New York Rangers: Say Goodbye to Marty St. Louis

The New York Rangers season is over, well for the players it is. Now it is time for the team’s management to start making critical decisions about player personnel. Marty St. Louis has been in a New York Rangers uniform for a year and half, helping (even if only slightly during the playoffs) the Rangers get to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 and to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2015. But it is now time to say goodbye to the nearly 40-year-old winger.

His contract is up at the end of this season and he will become an unrestricted free agent in about a month. It would be unwise for the Rangers to re-sign him. While he had a decent regular season, finishing fourth on the team in scoring with 52 points, he had an awful playoff outing. St. Louis used to thrive in the playoffs, but this postseason could be described as disastrous.

He was only able to tally a total of seven points in 19 games, including one goal (which really had no impact on the outcome of the game) and six assists. He also made reckless mistakes, turned the puck over, and wasted scoring opportunities by mishandling the puck. St. Louis often found himself glued to the bench in high-pressure, tight games. He just wasn’t noticeable on the ice; he was forgettable and that is not what you want from a player you were paying $5.6 million to.

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It isn’t just his lack of production this postseason that should make the Rangers wearisome of re-signing him, but also the salary he might carry to stay. The Rangers have a lot of its cap space locked up in Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Derick Brassard and Rick Nash. The organization needs room to re-sign its future: the team’s younger players.

Derek Stepan, a top-two center, Carl Hagelin, J.T. Miller and Jesper Fast are all going to be restricted free agents. These young players, mind you some still need to develop more, are the Rangers’ future. They’ve got speed, good hands, and great puck-handling skills. Most importantly, they are all in their 20s (half the age of St. Louis). Stepan, without a doubt, needs to stay a Blueshirt. He is one of those players who is smart, savvy and dangerous, and is good in both ends of the ice.

The Rangers are all about right now! The organization sometimes takes for granted what players will be able to do for it in the future because it is only focused on the season at hand. It is why the team has, many times, signed players past their prime and has made trades/deals that left people dumbfounded.

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The Rangers gave up a lot to get St. Louis. The team sent its captain Ryan Callahan to Tampa Bay, along with 2014’s first-round pick, 2015’s first-round pick, and 2015’s seventh-round pick. So, saying goodbye after less than two full seasons seems like a waste and in truth it is.

But the Rangers like to take big risks, sometimes they pay off and many times they don’t. St. Louis is no longer worth the risk. The Rangers have to start looking toward the future, building a core group of players, like the Chicago Blackhawks, that can continue to grow and thrive together. Face it, hockey is a young man’s game and Marty is no young man.

He still has his speed and his skill, and can play the game well, but even giving him $1.5 million for one year just seems useless when New York doesn’t have much money to waste. Who knows if he would accept something that low? He wants to play in New York so he can raise his family in Connecticut, so maybe the New York Islanders or New Jersey Devils can use him. For the Rangers, they should invest their money in the players that actually had an impact this postseason and will continue to impact seasons to come.

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