Doing a couple final checks around the Twitter world I uncovered a tidbit Blues fans will be extremely interested.
Per Jeremy Rutherford of the Post and Chris Kerber of KMOX, Alex Pietrangelo is heading back to his Junior’s team in Niagara.
Pietrangelo is heading back to his OHL Team the Niagara Ice Dogs. There are rumors however that he will be traded to a Juniors team contending for the playoffs.
While I do not see an official statement from the Blues on their site however, I have come to trust JR and Kerbs. Blues Vice President of Hockey Operations said on Team 1380 today that the team had already come to a decision on Pietrangelo’s status with the team and as of this afternoon that was not public knowledge. I am assuming that this decision was ready before his sluggish performance tonight against the US Team in the WJC Gold Medal game.
What does this mean Blues fans? Well a couple things.
1. The Blues are set on their current depth on defense.
2. They expect enough offensive output to come from Johnson, Colaiacovo, and Brewer to make this team competitive.
3. His offensive upside did not counter balance his defensive shortcomings.
4. They want to give Strachan and Junland a chance to get NHL time if the need arises. They do have more experience at higher levels than Alex.
I hope Alex doesn’t see this as the end of the world. I doubt he does, but I am sure it stings to find out that you aren’t going back to the NHL when you just lost the biggest game of your career to date. Alex has said that the front office has communicated clearly with him before on their plans for him. My guess is he takes his problems to task and improves on them. If Team Canada entrusted him with an “A” for the World Junior Championships, then the people with real hockey smarts see he is improving and maturing as a player.
Before fans start in with the “bust” label, let’s do a reality check.
- At the 2008 Draft it was said that of the 4 defensemen taken in the top 5 picks, he had the highest ceiling and the most development needed to get to the NHL level. Just because Doughty is lighting the world on fire and Alex isn’t, doesn’t mean tat Alex won’t get there.
- The Blues have 7 defensemn under contracts on the NHL roster already. By sending him back, his contract clock doesn’t start ticking yet. That means more years he is paid less, which helps the franchise pay the bills.
- The Blues have two very capable defensemen in Peoria who can step in to the same role Alex would. Strachan and Junland are just further along in their development than he is. The Blues will also have to re-sign both players and they need to see what they have in each guy going forward.
- Once his season is done back in Juniors, he can join up with Peoria if they are still playing.
I can say I am as disappointed as most Blues fans to hear this news. We all want to see the high draft picks blossom right away like other teams. However, there really is no room for him and he hasn’t shown enough progression to move himself up the Blues depth chart. So why burn a year of his contract? The Blues are working towards a special team filled with capable talent. Sometimes that talent doesn’t progress as quickly as the fans want. In this case Alex just isn’t progressed enough yet to warrant NHL ice time. When this team has the whole young core locked up and playing with experience, we won’t care that we had to send him back to Juniors.
Good luck back in Juniors Alex. Keep at it.
If he isn’t dealt from Niagara, I find this to be a very dumb move. JD hasn’t had many of those, but this could be one of them.
I will agree to disagree as I stated above. Alex showed that only half of his game is ready for a higher level of competition. His defensive game and execution was not good enough against the US.
He will be fine.
I wouldn’t be too worried about Petro staying in Niagara. It makes sense that the Blues would have to first return him to Jrs before Niagara really even had an asset to trade.
As a fan, I’m a little disappointed in this move but trying to view things from management’s perspective, and I think this move makes sense. Petro still has plenty of work to do on his defensive game, they already have 7 healthy d-men in STL and another two capable of NHL minutes in Peoria and this now keeps Petro on his rookie contract through the 2012-13 season.
Sluggish game? He was a +1 on the top Shutdown line for Canada. That includes a -1 in OT. He was not on the ice for 1 goal against in Regulation. How could this be determined a sluggish game? He was on the ice for 3 of Canada’s 5 Goals.
What impact did he have on the game?
I saw two impacts plays/events.
1. A bad penalty for checking from behind after a clean US hit. A bad hit which landed him in the penalty box for quite a while.
2. A shot that did not make it though that ended up going the other way for the game winning goal in overtime.
He had a game that David Perron would have had early on 08-09. On ice for goals, but not really contributing to them. As a leader on that team I wanted to see him assert himself in big games. He was burnt three times before scoring a goal in the first game against the US. He had virtually no impact in the second game.
I am not worried that he will turn in to a bust or that he was over valued. What I saw was a player who was given a big opportunity to prove he was an elite player at his level. What he did do was pad his stats against Latvia, Switzerland, and Slovakia. When it came crunch time against a team of equal skill and will, he wasn’t good enough.
To his credit, for the most part he made the simple play, as he should. He is vastly more experienced than most other players in that tournament. What he didn’t do was execute on the big plays. Those big plays were at NHL speed and he didn’t handle them well.
Okay; so I’m a girl, and I just started really getting into hockey about two months ago; can you explain to me what’s going on; but in simple form; like I said I’m just figuring out the sport please and thankss (:
Simple Form?
Alex is going back to his amateur team sine he hasn’t played well enough to stick it out in the NHL this year.