The first trade on NHL Trade Deadline Day may well be the biggest, with the defending Art Ross Trophy winner getting moved. Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Martin St. Louis and Ryan Callahan swapping places. The Rangers Get: RW Martin St. Louis. St. Louis, 38, is the highest scoring player in the league since 2009-2010, tallying 388 points (131 G, 257 A) in 351 games and led the league in scoring last season, with 60 points in 48 games. Theres no reason, despite his age, to believe that St. Louis suddenly wont be able to keep producing offensively. While St. Louis has never been an exceptional possession player, hes thrived alongside Steven Stamkos, one of the premier finishers in the game, which has resulted in a consistently high high on-ice shooting percentage. There arent a lot of players that can maintain those percentages but St. Louis has been able to produce an on-ice shooting percentage above 10% every season, including the current season, during which hes spent most of his year skating with rookies Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. So, if St. Louis gets re-united with former Lightning linemate Brad Richards, there is a fair chance for that line -- with Carl Hagelin on the left side -- to be productive, definitely more productive than they have been with Callahan in that spot. St. Louis is under contract for one more season, at a cap hit of $5.625-million, but there is an advantage built in for the Rangers when it comes to signing him to an extension. Since New York was St. Louis preferred destination, its reasonable enough to think that the Blueshirts will be able to keep him as long as he keeps scoring. The Lightning Get: RW Ryan Callahan, a second-round pick, a 2015 first-round pick and an additional conditional pick. While Callahan, 28, is universally praised for his heart, work ethic and determination, those are qualities that are awfully difficult to put a value on and, in the Rangers case they were more inclined to deal Callahan for St. Louis more tangible benefits. This isnt to say that Callahan doesnt provide his own tangible value -- he has 120 goals since 2008-2009, which ranks 50th -- but he tends towards middling puck possession numbers, including this year even though hes starting a career-high 60.4% shifts in the offensive zone this year. With St. Louis moving on, there are some interesting opportunities available for Lightning forwards. While Callahan is one player who could benefit, anyone that ends up with Stamkos is obviously in a good situation. Teddy Purcell, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov are other wingers that could get a turn on Stamkos wings. Indications, leading up to this trade, were that Callahan was looking at a six-year deal worth more than $6-million per season. Its entirely understandable that the Lightning wont be inclined to pay that price to keep Callahan long-term, which would effectively make him a rental and therefore make the draft picks a more important facet of the deal. The second-round pick this year could be a first-round pick if the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final, the Lightning also get the Rangers first-round pick in 2015. If Callahan re-signs in Tampa Bay, the Rangers would get Tampa Bays second-round pick while sending a seventh-round pick to New York. The accumulated value of a mid-first and a second-round pick yields, on average, about a 95% chance of landing an NHL player, so its reasonable to see that the Lightning should get some long-term benefit out of St. Louis departure, but thats trying to making the most out of a bad situation, a situation that reached a breaking point when stories started to take hold that St. Louis had asked to be moved out of Tampa Bay. St. Louis is a rare talent, an elite point producer, and no matter how much depth the Lightning are accumulating throughout their organization -- and they have a great crop of young forwards -- its tough to make up for losing a player of St. Louis calibre, particularly in the short-term. If the Lightning were committed to making a run in a relatively open Eastern Conference, perhaps riding a career season from goaltender Ben Bishop, it might have made more sense to wait until summer to make this deal, but maybe the situation behind the scenes just wasnt tenable. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. TORONTO - Jonathan Bernier came back to try and help end a losing streak. By the time the goaltender and the Toronto Maple Leafs left Air Canada Centre, they were out of a playoff spot. Bernier returned from a five-game absence and did his best to keep the Leafs in it against the St. Louis Blues. But a plethora of other mistakes against one of the NHLs top teams Tuesday night ultimately resulted in a 5-3 defeat, their sixth in a row. "Its a hard league," Blues goaltender Ryan Miller said of the Leafs struggles. "Youve got to keep it all together." Things have seemingly fallen apart in just under two weeks time. The loss, coupled with the Blue Jackets beating the Red Wings and the Capitals picking up a point against the Los Angeles Kings, dropped the Leafs out of a wild-card position. Though all four teams have 80 points, Columbus and Detroit held the wild-card spots at the end of the