Martin St. Louis became the first player to have his number retired by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and with very good reason. He holds the franchise records for assists, points, power play points, short handed goals, short handed points, overtime goals, and goals in a game, and there are probably even more records that are a bit more obscure.
The diminutive winger had speed, vision, skill, and the will to win. Teaming him up with Steven Stamkos on a line and on the power play created one of the most dynamic duos in team history.
From the time Stamkos stepped on the ice in Tampa in 2008-09 until he broke his leg in 2013-14, he scored 222 goals, 187 assists, and 409 points. St. Louis was traded at the deadline for Ryan Callahan, and Stamkos returned to the line up in the very next game wearing the Captain’s C on his jersey.
On 10/30/2008, Stamkos scored his first goal in the NHL on the power play with assists from Vincent Lecavalier and St. Louis. It was just the beginning of St. Louis assisting Stamkos.
During the time both were in Tampa, St. Louis assisted on 101 Stamkos goals and Stamkos assisted on 66 St. Louis goals. That meant that St. Louis assisted on a whopping 45.5% of Stamkos’ goals in that time period. 35.3% of Stamkos’ assists came on St. Louis goals. On top of all of that, Stamkos and St. Louis combined to assist on 52 goals by other team mates. That means that 53.5% of Stamkos’ points over that time period included St. Louis in the scoring. That’s pretty impressive.
The way St. Louis left Tampa Bay still sticks with many fans. But it’s undeniable the impact that his skill and presence had on Stamkos. Stamkos was one of the handful of speakers to take the podium at St. Louis’ jersey retirement. I’ll leave you with the absolute best quote of the night.
Stamkos says “I knew when I got here, you were a player I was going to look up to… [turns to MSL] …well not in the literal sense.”
— Raw Charge (@RawCharge) January 14, 2017
