So this happened Faulk to ice with Blues, Point, Tkachuk re-sign

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In Raleigh, Justin Faulk was having a difficult time time deciding on what path his career would take.

That was all solved when the Carolina Hurricanes traded the defenseman to the St Louis Blues for Joel Edmundson, Dominik Bokk and a seventh-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.

Faulk proceeded to sign a seven-year deal with the Blues worth an estimated $6.5 million annually.

“Justin comes with a very deep and strong resume, a player that’s played in the League for a number of years,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “He’s 27 years old, in the prime part of his hockey career. We feel he’s tailor-made to today’s NHL, a skater, someone that can transport and move the puck, touches both ends of special teams and has logged a lot of minutes over the years.”

Faulk had rejected trades to other teams, he had a list of 15 destimations he would accept.

“Not that I didn’t want to be in Carolina at all,” he said, “but it’s just nice that if you’re going to move on and you’re going to go to another team, another situation, it’s another team that’s having success and doing well. I’m happy to be a part of a team that’s going to hopefully continue to have success. Obviously we all know what happened last season. That’s great, and it’s nice to join a team that’s feeling good and confident and knowing what the rigors are like to keep going.”

Faulk had one year left on his current conract with the Canes, and the club was looking to trade at the highest value point now rather than Faulk as an unsigned free agent.

“The value (of Faulk) as a potential unrestricted free agent wouldn’t have been what the value was for us when we made the trade. St. Louis was willing to meet what his contract demands were,” Hurricanes GM Don Waddell said. “Part of the agreement was they would pay this price if they could get an extension, so that’s what was important to us, to get the most value we can. That’s why we gave St. Louis permission to talk to the player.”

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Matthew Tkachuk signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Calgary Flames.

Tkachuk had 34 goals and 77 points on the season last year.

He was a restricted free agent.

In Tampa, Brayden Point inked a three-year, $20.25 million deal with the Lightning this week.

“At this point, and throughout, it was always projected that he would be cleared to play at some point in late October,” Bolts general manager Julien BriseBois said. “So even though we are very happy that we were able to get a deal done here and Brayden will be joining the team on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, we don’t expect him to play in any preseason games. We don’t expect him to be ready for the opener.

“But having him around, just being with his teammates, practicing with them and getting daily treatment from our superb staff here … all that will benefit him and our team. Hopefully, we’ll get Brayden back in the lineup as quickly as possible.”

Point was solid in the Lightning’s push to the top spot in the league last season.

He potted 20 power play goals over the regular season.

Overall, he scored 41 goals on the campaign and had 92 points for the season.

“We are very pleased to re-sign Brayden today,” BriseBois said. “He is the consummate professional with an unwavering commitment to team success, growing as a player and improving every day. It is that mindset that makes him an outstanding role model, teammate and person, on and off the ice. We look forward to getting Brayden back on the ice with his Lightning teammates as soon as possible.”

he also had a plus-27 rating for the season.