night, ahead of the Capitals and then the Leafs because of games played. Not long ago Toronto was second in the Atlantic Division, and now it looks like the season is slipping away. "Certainly were afraid of letting it slip away," said winger Joffrey Lupul, whose early goal was the first time Toronto opened the scoring in eight games. "The whole year weve thought we were a playoff team, and we still believe that now. ... Theres reason for concern, but its not completely time to panic. Were still right there." Winger James van Riemsdyk, whose goal at 15:54 of the third period cut the Leafs deficit to a goal, said that the team has "100 per cent" faith that things can turn around with just eight games remaining. "We have a lot of confidence in our abilities and a belief in ourselves and believe in the guys in the room," van Riemsdyk said. "This thing is obviously far from over." At some point the Leafs (36-30-8) must show that instead of just talking about it. They were unable to do that against the Blues, who passed the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the league thanks to a hat trick from David Backes and one goal apiece from T.J. Oshie and former Leafs forward Alex Steen. Though Bernier allowed four goals, his return from a groin injury was more memorable for some of the big saves he made among his 44. The 25-year-old No. 1 goalie gave his team a chance, but too much continued to go wrong in front of and around the net. Lupul said a good team is supposed to bail its goalie out and vice-versa. That didnt happen for James Reimer in the first five games of this slide, and that continued with Bernier. "When you get in a slide like this its easy to start pin-pointing individuals, which is fair, but as a group we look at it like, if theres a mistake made by someone, someone else steps up and makes a play for them," Lupul said. "And we just havent been doing quite enough of that right now." Captain Dion Phaneuf hesitated twice to clear the puck on a late-first-period penalty kill before the Blues forced a turnover and scored, then was beaten by Steen in front of the net on the fourth goal St. Louis scored. Phaneuf was not made available to speak to reporterss, leaving coach Randy Carlyle to answer for some of the defencemans poor play.dddddddddddd "He and (Cody) Franson have been the top pairing on our blue line, as far as the offensive side of it, all year," Carlyle said. "In tonights situation, he had a rough night." Phaneuf could be blamed for at least two goals against, but he wasnt alone in having a rough night against the Blues (49-16-7), who showed early and often why theyre a Stanley Cup contender. "It was a 5-3 game where I think we couldve scored 10 goals tonight," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said in a nod to Bernier. "We had so many scoring opportunities, and I thought for the most part until we got careless and started to get fancy around the net instead of burying it that we were really playing one of our top games." During the first period, St. Louis hemmed the Leafs in their own end, putting 23 shots on net, a season high for Toronto. "I dont know," Lupul said. "We couldnt break their cycle, we couldnt get the puck." Had the Leafs managed to go into the first intermission tied 1-1, as Carlyle pointed out, they would have been fortunate. But Phaneufs mistake led to a power-play goal by Backes with 32.3 seconds left. Backes had to beat Bernier, too, but he did that twice and added an empty netter for his second career hat trick. "Theres something about this barn and this stage," Backes said. "Theres obviously a special thing about being in Toronto. The buzz in the air and everyones talking about the Leafs. Every establishments got a neon Leafs sign of some sort. This is kind of the Mecca for hockey here in Toronto." Hockey Mecca includes many more people panicking even after the Leafs lost to a much better team in the Blues. Van Riemsdyk repeatedly pointed out that the Blues are "a heck of a hockey team." Theres no disputing that, only that the Leafs couldnt find a way to end their skid. Bernier knows nothing should have to be said after this one. "If were missing motivation, at this time of the year everyone should have some," he said. "Obviously we knew it was not going to be easy. Thats a good team out there — theyre first and they showed it tonight." The Leafs showed something in trimming a three-goal deficit to one in the third period. And while thats the biggest thing theyll take from Tuesday night, its not nearly enough with the frustration building up. "Youve got to try and manage that," van Riemsdyk said. "If you play in a frustrated type of way youre no good out there. Weve got to continue to learn from things and look at the positives and kind of go from there." One positive Lupul sees is two games ahead at the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night and then back home against the Red Wings on Saturday night. "You win those two games, all of a sudden things look a lot different," he said. Until the Leafs manage to do that, things look bleak. NOTES: With Bernier back, the Leafs sent goaltender Drew MacIntyre back to the AHLs Toronto Marlies. ... Defenceman Paul Ranger was scratched for the third straight game with a neck injury. ' ' '