One of the most intriguing trades in New York Rangers history occurred on March 5, 2014. It helped fuel their most recent run to the Stanley Cup Final, but wasn’t without its detractors at the time.
In the first trade deadline swap of captains in NHL history, the Rangers acquired Martin St. Louis from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Ryan Callahan, first-round picks in the 2014 and 2015 drafts, and a seventh-rounder in 2015.
At the time, “Captain Cally” was 29 years old and as popular a player as there was on the Rangers roster. A homegrown Blueshirt, Callahan was a four-time Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award winner and a three-time 20-goal scorer. He was a true “Black and Blueshirt” through and through.
St. Louis was 10 years older at the time of the trade, on the back end of an incredible NHL career, one that landed him in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. Though 39, St. Louis was still a point-per-game player for the Lightning (61 points in 62 games), and had a Stanley Cup championship, Hart Trophy, two Art Ross Trophies, and three Lady Byng Trophies on his resume.
By and large, Rangers fans weren’t thrilled with the trade. Callahan’s close friend and teammate Derek Stepan wasn’t exactly sure how to feel at the time either. But now, in retrospect, he sees that the trade was pretty much a no-brainer for the Rangers.
“We can stop tip-toeing around ‘Cally.’ They were two very different players, and the Rangers felt we needed a Marty and we had enough Callys,” Stepan told Forever Blueshirts on the Rink Rap podcast. “It was a swap for Marty and his ability to do something that I don’t think Cally could do. To be fair to Cally, he’s chasing a Hall of Famer, so it’s OK to say it now. We can say it because we’ve been tip-toeing around it. We can say it. It was a very good swap for us at the time, and we needed a Marty, and Cally is the one that ultimately ended up on the chopping block.”
Even though the Rangers had Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello, and Chris Kreider among their wingers, St. Louis was a different level of difference maker, especially in the playoffs. Stepan’s take now is that the Rangers had plenty of grinders and forwards with a defensive conscious; but they needed a game-breaker with a winning pedigree, even one of St. Louis’ age and vintage.
“I remember being kind of shocked. You’re losing a real good friend and you’re bringing in Marty, which we knew his history, Marty knew how to do it,” Stepan explained.
“But now if I were to back up and sit in the lens that I am now on the other side of it, in order to get something you have to give up something. I’m sure Tampa felt the same way. If we’re giving up this, we want that. I’m sure it was kind of an awkward conversation to start with the two GMs. But, yeah, it was a weird one. It just goes to show you it’s business and anything can happen.”
Contract impasse was big reason Rangers traded Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis, but not only one
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This trade was as much about business as it was about lineup fits. St. Louis pretty much forced a trade to the Rangers after his relationship with Lightning management turned sour. Callahan was a pending unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and contract negotiations weighed on him throughtout 2013-14. Even though Callahan and the Rangers agreed on a six-year term, they couldn’t get together on the actual dollar value of a contract.
“Contracts are always brutal to start, and he had a long road before the final contract was going to be offered to him. But you never want to go into a summer with a guy that’s going to be a free agent in July. So, ultimately, Cally was deservingly so going to get paid in some way, shape, or form, and the Rangers felt they were going to go a different direction,” explained Stepan, who knows a thing or two himself about difficult contract negotiations with the Rangers.
Callahan ended up signing a six-year, $34.8 million contract with the Lightning.
Unfortunately, his body betrayed him for much of that contract — just as the Rangers feared it would when they often hedged their bets during negotiations with him. Callahan scored 24 goals and totaled 54 points in 2014-15. He gained the ultimate revenge by helping the Lightning defeat the Rangers in Game 7 of the 2015 Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden.
Unfortunately, a degenerative spine issue limited his effectiveness moving forward and ended his playing career after the 2018-19 season.
Derek Stepan recalls ‘great experience’ with Martin St. Louis, including Rangers run to 2014 Final
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“Now that I’ve talked Cally up enough, and we missed him, and Rangers fans we loved him too, but I had a great experience with Marty,” Stepan shared. “I learned a ton. He was a guy that was on my line. He taught me so much as a guy that played in the top six. Now look at him go as a head coach (with the Montreal Canadiens). He’s special, that’s for sure, and it was fun to be part of.”
St. Louis largely played on a line centered by Stepan, with Carl Hagelin on the other wing. The Rangers kept winning, but St. Louis managed just one goal in 19 regular-season games after the trade.
You might remember that the Blueshirts Faithful weren’t exactly embracing the deal at that time.
Against the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the playoffs, St. Louis got off to a fast start, with five points (two goals, three assists) in the first three games. He had one assist the rest of the series, which the Rangers barely won, scraping out a 2-1 Game 7 victory at MSG.
But the Rangers looked even more out of sync against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, falling behind 3-1 in the series and facing elimination on the road for Game 5.
Sadly, Marty’s mother, France, died on May 8, the day between Games 4 and 5. Though no one expected St. Louis to play that game, and few saw a Rangers comeback in the cards, each happened. Stepan recalls that the Rangers rallied around their grief-stricken teammate, and everything changed for them in that postseason thereafter.
“When you’re in a playoff series, and even in the regular season, and times get tough, a snowball can build on you and get bigger and bigger, and it gets harder and harder to get out of it,” he said. “I think when everything went down with Marty’s mom, I think what happened was we all took a step back and said ‘all right, we’re playing a game and we’re all humans, and one of our brothers … just lost a big piece of his life. We all understand that’s way bigger than us being down 3-1 and not playing great hockey.’
“And we shifted and we got on board with getting behind Marty. And then what happened was we went out to play the game of hockey and we found our game again. I think the realistic part of it is we are just playing a game and I think that’s hard to understand that sometimes for everybody, and there’s a human aspect to it.”
The Rangers hammered the Penguins 5-1 in Game 5, won 3-1 two days later at MSG, then rode Henrik Lundqvist’s brilliant performance to a 2-1 Game 7 win in Pittsburgh. The Game 6 victory is best remembered for St. Louis scoring the game-opening goal, on Mothers Day, and the outpouring of love from his teammates and the Garden fans afterward.
“It was devastating for Marty and our group felt it. When he scored that goal in Game [6] at home, me and ‘Hags’ were on his line and it was one of the heaviest huddles I’ve ever been in. It was awesome,” Stepan recalled. “It was pure emotion in that group and … in that moment, in that playoff series, that’s what opened up our group, our eyes, to is that Marty’s going through a tough time because he lost a big chunk of him.
“Me and Hags talked about it … we’ve been in a lot of huddles, but nothing like that one. That one was different.”
The Rangers went on to defeat the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final in six games — St. Louis scored the overtime winner in Game 4 at home — and reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1994. Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings won three times in overtime or double overtime to end New York’s fairy tale run in five games.
St. Louis led the Rangers with eight goals and was second with 15 points during that run to the Cup Final. He then helped the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy in 2014-15, when he scored 21 goals and totaled 54 points. But the then-40-year-old and his Rangers teammates fell short against Callahan and the Lightning in the conference final, and St. Louis retired shortly thereafter.
Looking back ,Stepan contends that the controversial trade of captains in 2014 was the correct move for the Rangers.
“I hope [Callahan] wouldn’t disagree with me.”
Jim Cerny is Executive Editor at Forever Blueshirts and Managing Editor at Sportsnaut, with more than 30 years of … More about Jim Cerny
