Quote:
Originally Posted by dino7c
St. Louis passed though waivers and 2 expansion drafts... nobody else wanted him either
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A little while ago when I was moving, I came across my old hockey magazines from that era and there was one piece, I think written by Eric Duhatchek, where he deconstructed the Flames season and pointed out that St. Louis had a strong finish to the season and was a huge bright spot for the Flames future. The forecaster also said he was a player to keep an eye on. Personally, I also recall being really impressed with his energy.
So there were some people who saw St. Louis as a player worth investing in. Did anyone see him becoming as amazing as he did? No, not likely. But he definitely wasn't buy out material at the time.
It is worth mentioning though that when he went to Tampa, he complained to Tortorella that he wasn't getting quality ice-time to produce. Tortorella gave him some pretty tough love by plastering him to the bench and 4th line. St. Louis went scoreless in something like his first 20 games and then out of the blue, Torts put him on the first line and told him to prove it. He made St. Louis want it so bad that once he had the chance, he wasn't going to let anyone take it away. If he stayed in Calgary, I am not sure he would have developed the same way.
The exact same kind of tactic coaches here used on Bennett and people thought it was unfair. He didn't respond nearly as well as St. Louis did.