Let's Go Blues

After the Brett Hull ceremony this week and that article in the Post, I can't help but think trading anyone of the young guys on our squad because the team has been average during the first 30 games would be shades of the past. Keep these guys together. I swear if we trade someone off this squad and he goes on to win a cup somewhere else....

If you can get Staal for prospects that haven't proven anything yet, do it.

But right now its just a rumor.

[quote="BF44"][quote="kodos"]If he was asking, it needs a question mark.

It's not rocket science...

And actually, I think I might be okay with this trade. I'd feel better about it if we could keep Perron, but hey... got to give to get...[/quote]

In reading more closely, it looks like maybe Garrioch migh thave been listing assets Rutherford may be interested in... not necessarily that it would take all 3 to get Staal..... We shouldn't have to pay so much for a salary dump. I don't like losing Perron. Perhaps if we sent them Berglund in a 57 sweater??[/quote]

EXACTLY! He NEVER said those 3 players would be traded for Staal. He said that those three were among the desirable players the Blues have to put towards such a trade. No way The Blues would give up all 3. or 3 players of that calibre (potential upsides) for Staal.

How in the hell could we afford him

Just thinkin Kariya would prolly go in it. we would need the cap space for this year and he is in his walk year. They could then flip him at the deadline for picks.

I think the only way the Blues could trade for Staal is if he were willing to rework his contract.

Right now he's in the second year of a 7 year deal having an 8.25/yr cap hit. If he were willing to extend his 6yr/49.5m deal to something like a 12 year/75m deal, then suddenly he looks appealing enough to consider, especially if Kariya is going the other way.

Sorry, but I doubt anyone would take on Paulie's contract for anything.

DaDitka wrote:Sorry, but I doubt anyone would take on Paulie's contract for anything.

They wouldn't be taking Kariya for the actual player, they'd be trading for his contract. With some promising prospects to acquire Staal, Kariya would give them cap relief. Where Staal is on the hook for the next 6 years, Kariya is a FA after this season, basically freeing up that 6m salary for Carolina.

With the way the Cap works now, I think you're going to start seeing Basketball style trades where teams trade players as much for their contract as they do for their talent.

TheoSqua wrote:

DaDitka wrote:Sorry, but I doubt anyone would take on Paulie's contract for anything.

They wouldn't be taking Kariya for the actual player, they'd be trading for his contract. With some promising prospects to acquire Staal, Kariya would give them cap relief. Where Staal is on the hook for the next 6 years, Kariya is a FA after this season, basically freeing up that 6m salary for Carolina.

With the way the Cap works now, I think you're going to start seeing Basketball style trades where teams trade players as much for their contract as they do for their talent.

I know what you are saying, I just think those kinds of move will come much closer to the Olympic break or the trade deadline.

At this point, I feel a trade partner would want more in return for their player if we were sending Paulie then if we weren’t.

As you stated, he’s walking after this year and I’d rather see us pay the other 3 mill or so on his deal then have to send an extra prospect in a deal.

Of course, I’d trade quite a bit if someone was willing to take Brewer and his contact off our hands.

Brings up a point…what if Brewer is done, Sydor isn’t coming back, and we were to trade Petro and Cole…..CC would have us by the nuts walking into FA. I’m not saying there aren’t other options, just thinking out loud.

Hey Pauli is starting to earn his contract hes been playing very good as of late

It is a question of how bad Carolina wanted the rest of the trade package. I don't think the Blues could add a big contract like that without subtracting something significant (not the picks and prospects), for just cap reasons if nothing else. "We can't give you the good if you don't take the bad as well. The league won't let us."

STLADOGG wrote:Hey Pauli is starting to earn his contract hes been playing very good as of late

Not playing up to what he's making though, for 6 million he needs to be putting up more points. If we were paying him around 3 million I'd agree, but I dont think it's his fault, I do t think he was ever gonna perform that much at least not now, he's just too old.

