Little big man: diminutive winger Martin St. Louis led the NHL in scoring and helped the Lightning reach the playoffs

Hockey Digest, July-August, 2004 by John Kreiser

MARTIN ST. LOUIS HAS BEEN told he was too small for much of his hockey life. He was undrafted by the NHL coming out of college despite a stellar career at the University of Vermont and had his contract bought out by the Calgary Flames after spending part of the summer of 2000 working to help the team sell tickets enough tickets to stay alive.

No one is telling him he's too small now.

St. Louis' big-time achievements this season belie his 5-foot-9 size. As the NHL scoring leader entering the final weeks of the season and a key to the Tampa Bay Lightning's growth into a Stanley Cup contender, St. Louis skated away with HOCKEY DIGEST'S Player of the Year Award, beating out offensive stars such as Colorado's Joe Sakic and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk as well as Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo and Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.

A 28-year-old Laval, Quebec, native, St. Louis took the long road to his status among the NHL's elite players.

No one was interested in St. Louis on draft day--probably because he's listed at 5-9 and 185 pounds, but is more likely closer to 5-7 and 175. He finally signed as a free agent with the Calgary Flames in 1998 after a prolific career at the University of Vermont, where he piled up 91 goals and 176 assists for 267 points in 138 games--just under two points per contest--and was a three-time finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. But the Flames kept him mostly in a checking role when they weren't keeping him in the minor leagues. And with new management taking over in the summer of 2000, the team let him go. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time--St. Louis put up just four goals and 20 points in 69 NHL games during two seasons--even though he spent that summer working to help the team sell tickets.

"I'm not mad at the way things worked out," he says. "It was probably the best thing for my career."

The Lightning signed St. Louis as a free agent, and he's done more than his share to help sell tickets in Tampa--but he's done it with his on-ice performance rather than off-season sales calls.

Given a more offensive role in his new home, St. Louis responded with 18 goals and 40 points in his first season with the Lightning and followed with 16 goals and 35 points in 53 games in 2001-02 despite missing nearly a third of the season with a broken leg. Then came a breakout season in 2002-03, as St Louis rang up 33 goals and 70 points while making the All-Star game for the first time; he added seven goals and 12 points in 11 postseason games while tying an NHL record with three consecutive game-winning goals as the Lightning won a playoff series for the first time in team history and made the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils work hard for their victory in the Eastern Conference semifinals..

St. Louis helped the Bolts get off to a fast start this season, but he and his team struggled in December. The speedy right wing had a meeting with coach John Tortorella at which he was challenged to be more productive.

"We were struggling as a team, and he said he wanted more out of us," St. Louis says. "I went and asked him [Tortorella] to give us the quality minutes--the first power plays, the offensive zone draws, that kind of stuff. I thought that I needed a little more. He challenged us to be better. We came out of our slump, and since January, everybody has been going."

One change that made a big difference for St. Louis was switching centers. He played on a line with center Brad Richards for most of the past two years, but in January, Tortorella moved him to the right side on a line centered by Vincent Lecavalier. "It took a little while for me to adjust, and for Vinny to adjust," he says, "but now we understand our game a little better, and that helps us create offense and find each other. Vinny's been playing really well, and that makes it a lot easier."

So easy, in fact, that St. Louis was as a starter to the Eastern Conference All-Star team and selected as the NHL Player of the Month in January AND February. The last player to win the honor in back-to-back months was Wayne Gretzky during the 1986-87 season.

"I'm no Gretzky," he says of matching The Great One's feat. "I didn't realize that anyone other than Wayne had done that. To be honest, I didn't expect to be player of the month again. I know that as a team, we had a great February. We had a lot of guys on my team that could have been player of the month."

As the Lightning started to pile up victories after a December slump, St. Louis kept piling up points--21 in 13 games in February alone--and climbing up the scoring list, though he says he's tried not to pay much attention to the possibility of taking home the Art Ross Trophy, not to mention the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player.

"I've tried not to think about it," he says of the scoring title. "Whether I win it or not, I don't think I'm going to be a different player. Am I going to be in the situation again in my career? Who knows? Doing so well while the team is winning is great, too."