July 3, 2015
Michael Clifford
2015-07-03
Martin St. Louis retires, the Penguins still need cap space, and taking a chance on Alex Semin.
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There was more movement in the NHL yesterday, and I recommend that the readers head over to the Fantasy Take section to read about everything that's happened over the last week or so. More specifically yesterday, the biggest move was T.J. Oshie getting traded from St. Louis to the Washington Capitals. The return package is discussed here, as well as Oshie's potential new fantasy value in Washington. My thoughts are contained there, and there's not much need to discuss this further.
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The big non-trade or signing news from yesterday was of course the retirement of New York Rangers forward Martin St. Louis. St. Louis retires after 17 seasons with three different teams, managing 1033 career points, one Hart Trophy, two scoring titles, three Lady Byng trophies, and a Stanley Cup in 2004 with Tampa Bay. That's a pretty good career for an undrafted player. As it stands right now, he has the third-most points since the 2000-2001 season, trailing only Jarome Iginla and Joe Thornton. Though it seems likely some guys like Marian Hossa, both Sedin twins, and both Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin pass him. It does mean though that for the majority of his tenure in the NHL, St. Louis was among a handful of players who was consistently productive.
St. Louis was a player that I got to watch for a long time. Growing up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, I got to watch the then-farm team for the Montreal Canadiens, who would play the then-farm team for Calgary by the name of the St. John Flames. St. Louis was one of the players I got to watch before he got to the NHL. Even back in the late 90s, he was better than a point-per-game player in the AHL, and seemed to create something every time the puck was on his stick. He was an explosive talent in an era where that was being stifled. It was a pleasure to watch him throughout his career.
Of course, a lot of not-so-good memories will linger from the last couple of seasons, mainly stemming from his asking out of Tampa Bay in the 2013-2014 season. It shouldn't cloud the fact that St. Louis put together one of the most impressive résumés of the last 15 years. Whether or not he's a Hall of Famer will be a debated topic, but think of this: every player who has won at least two scoring titles is now in the Hall of Fame except for players still active, and those active players are Jaromir Jagr, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, and the now-retired Martin St. Louis (from Hockey Reference).
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One area I want to discuss is who is left out there for teams to sign, and what potential movement there might be. There's still a good group of players left, so let's see what's still out there.
I know it seems weird to trade players only to sign other players to replace them, but the fact is that at this point, is there really much of a difference between Brad Boyes and Chris Kunitz? Not really. In fact, the difference in points per 60 minutes at five-on-five between the two over the last two years is 0.05 in Kunitz's favour (from Hockey Analysis). That's about a point in a full season. A move like Kunitz for a couple lesser draft picks can help stock the cupboard, and replace a player with a similar one at $2-million less per year (or whatever the number turns out to be).
I don't think Pittsburgh is done with the Kessel trade, and would look for them to move a couple more roster players. I wouldn't be surprised if one or both found their way to a rebuilding team like Arizona or a team further along like Florida.
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Speaking of Pittsburgh, ESPN’s Keith Olbermann had a few choice words for the Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons with regards to Phil Kessel and hot dogs. I’ll let Olbermann explain.