Each day from now until July 1, the day free agency begins, Tom Dougherty and Tim Riday will profile some of the NHL's top impending free agents and project their likelihood of signing with the Flyers.
Martin St. Louis, right wing
Age: Turns 40 on Thursday
Height: 5-8
Weight: 176
Last team: New York Rangers
2014-15 cap hit: $5.625 million
Scouting report
St. Louis is small, but extremely fast. St. Louis turns 40 years old on Thursday, so his speed is no longer elite but he has one of the strongest lower bodies in the league. Despite being under 5-foot-10, St. Louis has never been hampered by his size. He's an incredible playmaker, a dangerous penalty killer and a highly skilled winger.
Signed by Calgary as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Vermont, St. Louis played only 69 games with the Flames over two seasons. The Flames gave up on St. Louis because they felt he was too small, so they let him walk. As a free agent, the Laval, Quebec, native latched on with the Tampa Bay Lighting on a tryout contract.
That tryout turned into 13 years, 265 goals, six All-Star games, two Art Ross Trophies, a Hart Memorial Trophy and a Stanley Cup, as well as several other accomplishments with the Lightning. At 37, St. Louis scored 60 points in 48 games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season to win his second Art Ross Trophy.
The 15-year veteran's time in Tampa ended on March 5, 2014, when he was traded to the Rangers for Ryan Callahan, a first-round pick and a conditional second-rounder. The Rangers acquired him for a playoff push and he helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2014. The Blueshirts fell to the Los Angeles Kings in the Final, but St. Louis added experience and skill to a Rangers team that needed it. He scored eight goals and 15 points in 25 playoff games that year.
In all, St. Louis has played in 1,134 career games, scoring 391 goals, 642 assists and 1,033 points. He has 90 points in 107 career playoff games.
NHL
Dougherty's projection
Imagine this: Flyers general manager Ron Hextall fails to find a solution with Vinny Lecavalier and the 35-year-old remains in Philadelphia another year. So what does Hextall do? He goes out and signs St. Louis. Wouldn't that be something?
Don't worry about that. The Flyers aren't going to touch St. Louis. He all but forced his way out of Tampa at the 2013-14 trade deadline and wanted to go only to New York. The news broke Monday that the Rangers won't re-sign the 39-year-old. So St. Louis, if he wants to keep playing, has to go somewhere else. Is that somewhere Philly? No.
St. Louis, while he would look great on the Flyers' top line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek even at 40 years old, will be too costly and too risky. He's still producing — 21 goals and 52 points in 74 games last season — but his age will catch up with him. And the Flyers cannot afford to be the team that gets burnt by a superstar with nothing left.
Plus, the Flyers literally cannot afford him.
Riday's projection
Tom nailed it. St. Louis to Philly won't happen.
Hextall has a plan. He's building for the future and has made that abundantly clear. The team is already cap-stricken, so he won't spend what little money it has to work with on an aging veteran who doesn't have many years left in the NHL. Plus, there will be much cheaper options on the free-agent market.
Sure, St. Louis is still a productive player and would bring a ton of skill to the Flyers' offense. But Hextall has said on numerous occasions he will not mortgage the future for older players in trades. Why would his mindset be different for free agency? The Flyers are going to develop through their system. Get used to that.
Considering what the Rangers gave up for St. Louis, it's a bit surprising they're ready to move on. I wouldn't be shocked if St. Louis had plenty of offers, however. Pittsburgh, Montreal and New Jersey could be possible destinations for the veteran winger. A curtain call in Tampa would be nice, too. But the relationship between St. Louis and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman seems too damaged to repair. Yzerman left St. Louis off of Team Canada's roster for the 2014 Winter Olympics and it wasn't long before St. Louis demanded a trade out of Tampa.
One thing is for sure: St. Louis will find work, but it won't be the Flyers signing the paycheck.