The Tampa Bay Lightning organization announced today that it has named Martin St. Louis as the ninth team captain in franchise history. Steven Stamkos, Matt Carle, and Nate Thompson will serve as alternate captains.

After buying out the remainder of Vincent Lecavalier’s mammoth contract earlier in the offseason, the Lightning’s captaincy was left vacant all summer long. Today, the organization put an end to all the speculation and chose the franchise’s all-time leading point scorer to take over the role.

Few players in the National Hockey League command the respect that Marty St. Louis does. In 910 games with the Lightning, he has compiled 336 goals and 556 assists for 892 points. In addition, he has won the Art Ross Trophy twice, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy three times, the Lester B. Pearson Award once, and the Stanley Cup. A career-long underdog, Martin St. Louis has consistently proven his critics wrong. He is a role model for every young player on the Lightning and in the NHL; it just makes sense for the organization to put the ‘C’ on his jersey.

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper agrees that St. Louis is well-deserving of the honor:

“Marty embodies everything a captain should be. The captaincy is one of the highest honors in hockey and Marty is well-deserving. We have a great group of leaders on this team and I’m sure Marty will receive plenty of support moving forward.”

On behalf of everyone here at Hockey Buzz, I'd like to send out my sincerest congratulations to Marty St. Louis. Here's hoping that he and the Lightning have a great year in 2013-14.

As always, thanks for reading.

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