Did the Blues deserve to lose Stevens?

[philco_3]

Then teams should sign players before they become RFA's. Then they wouldn't have to deal with other teams tossing high offers sheets at them.

That's why Kopitar is now making $6.8MM/yr, Stastny is making $6.6MM/yr, and Eric Stall is making $8.25MM/yr. We better hope that some of our guys don't pan out because otherwise we won't be able to afford them all and will have to break up the team and rebuild again.

Rebuild again?! We have yet to build in the first place!

Hey! We won the damn Presidents' Trophy once!

that was before the rebuild though.

This team is so epically cursed. We're worse than the Cubs. At least those guys won a world series once.

of course they have been playing for how many years?

[glen a richter]

Then teams should sign players before they become RFA's. Then they wouldn't have to deal with other teams tossing high offers sheets at them.

That's why Kopitar is now making $6.8MM/yr, Stastny is making $6.6MM/yr, and Eric Stall is making $8.25MM/yr. We better hope that some of our guys don't pan out because otherwise we won't be able to afford them all and will have to break up the team and rebuild again.

Rebuild again?! We have yet to build in the first place!

Hey! We won the damn Presidents' Trophy once!

that was before the rebuild though.

This team is so epically cursed. We're worse than the Cubs. At least those guys won a world series once.

of course they have been playing for how many years?

Valid point, but you must admit that the consistency in losing does suck badly.

[Hallplante]

If the Blues had "won" the arbitration case and surrendered Curtis Joseph, Rod Brindamour and draft picks, it's possible that we'd still be moaning about the decision. That may have been viewed as a lesser package at the time, but with hindsight, that turned out to be a pretty good package.

[Wonder how Joseph on N.J. would have altered the fate of Marty Brodeur.]

So, if Brendan Shanahan, then an emerging player, was worth an All-Star defenseman (Stevens), why is it that after Shanahan became a superstar he was only worth a defenseman with potential (Pronger)?

[WaukeeBlues]

If the Blues had "won" the arbitration case and surrendered Curtis Joseph, Rod Brindamour and draft picks, it's possible that we'd still be moaning about the decision. That may have been viewed as a lesser package at the time, but with hindsight, that turned out to be a pretty good package.

[Wonder how Joseph on N.J. would have altered the fate of Marty Brodeur.]

So, if Brendan Shanahan, then an emerging player, was worth an All-Star defenseman (Stevens), why is it that after Shanahan became a superstar he was only worth a defenseman with potential (Pronger)?

Because Mike Keenan got a boner.