A couple of interesting factoids about Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning. First, he has a no-trade clause, according to NHLSCAP. Those are pesky. He also has a $5.25 million cap hit through the end of 2011, which can be a bit of a burden for a team like, say, the Pittsburgh Penguins -- who have roughly $46 million in committed salary for next season, via NHL Numbers.

Not to say a St. Louis-to-Pittsburgh* trade, like the one whose whispers are being reported by our buddy David Pagnotta on The Fourth Period, is impossible from a numbers perspective. Thinking about next season: Miroslav Satan's UFA departure plus Ruslan Fedotenko's UFA departure equals St. Louis's cap hit with $450,000 to spare.

Then there's the notion that the Penguins could send salary back to the Bolts in the form of defenseman Ryan Whitney. A 26-year-old defenseman for what will be a 34-year-old winger with declining numbers? Unless the cap-onomics make Whitney's participation vital, it might be overpayment.

For what it's worth, St. Louis sounds a hell of a lot less rah-rah about Tampa's chances to stage a miracle rally for a playoff spot. Which may have something to do with having to go something like 21-7 to even have a sniff of the postseason race the rest of the way. Yikes.

FYI: Some of you might know that I do a little podcast with Pagnotta and TFP on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well, we're going to try a little experiment today. First, here's the player to (god-willing) listen to it. Second, here's the phone number to actually call in and bug us: 646-929-1165. The podcast begins at 12:30 p.m. EST and lasts a half-hour (for now). I have no idea if this will work. But much like Oren Koules and Len Barrie, I'm not about to let failure get into the way of future failure. 

* Please do forgive the ‘A' on Sidney's jersey. We're not trying to demote him, just use relevant art.