Tom Casey ice report..

[DaDitka]

Tom noted that Vladimir Sobotka could be on the ice as early as Saturday (not news), but the Blues original plans of making room for him may have changed.

According to him, the Blues were originally taught to be planning on sending down Matt D'Agostini, who scored two goals in his last game.

Strickland's last note in 'True Hockey' includes a snip-it about the Blues possibly making room with a trade.......Bergie.

Discuss.....

[SamJunior]

Let me get it straight. The Blues are planning to make room for Sobotka by trading Berglund? WTF? Berglund produced more points last season (when he sucked) than Sobotka in three seasons overall. This is ridiculous...

[kodos]

As long as the team is winning, I say you leave them intact. Let Sobotka sit in the press box until you have a reason to put him in.

I'm fine with trading Bergie. Maybe to Jersey for an expensive forward? Win-win?

[thedoc]

I personally have no problem trading Berglund. I felt this would be a make or break year for him in the league anyway. He has all of the physical attributes but so far all he has really excelled at is the Landing. That being said I don't want to just give him away for nothing and I don't want to do it just open a spot.

[DaDitka]

Let me get it straight. The Blues are planning to make room for Sobotka by trading Berglund? WTF? Berglund produced more points last season (when he sucked) than Sobotka in three seasons overall. This is ridiculous...

I'm not sure they view the it as that easy. I know they were quite unhappy with Bergie last year and in camp, now Strickland says he's already hearing 'whispers' for what that's worth.

I just don't understand making a move now. Even if you've decided you absolutely don't want him, let him try to build his trade value back up a little. After last year, I don't see how he can possibly hurt it any more, and the McD, Oshie, Bergie ling has looked good so far.

If Sobotka has to play, sit Reaves.

Here's were you get into the numbers trick bad when you are only getting limited offense from a bunch of guys instead of having a couple of 'main' guys. Now your stuck trying to dress as many offensive threats as possible while perhaps leaving yourself too thin 'physically'.

It's going to be a real 'feeling out' process here the first month or so IMO.

[ReelBluesFan887]

Why trade Bergie? This makes zero sense to me. Granted it's from Strickland so I'm wasting my time worrying about it, but seriously this would be moronic. We have an open spot for Vladimir, Cam or Reaves aren't going to play every night. And why not put 4 lines out there that have some offensive capabilities instead of one line hampered by an enforcer who can just skate into people, sometimes his own teammates.

[dmiles2186]

Gotta say I agree, this is weird to be surfacing now. There may be nothing to this. Certainly, I could see the front office losing patience with Berglund. He's just got too much size and skill to be this unnoticeable on the ice game in and game out. Really, what would you get for trading Berglund? And what would you want in return. I'm not going to jump to conclusions, like Reel said, it's from Strickland, so I'm sure there's "More to come..." but it is puzzling.

Then again, management made the Stemp for Steen/Cola trade early in the season two years ago, so anything is possible.

[SteveO]

I don't think there's any way they trade Berglund now. It's just way too early.

Unless they don't foresee him getting any better than is right this minute, I don't think they trade him.

[cprice12]

I have no problem trading Berglund at all...unless it's just to free up a spot. That doesn't make sense.

I can see the Blues wanting to trade him before he becomes basically worthless. He may have some value right now as a kid who can still break out...but if they wait too long and he sucks over the next 25 games, then I doubt anyone will want him.

If they don't trade him, they need to sit Reaves if they want Sabotka in the lineup.

[philco_3]

Reaves will be sent back down if and when Sobokta will be healthy. Cam will be a healthy scratch when he is not needed...which will hopefully be a regular basis. We need players who can stickhandle and skate.

[glen a richter]

New Jersey is in a shitstorm. They had to dress only 15 guys against Pittsburgh because they're in the 7th circle of salary cap hell. They've totally clusterfukked themselves with the Kovalchuk deal. Berglund for Parise straight up and you know the Devils would do that in a split second just because it's out of necessity. If we're talking about freeing up a spot for Sobotka, so they'd have to trade another body as well, fine: Berglund + Crombeen for Parise. NJ is in no position to say no.

[philco_3]

I would trade Praise for Bergie and Janssen, plus 4 pucks and all the sticks Boyes didn't break last season.

[ZigZagBluesFan]

What about the 4 first round picks the arbiter would force us to give up after the fact?

[glen a richter]

minor detail, zigzag.

In all honesty though, does NJ have any other choice? They have to trade a high salary just to avoid having 15 guys dressed every time there's an injury. You can't juggle salary cap hell forever and expect to be a winning team, and I don't think the fans want to go see a short bench get beaten every night.

[fargoblues]

Parise would be a HUGE get if this were to somehow materialize out of some anonymous guy's wet dream as illustrated above. FREAKING HUGE. He's a stud, and as a bonus went to the University of North Dakota.

[theohall]

New Jersey is in a shitstorm. They had to dress only 15 guys against Pittsburgh because they're in the 7th circle of salary cap hell. They've totally clusterfukked themselves with the Kovalchuk deal. Berglund for Parise straight up and you know the Devils would do that in a split second just because it's out of necessity. If we're talking about freeing up a spot for Sobotka, so they'd have to trade another body as well, fine: Berglund + Crombeen for Parise. NJ is in no position to say no.

Not any more. They just Long Term IR'd Rolston which freed up $5M in cap space. NJ Defenseman Mark Fraser (who makes lots less) will also be going on IR which gives them a little more space as well.

They've got 6 weeks before they have to start solving their cap space issues, again.

[kodos]

Wow, 6 whole weeks... that's not really a long term solution. The bottom line is that they NEED to make a trade, with someone. Right away.

We are one of the few teams with several cheap yet desirable players and tons of cap space. A trade between the teams makes a lot of sense if the Blues are willing to pay some money.

[thedoc]

We are one of the few teams with several cheap yet desirable players and tons of cap space. A trade between the teams makes a lot of sense if the Blues are willing to pay some money.

We spent all of our available cap space for the new boards that took out Cam.

[thedoc]

We are one of the few teams with several cheap yet desirable players and tons of cap space. A trade between the teams makes a lot of sense if the Blues are willing to pay some money.

We spent all of our available cap space for the new boards that took out Cam.

Come to think of it, those boards are worth every penny.

[SteveO]

New Jersey is in a shitstorm. They had to dress only 15 guys against Pittsburgh because they're in the 7th circle of salary cap hell. They've totally clusterfukked themselves with the Kovalchuk deal. Berglund for Parise straight up and you know the Devils would do that in a split second just because it's out of necessity. If we're talking about freeing up a spot for Sobotka, so they'd have to trade another body as well, fine: Berglund + Crombeen for Parise. NJ is in no position to say no.

I would cream my pants.

I might even face the wrath of the wife and re-up the full season again if it did.