at 2 Million. I say give Andropov, and Moore 2 to 3 million on a short term if that can be done. It is Burkes decision, but what do you think Damian?
Posted by: Lewis McClain | March 03, 2009 at 08:35 AM
Marty St Louis is still a pretty good hockey player. I saw him play in Vancouver last Friday and I think he might be a better fit for a lot of teams than Vinny Lecavalier. At $4million a year for two years at age 33, he seems like a good bet.
Posted by: Bob Holden. | March 03, 2009 at 02:27 PM
Matin St. Louis could head to the Rangers, I can see it happening. The Rangers could give Prucha and Sjostrom with a 2nd roumd pick in th 09 draft for St. Louis. I thnk the lines would go like this...
St.Louis-Gomez-Naslund
Zherdev-Drury-Callahan
Dawes-Dubinsky-Avery
Orr-Betts-Bell/Voros
Redden-Kalinin
Stall-Rozsival
Mara-Reitz/Girardi
Please write back Damien!
Best Regards,
Kyle
Posted by: Kyle | March 03, 2009 at 05:52 PM
Suddenly? This has been discussed for about a week or two.
Posted by: EarlInRoch | March 03, 2009 at 09:01 PM