Pronger Traded!!

[Kid_A]

Furthermore, this is just an embarassing and pointless trade.. Brewer is an RFA and my guess is he'll command at least 2 mill a year. So if we say he gets 2.5 mill.. With the pro contracts for the other 2.. That's 3.5 mill a year.. Versus Pronger's 7.2 million. We're saving 3.7 (franking) million dollars.

This franchise is going to give away the best player that has ever put on its jersey (save Gretzky) so Bill Laurie can save 3.7 million? Are you f*cking kidding me?

Lynch won't be counting against the Blues' cap.

T,FTFY.

Woywitka is ready to start in the NHL.

[Kid_A]

*shrug*

I think it's a good move by the Blues. They now have plenty of cap room to sign offensive forwards, and with Brewer, Jackman, Woywitka, and Backman, you have 4 solid young multi-faceted top 4 material defencemen. They can be an excellent defensive nucleus for years to come.

Except we're supposed to have a 30 million budget, so we aren't going to sign any forwards..

His trade cannot be a panacea. If Pronger was traded for scoring forwards, you'd be complaining about how you have no one on the blue line.

Anyway, Spector's take:

Spector's Note: My thanks to everyone who sent this in. It figures, perhaps the biggest trade of the year occurs well after I've gone to bed! Anyway, major bombshell deal here and totally out of character for the Oilers, who dealt away an established (if underappreciated) blueliner in Brewer and gave up a piece of their future in Woywitka. It's going to cost the Oilers a pretty penny to re-sign him long-term (perhaps the league max of $7.8 mil per season over three years), and given Pronger's injury history, this has the potential to blow up in Kevin Lowe's face. But if it works out as the Oilers hope, it could also turn them into a strong hockey club over the next couple of years. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out!

As for the Blues, we all knew something had to give as they couldn't possibly retain Pronger, Weight and Tkachuk's hefty salaries and still flesh out their roster. With this move, they free up salaries, get a good established young blueliner in Brewer and add more depth for their future with Woywitka. Smart move by Blues GM Larry Pleau.

[OS]

That's his title, right?

I guess you still haven't figured out that that's only my title because my post count has reached the point where it automatically changed to that...

[OS]

Our offensive is practically non-existent and we trade our only chip for 3 defensemen?

Thank you, Pleau... I'm gonna go drink myself into a stupor now....

The Blues have SOOO much more potential offense in this organization than they do defense.

[OS]

Okay.... now this pisses me off. Apparently Pronger signed a 5 year deal for $5.5M a year in Edmonton. If he was willing to sign that here, Bill Laurie should be (Frank) shot.

[tsblue]

I am amazed at some of the "sky is falling" posts in reaction to the trade everyone knew was going to happen. While it sucks, it makes no sense from an ownership standpoint to pay Pronger $7+m. The team will be in good cap shape next season and can replenish the front line. One solid dman and a good prospect is more than I expected in return. The situation will enhance the salability of the team and right now that is the priority for the owner.
The new CBA will create a more NFL environment where very, very few teams will remain intact for more than 3 years. The GM role, cap management and the abilityof the coach to mold new groups of players in to the system (see also, the Patriots) will be the most important factors in a teams success over time.

[barnburner]

Spector's Note:
Smart move by Blues GM Larry Pleau.

Obviously, Spector does not understand that there are people in this town that could go into cardiac arrest after reading that phrase.......

[Rocketpop]

5.5 for 5 is a great deal for Pronger. I'm sad that we couldn't get that done. Edmonton will love him.

However, I really didn't think we'd get this for Pronger at all. I figured we'd let him walk at the end of the year after not being competitive at ALL and missing the playoffs. Pleau also said he'd be addressing some scoring needs.

Anyway I like Edmonton, and watching them you know Brewer is a damn good d-man. I figured at best we'd get a pick and two decent prospects. Brewer is icing on the cake, for me.

I like the way our Future D looks right now.

As I said, I really like edmonton. They are my #2 team, so that softens the blow to some extent.

Anyway, I'm glad we got something in return. I wish we could have ditched weight or KT instead, though.

[Donuts_For_Koharski]

I think it is time to over react and start yelling Brewer sucks!!!!

The resident melodramatic diva, MEG, is already doing that with a 40 oz. in one hand a some left over pizza in the other while wiping away the tears with his Pronger home jersey.

Chill people. You knew this was going to happen, whether now or at the trade deadline. Better now than later. They will lock Brewer up to a multi-year deal. I would have liked to have had a forward too, but what's done is done.

[Leedog]

If the Blues weren't gonna sign him long term, this was a good move. At least we got some immediate, less expensive help instead of just prospects.
Still, if he would sign for 5.5 mil as reported, they are nuts for not jumping all over it. They hired that consultant to consult, but Laurie is still allowed to have a mind of his own.
Now we will see if they are willing to reinvest at least some of that 5mil savings in offense. I have to wonder, though. If he couldn't sign CP to a multi year deal, how can he sign Kariya, Bondra, etc?

