ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI – The St. Louis Blues have shown considerable promise in their development of talent from within. While the Blues do have a few small holes to fill, ownership has shown no signs of ever being greedy and over paying for falling stars. St. Louis seems to have one large need at the NHL level for this coming season. Chris Mason played the entire stretch without a day off prior to the playoffs. A total of 38 games separated Manny Legace’s last start and the beginning of the playoffs for the Blues. While Mason was solid under the pressure, expectations are unrealistic to believe anyone can skate that many consecutive games at such a high level for so long. Expect the Blues to look for a solid veteran willing to take a small amount of money for one or maybe two seasons until the younger goaltenders are completely ready to fulfill for a roster spot. The St. Louis Blues began the free agency period early signing veteran leader Keith Tkachuk to a one year deal worth close to $2.15 million. In signing Tkachuk the ownership has shown their willingness to preserve team chemistry and allow for the younger players to continue developing at their current pace. With the Blues ranks slowly starting to fill to capacity, a player like Tkachuk can bring numerous upsides in developing those around him into solid NHL players. The younger players look up to Keith Tkachuk and he accepts that he has more to give these days to ice hockey than the high scoring gritty power forward that still shows up night after night. While the Blues have a few players to resign the addition of an outsider seems glib. Many sources have the Blues needing an offensive defenseman, but a healthy Erik Johnson will fill that void. The team was devastated by injuries last season to two key players, Johnson injured his knee in a golf cart accident and Paul Kariya spent most of the season out with hip surgery. Both players are expected to be ready for camp this season and can easily add over 100 points to a team that showed promise without them. The Blues currently have seven unrestricted free agents at this point. The two most notable players are Brad Winchester and Dan Hinote. Both players are similar in their style and are very capable at the NHL level. While there are scenarios that have both players resigning with the Blues as well as departing, financial demands will mean everything. Both players can remain in St. Louis for the right price. If their contract demands exceed the Blues offering price then it is safe to say that the franchise holds the cards at this point to control the future of all involved. For the upcoming free agency period, the Blues could make a surprising splash with a single big name player. The simple fact of the matter is that their needs are simple and overextending themselves for a high priced player has fewer upsides than one may believe. Expect the Blues to attempt to resign a fair number of their own free agents for the right price, and scour for a reasonably priced backup goalie to share the load with Mason. While gauging exactly what the Blues will do this off-season will be difficult due to the management changeover of recent, success has started to transpire by following the plan of the previous four years. The Blues will not speculate the future for a Stanley Cup in 2009-10. You may email the author at: john.strathman@prohockeynews.com
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