Just days after the lights went out on the New York Rangers season, future NHL Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis revealed that his career could also be on ice.
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The Rangers lost in Game 7 at Madison Square Garden for the first time in history on Friday to St. Louis' former team the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-0, and three days later the winger was left to contemplate the future.
St. Louis, who almost certainly won't be a Blueshirt next season due to his lack of production, the team's offseason needs and the issues with cap space, said he wasn't sure what the future holds for his on-ice career.
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"We're two days fresh from getting knocked out of the playoffs," St. Louis told reporters, according to ESPN. "I'm going to be 40 in two weeks. I'm just going to get a chance to reflect here and think about it, and we'll see it go from there."
St. Louis was productive during his first full regular season in New York, ranking second on the team with 21 goals and fourth with 52 points, but as the campaign wore on he began to lose his touch and show his age.
St. Louis registered just one goal and six points in 19 playoff games for the Rangers this spring, a performance which saw his stint on the top line come to an end.
The 5-foot-8, undrafted winger spent two years with the Calgary Flames before serving the majority of his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a club that he won the Stanley Cup with in 2004.
St. Louis was dealt to the Rangers by the Lightning late last season after he requested to be moved to the Blueshirts as he always wanted to play in New York and owned a home in nearby Connecticut.
St. Louis quickly meshed with his new teammates and they rallied around him after his mother, France, passed away during the club's playoff run last spring.
The loss of his mother galvanized the team around him and they rallied back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games in Round 2 and made New York's first run to the Stanley Cup Final in 20 years, where it lost to the Los Angeles Kings in five games.
The Rangers had high hopes this season and won the Presidents' Trophy for the first time since 1994, but St. Louis' old club stood in their way to greatness.
Now, the Rangers are thinking of what could have been while the Lightning skate toward a Stanley Cup Final meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks, starting Wednesday in Tampa Bay.
St. Louis has played in 1,134 games in his career and has 391 goals, 642 assists and 1,033 points.
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