| Martin St. Louis | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 18, 1975 Laval, QC, CAN |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) |
| Weight | 180 lb (82 kg; 12 st 12 lb) |
| Position | Right wing |
| Shoots | Left |
| NHL team Former teams |
Tampa Bay Lightning Calgary Flames |
| National team | Canada |
| NHL Draft | Undrafted |
| Playing career | 1997–present |
Martin St. Louis (French pronunciation: [maʁtɛ̃ sɛ̃ lwi]; born June 18, 1975) is a Canadian professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain currently playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL).
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St. Louis grew up in Laval, Quebec playing minor hockey and eventually made it onto the AAA Midget Laval Laurentides in 1991-92. After a strong season in Midget, he was signed by the Hawkesbury Hawks Jr.A. hockey club of the Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL) in Ontario. After a strong year with the Hawks (37-50-87 in just 31 games), St. Louis accepted an NCAA scholarship with the University of Vermont.
As an amateur, St. Louis played for the University of Vermont Catamounts on the same team as Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas, and on the same line as former Tampa Bay Lightning teammate Éric Perrin. St. Louis was an NCAA All-Star and three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist for college player of the year. He ranks first amongst all Vermont scorers in career points (267) and assists (176), and ranks third in career goals (91).
Despite his impressive numbers with the Catamounts, he was not drafted and accepted a training camp invitation from the Ottawa Senators. He was released from Senators' training camp on September 18, 1997 and eventually signed as a free agent with the Calgary Flames on February 18, 1998.[1] He was immediately assigned to the IHL's Cleveland Lumberjacks, where he spent the remainder of the season[1] and scored 50 points in 56 games. St. Louis was a point-per-game player with the Saint John Flames of the American Hockey League, scoring 114 points in 95 games. When Craig Button was appointed general manager of the Flames in 2000, he released St. Louis who then signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
St. Louis was on pace to have a career year in the 2001–02 when his season ended prematurely due to a broken leg.[2] In 2002–03 he returned to form with 33 goals and 70 points, leading the Lightning to their first Southeast Division title and their first playoff series win ever, the later coming in dramatic fashion with a 3OT goal against Washington. At mid-season he was selected to play in the All-Star Game, where he took home the Puck Control Relay title in the SuperSkills competition. In 2003–04 he led the NHL in scoring with 94 points. He scored a 2OT goal in Game 6 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, helping the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Calgary Flames for the Stanley Cup in 7 games. At season's end he won both the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player to his team and the Lester B. Pearson Award as league MVP voted by his peers. St. Louis became the first player since Wayne Gretzky and only the eighth in NHL history, to win the Art Ross Trophy, the Stanley Cup, and the Hart Memorial Trophy all in one season. He was also a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy, losing out to linemate and Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards.
As further acknowledgement of his new-found star status, in August 2004 he was chosen as the cover model for the Sega® ESPN NHL 2K5 home video game. During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, he played for the Swiss team HC Lausanne.
In August 2005, Martin St. Louis signed a six-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning worth $31.5 million. St. Louis was quoted as saying, "I'm just happy that the Lightning have found a way to keep me long-term. Tampa was always my first choice, I've had so many good things happen to me in Tampa."
St. Louis played for Team Canada at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, where he was part of the team which won the World Cup, and the 2006 Winter Olympics which saw them eliminated by Russia in the quarterfinals after what was considered a disappointing tournament.
In the 2006–07 NHL season, St. Louis recorded a personal high of 102 points (43 goals, 59 assists). The Lightning lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New Jersey Devils. He was again a finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy. In what would be a recurring theme, he was beaten out by Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk.
Before the start of the 2007–08 season, St. Louis was named an alternate captain of the Lightning because of captain Tim Taylor's expected long-term absence due to injury.[3]
At the end of the 2007–08 season, St. Louis finished the season with 25 goals, 58 assists and 83 points, finishing second in team scoring behind teammate Vincent Lecavalier.
St. Louis was named finalist for the Lady Byng Trophy for both the 2007–08 season and the 2008-09 season at the NHL Awards. Alas, the award would go to Datsyuk both times.
At the end of the 2008–09 season, St. Louis finished the season with 30 goals, 50 assists and 80 points. He led the Tampa Bay Lightning in goals, assists, points, games played, and short handed goals. He was second in plus/minus and power play goals.