And can someone remind me why we didn't go after Hossa this offseason and payin him like 6 mill and now we are talking about trading away serious players and prospects for a guy we will have to pay 8 mill to.

section319 wrote:And can someone remind me why we didn't go after Hossa this offseason and payin him like 6 mill and now we are talking about trading away serious players and prospects for a guy we will have to pay 8 mill to.

We weren't supposed to be in this position, for one thing. This team was supposed to be fine this year. Plus the whole "keep the cap open to keep the kids together" etc. The Hawks don't follow that program and next season they will only have 2 lines worth of players because of it

WaukeeBlues wrote:

section319 wrote:And can someone remind me why we didn't go after Hossa this offseason and payin him like 6 mill and now we are talking about trading away serious players and prospects for a guy we will have to pay 8 mill to.

We weren't supposed to be in this position, for one thing. This team was supposed to be fine this year. Plus the whole "keep the cap open to keep the kids together" etc. The Hawks don't follow that program and next season they will only have 2 lines worth of players because of it

And I bet they are still More competitive with those two lines than we will be. And we have 6 mil coming off the books next year, I understand what you're saying but I think it was a little naive by management to think Kariya and Johnson were gonna help us that much more.

section319 wrote:And we have 6 mil coming off the books next year, I understand what you're saying but I think it was a little naive by management to think Kariya and Johnson were gonna help us that much more.

Just management? The entire fan base was under the impression that those two may push the team closer to the top of the league. Can you honestly say, after last years season ending run, you believed that this team still needed to go out and pick up a high paid scorer? That was supposed to be Kariya (plus the increase in goals from EJ at the blue line). Hindsight is always 20/20.

In my prediction thread, I expected the Blues to score 50 goals more than they did last season. They're on pace to score 13 less. With the addition of the best offensive forward on the team and the best offensive defenceman on the team and the young guys being one year better, I don't think anyone would have predicted that this team would actually score less goals per game than last season so far.

TheoSqua wrote:In my prediction thread, I expected the Blues to score 50 goals more than they did last season. They're on pace to score 13 less. With the addition of the best offensive forward on the team and the best offensive defenceman on the team and the young guys being one year better, I don't think anyone would have predicted that this team would actually score less goals per game than last season so far.

I was drinking the koolaid too.

What kind of numbers were you guys expecting Kariya too to put up? I mean I thought he would do better but I wasn't expecting 30 goals out of him, maybe 60 points. Do you really think San Jose needed Heatley that bad? But you go and get star players if you can, I'm not saying I expected this kind of lack of offense from the team but why not at least try to go get a 40+ goal scorer, especially when ours from two years ago is so streaky. It would be nice to have someone who can avg a point a game and that could have been Hossa, no one on this team showed Any chance of scoring 82 or more points. I'm just saying it would have been nice to try and go after free agent scoring rather than relying on a second year dman and a 34 year old Kariya. EJ has been good this season no doubt, but I would call Paul Kariya our best offensive forward coming into this season.

section319 wrote:What kind of numbers were you guys expecting Kariya too to put up?

Here's a spreadsheet of my projections and actual performance. Basically everybody sans a handful of players are under performing what I expected them to do...

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... xZ1E&hl=en

TheoSqua wrote:In my prediction thread, I expected the Blues to score 50 goals more than they did last season. They're on pace to score 13 less. With the addition of the best offensive forward on the team and the best offensive defenceman on the team and the young guys being one year better, I don't think anyone would have predicted that this team would actually score less goals per game than last season so far.

As someone pointed out in a different thread, it could be the ice. The ice sucks, they can't play their game when the puck is bouncing every which way but neatly onto the sticks of the pass recipients.

There is some sense of non-logic to the fact that this team would be frikken' sweet if they only played on the road, but they can't play worth a horses turd on friendly ice.

However, that should also serve as a disadvantage to the visiting team. In fact, craptastic ice should be something the players embrace as an additional advantage at home. Now I'm conflicted.

Could also be the asinine coaching philosophy.