Finally St Louis has completed it's forward lines, despite trying it's best to fill it out with a trade, they turned to the free agency pool, and they've found their man in Mark Recchi. However, their job is still not done as they are still looking for a starting goaltender. However, with the signing of Recchi, the Blues have decided on their lines and will announce their captains soon. As of right now the forwards for the Blues are:
FORWARDS Alexander Frolov - Saku Koivu - Mark Recchi Nik Antropov - Ryan Malone - Jamie Langenbrunner Boyd Devereaux - Matt Cullen - Daniel Cleary Vernon Fiddler - Jeffrey Hamilton - Alexander Burrows
Trade Block for forwards: Matt Cullen Forward Call Ups: Petr Tenkrat, John Pohl, Kris Beech, Jason Ward, Ben Guite
DEFENSE Adam Foote - Kyle McLaren Rostislav Klesla - Pavel Kubina Stephane Robidas - Tim Gleason
With another deal completed, gone is the two million plus paperweight Janne Niinimaa and a 7th round pick in the 2008 draft, and in comes Ben Guite and a 6th round pick. "This deal saves the team some money, so we're over the moon about it"
i turned zajac into olesz, welch, 2nd :) :) i knew st.louis had the peices to be one or two solid ufa's away from a top 6-8 finish out in the weak weak west no not wild wild west but weak weak west....
The Blues finally found their starter, however it's through a trade that they dislike. "We absolutely hate giving up talent like Kyle Okposo, Jiri Novotny and Ilja Bryzgalov but sometimes we have to do trades we aren't proud of," said GM Gareth Evans today. Gone are the three, but in come their new starter Chris Mason and puckmoving defenseman Pavel Kubina. We feel that we're getting the short end of the stick, but with the stiff competition from Montreal for Nikolai Khabibulin who has more cap room than us and can afford him means we had to look elsewhere. The shortage of starters doesn't help either, but with Mason getting the shot of being the number one in Nashville, we hope he can improve on last year's numbers.
Pavel Kubina adds more depth to an already strong defensive core, and will most likely be paired up on the second line pairing. This means that the Blues can move either Robidas or Lukowich for help up front or for picks and prospects.