St. Louis was finally awarded the Lady Byng Trophy for the 2009–10 NHL season (and only recorded 12 penalty minutes the entire season).[4] St. Louis beat out Pavel Datsyuk, winner of the previous four Lady Byng Trophies, and former teammate Brad Richards, who won the award for the 2003–04 NHL season playing alongside St. Louis with the Tampa Bay Lightning during their Stanley Cup winning season.
St. Louis was named an assistant captain for team Lidstrom at the 2011 NHL All-Star Game. Martin competed in the fastest skater competition at the all star super skills competition, and also in the Discover Elimination Shoot-out game. The All-Star Game skills competition was won by the opponent team Eric Staal in Raleigh, North Carolina. He finished off the 2010-11 season by taking home his second straight the Lady Byng Trophy (again with only 12 penalty minutes), this time defeating Red Wings' veteran d-man Nicklas Lidstrom and Loui Eriksson of Dallas.
Heading into the 2010-11 NHL season with the the third-longest active streak in the league behind Calgary's Jay Bouwmeester (533 games) and Vancouver's Henrik Sedin (526), St. Louis was injured in practice when a stray shot from fellow Lightning player Dominic Moore accidentally sent a puck into his face. Unable to play that night, his streak ended at 499 consecutive games played.[5]
He and his wife Heather Caragol have three boys, Ryan (born June 13, 2003),[6] Lucas (born March 30, 2005)[7] and Mason (born January 2008).[8]
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1991–92 | Laval Laurentides Midget AAA | Quebec Midget AAA | 42 | 29 | 74 | 103 | 38 | 12 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 16 | ||
| 1992–93 | Hawkesbury Hawks Jr.A. | CJHL | 31 | 37 | 50 | 87 | 70 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1993–94 | Vermont Catamounts | ECAC | 33 | 15 | 36 | 51 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1994–95 | Vermont Catamounts | ECAC | 35 | 23 | 48 | 71 | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1995–96 | Vermont Catamounts | ECAC | 35 | 29 | 56 | 85 | 38 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1996–97 | Vermont Catamounts | ECAC | 36 | 24 | 36 | 60 | 65 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1997–98 | Cleveland Lumberjacks | IHL | 56 | 16 | 34 | 50 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1997–98 | Saint John Flames | AHL | 25 | 15 | 11 | 26 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 16 | ||
| 1998–99 | Saint John Flames | AHL | 53 | 28 | 34 | 62 | 30 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 2 | ||
| 1998–99 | Calgary Flames | NHL | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1999–00 | Saint John Flames | AHL | 17 | 15 | 11 | 26 | 14 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1999–00 | Calgary Flames | NHL | 56 | 3 | 15 | 18 | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2000–01 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 78 | 18 | 22 | 40 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2001–02 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 53 | 16 | 19 | 35 | 20 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2002–03 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 33 | 37 | 70 | 32 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 0 | ||
| 2003–04 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 38 | 56 | 94 | 24 | 23 | 9 | 15 | 24 | 14 | ||
| 2004–05 | HC Lausanne | Swiss-A | 23 | 9 | 16 | 25 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2005–06 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 80 | 31 | 30 | 61 | 38 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | ||
| 2006–07 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 43 | 59 | 102 | 28 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 8 | ||
| 2007–08 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 25 | 58 | 83 | 26 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2008–09 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 30 | 50 | 80 | 14 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2009–10 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 29 | 65 | 94 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2010–11 | Tampa Bay Lightning | NHL | 82 | 31 | 68 | 99 | 12 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 20 | 4 | ||
| NHL totals | 854 | 298 | 480 | 778 | 250 | 63 | 33 | 35 | 68 | 28 | ||||
Played for Canada in:
| Year | Comp | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | WCH | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2006 | Oly | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| 2008 | WC | 9 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 0 | |
| 2009 | WC | 9 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 0 | |
| Senior int'l totals | 30 | 10 | 22 | 32 | 0 | ||
| Preceded by Paul Kariya |
SuperSkills: Puck Control Relay winner 2003 |
Succeeded by Rick Nash |
| Preceded by Peter Forsberg |
Winner of the Hart Trophy 2004 |
Succeeded by Joe Thornton |
| Preceded by Peter Forsberg |
Winner of the Art Ross Trophy 2004 |
Succeeded by Joe Thornton |
| Preceded by Markus Naslund |
Winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award 2004 |
Succeeded by Jaromir Jagr |
| Preceded by Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk |
Co-winner of the NHL Plus/Minus Award (with Marek Malík) 2004 |
Succeeded by Wade Redden and Michal Rozsíval |
| Preceded by Pavel Datsyuk |
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner 2010, 2011 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |