#93 - Martin St. Louis

Martin St. Louis (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #93)

Adjusted Stats

1998-1999   Cgy        13 GP   1 goal       1 assists      2 points       0.18 PPG
1999-2000   Cgy        56 GP   3 goals     17 assists    20 points     0.36 PPG
2000-2001   TB          78 GP   20 goals   25 assists    45 points     0.57 PPG
2001-2002   TB          53 GP   19 goals   22 assists    41 points     0.78 PPG
2002-2003   TB          82 GP   38 goals   43 assists    81 points     0.99 PPG
2003-2004   TB*        82 GP   45 goals   67 assists    112 points   1.37 PPG
2005-2006   TB          80 GP   32 goals   30 assists    62 points     0.78 PPG
2006-2007   TB          82 GP   46 goals   63 assists    109 points   1.33 PPG
2007-2008   TB          82 GP   28 goals   66 assists    94 points     1.14 PPG
2008-2009   TB          82 GP   32 goals   54 assists    86 points     1.05 PPG
2009-2010   TB          82 GP   32 goals   71 assists    103 points   1.26 PPG
2010-2011   TB          82 GP   35 goals   77 assists    111 points   1.36 PPG

Adjusted Playoff Stats

2002-2003    TB          11 GP   8 goals     6 assists     14 points     1.30 PPG
2003-2004    TB*        23 GP   11 goals   19 assists   31 points     1.33 PPG
2005-2006    TB          5 GP     4 goals     0 assists      4 points      0.80 PPG
2006-2007    TB          6 GP     3 goals     6 assists      9 points      1.51 PPG
2010-2011    TB          18 GP   10 goals   10 assists   20 points     1.11 PPG

Career - 854 GP, 331 goals, 536 assists, 866 points, 1.01 PPG
Career-Highs - 46 goals (06-07); 77 assists (10-11); 112 points (03-04); 1.37 PPG (03-04)
Avg. (11 seasons) - 78 GP, 30 goals, 49 assists, 79 points, 1.01 PPG
Peak Avg. (02-11) - 82 GP, 36 goals, 59 assists, 95 points, 1.16 PPG, 1 Cup

Playoff Career - 63 GP, 36 goals, 41 assists, 78 points, 1.24 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 11 goals (03-04); 19 assists (03-04); 31 points (03-04); 1.51 PPG (06-07)

Accolades - 1 MVP Award, 1 Art Ross, Lady Byng
All-Star Teams - 1-time 1st-team, 3-time 2nd-team
1-time Stanley Cup Champion

It's impossible not to root for Martin St. Louis. He's listed at 5-foot-8 (but looks more like 5-6) playing in a game with giants surrounding him. He was the victim of stereotyping early in his career when coaches and general managers decided he must be too small to play in the NHL. They'd rather have the Derian Hatchers and Chris Dingmans of the world (yes, we lived through this era). But when coach John Tortorella entrusted St. Louis with bigger minutes, his career blossomed. He's the rare case of a star who didn't have his first standout season until the age of 27.

I was originally thinking of ranking St. Louis lower, but then I thought: why punish him for the stupidity of leaguewide management? If St. Louis had been given his chance earlier in his career, he might have career numbers that would be even more impressive. But consider this stretch of eight years that St. Louis is looking at from 2002 to 2011 :

St. Louis Avg. (8 years, 2002-2011): 82 GP, 36 goals, 59 assists, 95 points

That's a remarkable stretch, in which St. Louis will have topped 100+ adjusted points four times, making him the highest-scoring right-winger the league has seen since Jagr. There's also this accomplishment: since the vaunted Gretzky/Lemieux days, only two players have won the Hart trophy in the same season that their team won the Stanley Cup. Those players: Joe Sakic, and Martin St. Louis. Sakic, you could see...but St. Louis surprises many. During that Cup run, St. Louis had 31 adjusted points in the playoffs, so it's not like he disappears come playoff time, although we haven't been able to see that much, since Tampa Bay has rarely qualified.

Perhaps this is why St. Louis continues to be underrated (he didn't make Canada's 2010 Olympic team, much to my surprise). He's responsible defensively, but Tampa Bay is often languishing near the bottom of the league in goals-against. Even though he's won the Stanley Cup, St. Louis has only made the playoffs four times in his career (although as of this writing, it looks as if the Lightning are a contender in the East once again).

There's also the fact that St. Louis has been overshadowed by his own teammates. When the Lightning won the Cup, it was Brad Richards who won the Conn Smythe. And when St. Louis put up 63 assists and 109 points in 2006-2007, Vinny Lecavalier grabbed the headlines. But look closer and it appears that St. Louis might be the common thread for the Lightning. When St. Louis moved to the line of young Steven Stamkos, he developed into one of the league's premier snipers, while Lecavalier saw his production plummet. Is this a coincidence?

Either way, it's fitting that St. Louis continues to be underappreciated even as he puts up a remarkable career and continues to be productive at age 36. For a player who had to battle through the prejudices that he couldn't be valuable because of his size, it's just one more struggle to earn the respect of the hockey community.