Bluenotes 2-10-11: Calm Before The Storm

A daily dose of news and views from around St. Louis Blues nation.

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Thursday is he final off day for the St. Louis Blues before they begin a critical home and home set against the Minnesota Wild. After their 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday, the Wild move hold 9th place in the Western Conference with 61 points. The Blues trail by five points from 13th place. The Calgary Flames currently hold the 8th spot with 63 points.

Both clubs understand the importance of both games. With a pair of regulation wins the Blues could have 60 points and be just one point behind Minnesota. Then, with a little luck be 3 points back of 8th place. Two regulations losses and big wins by Calgary, LA and Chicago could sink the Blues season. Should make for highly entertaining hockey games.

Here is how the standings look from 8th to 14th:

Calgary – 63
Minnesota – 61
Los Angeles – 60
Chicago – 60
Columbus – 57
St. Louis – 56
Colorado – 56

Bringing Back Brewer?

The trade deadline is nearing and as the upcoming weekend looms large, many are wondering if the pending Unrestricted Free Agents, like Eric Brewer and Ty Conklin, will be moved. Which leads to another question, will they re-sign if they are not traded?

For the Blues captain, everything depends on the cost to retain. Should he use this season to justify making more than say $3.5 million per year for three or more years (or more than his current $4.25 million cap hit), then the Blues have to walk away. If he wants two or three years at around $3 million, then the Blues keep him and try to move Roman Polak (can’t believe I’m saying that) or Carlo Colaiacovo.

Why?

Brewer, when healthy, is just as effective as Polak and Cola. Plus, he has much needed experience and leadership ability (blasphemy to say, I know…) to boot. Losing Brewer means the Blues will have to go fishing in the open UFA waters to address that need. Is the devil you know better than the one you don’t? In this case, he is. Especially when open market equals overpayment.

As an RFA Roman could garner some attention for a team looking to upgrade defensively that may want to add to their blue-line and be willing to overpay for the security of a young, positive trending, mobile, defensively responsible defenseman (Florida, San Jose?). Carlo has a cap friendly hit for a team looking to add an offensive punch from the point and might have a surplus of forwards to deal from (Buffalo?). There is a need for players around the league like these two. A suitor can be found this summer to make the numbers fit.

Keeping Brewer at a $3 million per year price point is likely less than what it will take to keep both Cola and Polak next year. Over $2 million for Colaiacovo and likely over $2 million to re-sign Polak. If they can move one of those to add forward depth, keep Brewer and bring along Ian Cole or Nikita Nikitin, they’ll do it.

Doug Armstrong has a history built in his brief tenure of always looking to trade from surplus to address need.

Some will question if “Brewer will take less to stay”. That greatly depends on if he wants to use this summer as his “last chance” at a big contract or if he wants to really stay in St. Louis. Will be interesting to see if having a newborn makes an impact there because should he hit the open market July 1st, he will receive offers at or near his current contract value.

Personally, I think the Blues handle him like they did < strong >Chris Mason. Willing to keep him up to ‘x” price and not willing to budge. If Brewer is willing to oblige, the two sides can make it happen.

Links

Check out my Q&A with Susan Crosby covering the Western Conference on HockeyIndependent.com.

Our 2011 Trade Deadline Page is up and ready to roll. Please check it out daily.

The rescheduled Rink Tours are tonight from 6-7 pm. I’ll be at Fairvew. Not just because I want to see TJ Oshie, but because I live 5 minutes from the rink. I would assume someone else is coming with TJ since Tyson Strachan was put on waivers to head to Peoria.

Speaking of the Rivermen, they fought hard and came back to beat Milwaukee 4-3 in a Shootout Wednesday night.

Two key parts of the recap on the Rivermen’s site stand out:

Ben Bishop made 39 saves in regulation and overtime and stopped five of six shooters in the shootout for his 14^th win of the year.

The Rivermen killed off a 4-on-3 for 1:40 at the start of the OT and held the Admirals scoreless in an offensive overtime session where the two teams combined for 11 shots.

The Blues ECHL affiliate, Alaska Aces, made a trade on Monday. Acquiring forward Dan Kissel from Gwinnett for future considerations.

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