NHL Trade Deadline: Rangers Acquire Martin St. Louis For Ryan Callahan

Martin St. Louis
Martin St. Louis
Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St Louis Jerome Miron USA TODAY Sports

Martin St. Louis has apparently wanted to be a New York Ranger for years now and he finally got his wish today. After demanding a trade out of Tampa Bay and asking New York be the destination, a deal was finally consummated:

The deal includes a first round pick in 2015 and a second round pick in 2014 going with Callahan to Tampa Bay. If Callahan ends up signing with the Lightning, per Pierre Lebrun, the Rangers will get an additional pick.

Martin St. Louis for Ryan Callahan

Callahan, the captain of the Rangers, is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year and the thought is that the Lightning will not extend Callahan. In that sense, the Lightning still have a team that can contend in a weak Eastern Conference this year and stockpile the cupboards with high draft picks for years to come. Aside from St. Louis, the core of this team – Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Ben Bishop – are still not at their prime or just getting to those years. Tampa can afford to give draft picks 3-4 years to develop while maintaining a consistent playoff team in the meantime. If St. Louis really wanted out of Tampa Bay that badly, this is a good trade for them.

On the flipside, the Rangers get one of the elite producers in the NHL for what could be a Stanley Cup run. Make no mistake, this team is a contender in the Eastern Conference. That’s probably an indictment of the Conference, but I digress.

This trade does make the Rangers stacked through their first three lines. With St. Louis signed through next year, this would give the Rangers a good two-year window to get to the Cup Finals.

That price for St. Louis is pretty steep for the Rangers but it could very well be worth it if they find themselves in the Cup Final in the next two years.