Martin St. Louis isn’t on the block
Let’s put those Martin St. Louis trade rumors to bed.
For whatever reason, the star winger’s name has been bandied about in media speculation ahead of Wednesday’s trade deadline, most recently as a possible fit for Boston, but it won’t happen.
At least not according to the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Marty St. Louis is not going to be traded,” Steve Yzerman told ESPN.com on Friday. “He remains one of the best players in the league and an extremely important player to our team, both on and off the ice. We are a team in transition, we just made a coaching change, Marty is one of the leaders of the team, he is not going anywhere.”
From the beginning, the St. Louis trade rumors never made a whole lot of sense. He’s got two more years on his deal, so it’s not like he’s a pending UFA who would top the rental market like Jarome Iginla did before being moved this week.
Yes, St. Louis is 37 years old, and perhaps people wondered if he’d want to go elsewhere to win a Cup with Tampa struggling. But St. Louis matters so much more to the Tampa organization than what he does on the ice, which on its own remains impressive enough. He’s still an all-world player. But that’s just half the story in terms of his value to the Lightning.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/23037/rumblings-martin-st-louis-isnt-on-the-block