Tampa Bay Lightning: 20 Greatest Goal Scorers In Franchise History
Dec 23, 2013; Sunrise, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis (26) skates in the first period of a game against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
3. Martin St. Louis
Single Season High Goals: 43
Career High Goals: 391
There is no denying there are still some fans here in the Bolts Nation that harbor some form of ill will against former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Martin St. Louis for the manner in which he left the team; however, despite people’s personal opinions of him there is no denying the impact St. Louis had on the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay community as a whole.
Unlike players like Steven Stamkos and Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis went undrafted by every single team in the National Hockey League. Under normal circumstances this would be a serious blow to one’s confidence, one that potentially derail a person’s professional athletic career. Unfortunately for the doubters, this is not the kind of player Martin St. Louis was.
St. Louis would eventually be picked up by the Calgary Flames in February of 1998. He would first be sent to the Flames’ American Hockey League affiliate at the time, the St. John Flames, but by the beginning of the 1998-99 season, St. Louis had gotten the call to join the main roster.
When St. Louis went unselected in the 2000 expansion draft, he quickly found himself as a Free Agent. This would lead St. Louis on the path that would bring him to the Sunshine State. Martin St. Louis would play his first season with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2000-01 season.
St. Louis’ first two seasons in the NHL were not exactly as glorious as one would have hoped. In fact, in his first two seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis would fail to even crack the 20 goal mark. However, in the 2002-03 season something changed inside of St. Louis and he would quickly begin to shake off all the negativity that had surrounded him early in his career and really make a name for himself.
In his fourth season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis would be presented with an opportunity some players in the National Hockey League never get. St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning would find themselves as the Eastern Conference Champions and headed towards a showdown with the Calgary Flames for the Stanley Cup.
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As anyone who watched the Tampa Bay Lightning in their Stanley Cup season knows, it was a goal in a heart pounding double overtime from Martin St. Louis in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals that pushed a Game 7 and kept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the race for the Stanley Cup; an honor the team would achieve in just one more game.
Before being traded to the New York Rangers in the 2013-14 season, Martin St. Louis would score a total of 365 goals in a Tampa Bay Lightning sweater. Until this very day, St. Louis holds the second place spot for most overall goals as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, preceded only by his Stanley Cup winning teammate Vincent Lecavalier.
Despite the way things were left when he said his final goodbyes to the Sunshine State, there is no denying that Martin St. Louis was the heart and soul of the Tampa Bay Lightning for many years and his contributions helped lay the foundation for the successes the Lightning are still taking advantage of right now.
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