Rangers may be letting Martin St.Louis go - A stop gap for the Pens?
NBC Sports today posted an article that indicated that the New York Rangers would be looking at letting Martin St.Louis walk and test the free agency market. Since he was traded to the Rangers in 2014 for Ryan Callahan and some picks he has scored 60 points in 93 games for a 0.65 PPG. He turns 40 on the 18th June, so for someone that age it is impressive. Those figures aren't far off what Jagr was able to accomplish at that age and he has continually been in demand.
St.Louis has made it clear in the past that he would like to remain near his family in Greenwich, Connecticut. Greenwich is just 33.9 miles from Madison Square Gardens so there is a possibility he could limit himself to a handful of teams in the New York metropolitan and surrounding areas. This will likely be the biggest obstacle for Pittsburgh if they were to be interested.
Should St.Louis be interested in spending some time with the Penguins then they should look to sign him to a 1 year-contract with a cap hit between $3m-$4m. He will be in demand and there will be teams that likely offer more but I believe that the Penguins should avoid from over-extending themselves. Doing so would see them failing to learn from their past mistakes.
I believe that we would see a reduction in his production but nothing to drastic. I would still expect him to hit 50 points. The Rangers play a fast, aggressive game which suited St.Louis but the Penguins are different. Whilst we do possess players with speed in them they are not utilised in the same way and are smaller in number. Part of the biggest difference between the two teams is the way they play from the back.
The Rangers are a strong defensive team, evident in the fact that they have conceded fewer than 200 goals for the past 5 seasons. Amongst their defence are players able to dish the puck out quickly to the forwards which is why the Rangers are able to counter so effectively and surprise teams a lot. St.Louis is the type of player that relishes that situation. With the Penguins he would be more likely to be involved in stationary set-ups and from from further out off tape to tape passes from Crosby or Malkin.
Some people say that St.Louis is too small, but he has been told that all his career and look what he has achieved. He isn't someone you would put in front of the net but he can still bring it. If the Penguins went for him I could see him being a 1 year stop gap for the top six. On a $3-$4m contract what risk would there be? He would take pressure off Kapanen to develop quickly and also be able to help coach the younger players. If he is interested the Penguins should enquire.
0 comments:
Post a Comment