Re: Marty St. Louis believed to have asked for a trade
I agree with alot that was said here, but I'm still not sold on the fact that St.Louis would ask for a trade based on him being left out of Team CANADA by his GM.
When you look at the players that were selected over him, only Duchene fit the mold of a St.Louis type player and he was not part of the 12-man forward core. Being younger and all, I can see why Duchene got the nod as he was to be an extra player anyways; may as well give him the experience for the next games when he is a starter.
MSL is a great playmaker and a good sniper, but there was no need to add him initially when you had so much firepower in the first place. I was against the selection of Carter, Marleau and Nash (I was also one of the few Kunitz supporters though). I felt their abilities would not translate well on the bigger ice surface and a smaller, flashier player like St.Louis could benefit greatly from this type of playing field. I too was disappointed and frustrated when I saw that he was not selected at first. Alas, I was wrong... The players taken over him really got the job done. That being said, I'm just a hockey fan with a fair understanding of a hockey system and team chemistry. You can try to be a bench boss as much as you like, but the hockey minds behind Team CANADA's roster selection knew what was best for the team and selected the best players to fit the game they wanted to play.
There is no doubt Giroux is better than Nash or Neal being a better point producer than Carter or Kunitz for that matter, but when all the pieces where in place, the players selected got that big red machine rolling and made it practically unstoppable. Could other players have made a similar impact? I would be inclined to say yes. However, all we know is that those that were selected were believed to be the ones to make it work and they did just that.
My point in all of this is that IF St.Louis was not pleased by his initial omission from the final cut, he should have understood that it was not because of his lack of skill or his overall talent; it was simply a simply a situation in which what he could bring to the table was not needed as players such as Crosby, Stamkos (initially selected) and Tavares were to be able to take the bulk of the scoring duties on their shoulders alone (didn't really turn out that way but St.Louis did not fare much better).
Requesting a trade out of TB for that reason alone (if it's true) makes me truly question MSL's character. That is why I do not think this story is true or to the very least, it is missing a chunk of other issues related to the matter.
Keeper league 14 teams (H2H, 20 active players keep 16 NHLers, 16 minors)
Scoring Cats: G-A-PTS-PPG-PPA-(+/-)-HITS-BLK-SHP-SOG-FOW-GWG / W-L-SVS-SV%-GAA-SO
C- Crosby, Barzal, Bennett, Schmaltz, Cooley, Novak
W- Forsberg, Batherson, Nichuskin, Tuch, Konecny, Maccelli, Sharangovich, Bertuzzi, Kaliyev, Neighbours, Reichel
D- Carlson, Rielly, Klingberg
G- Hellebuyck, Demko, Merzlikins, Vejmelka
Minors:
F: Fantilli, Bourgault, Perreault, Cowan, Ohgren, N. Foote, Goyette, Iskhakov, Denisenko, Tracey
D: Simashev, Willander, Lambos
G: Schmidt, Rodrigue, DiPietro, Gaudreau, McKay