The announcement Thursday that Martin St. Louis will retire from hockey wasn’t needed for the debate to begin, because the debate had already raged and everybody, including St. Louis, knew he wasn’t coming back to the Rangers.
What to make of the trade with Tampa Bay in March of 2014, which sent Rangers captain Ryan Callahan and two first-round draft picks to the Lightning, for which St. Louis had been captain?
The Rangers were not going to be able to re-sign Callahan, with whom they negotiated right to the morning of the trade deadline.