A final grade on the Marty St. Louis trade? Not yet

Can we finally grade the big 2014 trade between the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning?

Earlier, we tentatively awarded the Lightning the advantage in the Ryan McDonagh trade between the New York Rangers and Tampa.  With the Stanley Cup championship, the Lightning have won that deal at this point, but it is still too early to say definitively who won.

Six years ago there was another blockbuster between the two teams as the Rangers rolled the dice in an attempt to win the Cup. They came close, but ultimately failed and with the Lightning winning the Cup, can we put a final grade on that transaction?  Believe it or not, it’s still too soon.

Here’s the trade

The Rangers got Martin St. Louis in exchange for Ryan Callahan, a 2014 conditional second round pick and a 2015 first round pick.  Wait, there’s more and it was all about the conditions.  Here they are:

1. The 2014 conditional second round pick became a first rounder if the Rangers made the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals. They did.
2. If the Lightning re-signed Ryan Callahan, the Rangers would receive Tampa’s 2015 second round pick and the Lightning would get the Rangers’ 2015 seventh round pick.  They did.

So the final damage was Martin St. Louis and Tampa’s second round pick in the 2015 draft in exchange for Ryan Callahan, the Rangers’ first round picks in 2014 and 2015 and the Rangers’ seventh round pick in 2015.

It gets complicated

The complication is that all of those draft picks got traded. Then, they traded those picks for more picks.  And traded those picks for more picks. Here’s how it started:

1. The Rangers traded the 2015 second round pick (#60 overall)  to Florida in the Keith Yandle deal.
2. The Lightning traded the 2014 first round pick (#28 overall) to the Islanders.
3. The Lightning traded the 2015 first round pick (#28 overall) to the Islanders.
4. The Lightning traded the 2015 seventh round pick (#209 overall)  back to the Rangers.