[Donuts_For_Koharski]

*shrug*

I think it's a good move by the Blues. They now have plenty of cap room to sign offensive forwards, and with Brewer, Jackman, Woywitka, and Backman, you have 4 solid young multi-faceted top 4 material defencemen. They can be an excellent defensive nucleus for years to come.

Except we're supposed to have a 30 million budget, so we aren't going to sign any forwards..

His trade cannot be a panacea. If Pronger was traded for scoring forwards, you'd be complaining about how you have no one on the blue line.

Wow. Someone here actually gets it. Very nice to see.

[Rocketpop]

If the Blues weren't gonna sign him long term, this was a good move. At least we got some immediate, less expensive help instead of just prospects.
Still, if he would sign for 5.5 mil as reported, they are nuts for not jumping all over it. They hired that consultant to consult, but Laurie is still allowed to have a mind of his own.
Now we will see if they are willing to reinvest at least some of that 5mil savings in offense. I have to wonder, though. If he couldn't sign CP to a multi year deal, how can he sign Kariya, Bondra, etc?

Those aren't the type of players he'll be signing. Just because we have 7.2m out doesn't mean we can have that in. We've already got 2 million incoming from Brewer, and they don't want to spend up to where they were.

Look for a player or players like Rucinsky at the most.

[barnburner]

If the Blues weren't gonna sign him long term, this was a good move. At least we got some immediate, less expensive help instead of just prospects.
Still, if he would sign for 5.5 mil as reported, they are nuts for not jumping all over it. They hired that consultant to consult, but Laurie is still allowed to have a mind of his own.
Now we will see if they are willing to reinvest at least some of that 5mil savings in offense. I have to wonder, though. If he couldn't sign CP to a multi year deal, how can he sign Kariya, Bondra, etc?

He can't and won't.
My guess is that if we get any scoring help from free agency at all, it will be no more than a Rucinsky type.

Of course.. I also thought Pronger would go to the east, and we would get no more than a journeyman(less than $1 mill contract)player, and draft choice(s) in return, so my expertise earns me the right to talk to the idiots at the asylum....

[steveInebriated]

All emotions aside....

The blues are going to be competetive this year IMHO. A good goaile and a deep D is gonna go a long way with the new rules. And if the clutching and grabbing isn't enforced very much that is only to our advantage. Either way this team still has every chance of making the playoffs. At least as much of a chance as anyone does.

++

Sooooo...when are we getting that "good goalie"???

And who are those non-clutching/grabbing forwards? Low? Mayers?

[ibldbl]

I was just noticing that all the guys we got for Pronger are lefties.
We need a right handed pointman to play the right side on powerplays.
This was a real issue when MacInnis went down.

[SmokeMorePot]

This is the end of hockey in St Louis. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh the humanity!!!!!!!!!!!

[Misc. Blues]

I was just noticing that all the guys we got for Pronger are lefties.
We need a right handed pointman to play the right side on powerplays.
This was a real issue when MacInnis went down.

Way more lefties than righties on every team...We do have Walker...

[Rocketpop]

I guess I'm not disapointed by this because I had 0 hope of keeping him.

Apparently a lot of people on this board thought something magical was going to happen and we'd get him locked up for 3m per year.

This trade and, likely, the ensuing signing or two for some scoring depth just made me likely to buy a few tickets.

[TC]

Crikies, Batman. The big man is gone. Good for Pronger, Blues go into re-build mode. They may rent a scoring winger or two, and thank God they have time to find one. Oilers are a worthy team, especially after we mauled them on the Weight deal. Beats the Leafs.

Don't freak out over the compensation, Brewer is young and cheap, ideal in this labor market. I remember him being a big deal when picked. Reasonable future #1-2 defenseman.

Blues could turn right around and trade any number of these guys, but I doubt it. Why not keep them? Offensive help is a dime-a-dozen, good blueline help is harder to find. Youth is at a premium. I like the deal.

i echo this. i like brewer, always have. he's solid, you'll see. my only issue is that prongs went to the west - i guess FLA wasn't ready to part with what we wanted.

i hope people here cheer when he takes the ice & don't pull the SJ booing routine; pronger deserves our love. he gave us a lot, and i'm sure this wasn't exactly the ideal thing for him. i wish him well.

[sanscrit]

This is a good move from a business perspective. You avoid a long-term committment to pronger and get smaller contracts to younger players. Pleau/Laurie are getting this team in a position to sell and at this point it is looking good. Weight and Tkachuk are probably available to any team that wants them and might make good deadline chips. I'm not sure whats left on Weight's contract, but with Tkachuk looking to take a big pay cut next season he should be a hot commodity. There is no point in the Blues keeping him around if they are going to field the team that they have.

At this point I think that our focus as blues fans is to hope that we get something out of Weight and Tkachuk at the deadline and we get a good owner ASAP.

Does anyone know if a team acquires a player at the deadline if his entire contract value counts against hte cap or just hte remaining balance?