Oshie signs a 5 year deal

[glen a richter]

Just posted up on Twitter:

St. Louis Blues @StLouisBlues

BREAKING NEWS: The Blues have agreed to terms with T.J. Oshie on a five-year contract. Details coming to stlouisblues.com soon #stlblues

Follow up tweet:

St. Louis Blues @StLouisBlues

Oshie's contract is worth an average of $4.175 million per year. Official press release will be available Friday. #stlblues

[theohall]

Good call, DaDitka! I bow to your prognosticating prowess.

[DaDitka]

I'm glad we can put this behind us and we've got him locked up for 5 years. While the numbers came in right were we all thought they would, he better kick up that goal production a little. You may think there isn't much of a difference between his 19 goals this year and say 25 next year, but that's a 25% increase.

He's good for the city and the team and always give 100%, so if I was going to go 5 years and IMO pay a guy on the high end of his value...I think Oshie was a safe bet for that investment.

[DaDitka]

If you look at the breakdown it looks better, 2012-13 $3.375, 13-14 $4, 14-15 $4.5, 15-16 $4.5, 16-17 $4.5

3.375 isn't bad this year and the 4.5's on the back end may very well be 'cheap' in 4-5 years compared to the rest of the league.

[cprice12]

If you look at the breakdown it looks better, 2012-13 $3.375, 13-14 $4, 14-15 $4.5, 15-16 $4.5, 16-17 $4.5

3.375 isn't bad this year and the 4.5's on the back end may very well be 'cheap' in 4-5 years compared to the rest of the league.

I don't really care what his actual salary is year to year.
The yearly cap hit is what is important...and his cap hit will be less than his actual salary over the last 3 years of the contract.

Yes, it would be nice to see him net a few more goals...and I think he'll be a 25+ goal guy very soon. But folks get too caught up in goals scored. He does so much more for this team than just score goals. I think it's just magnified because this team needs better goal production.

Glad he's locked up for a while.

[glen a richter]

If Tank (in a couple years because I don't think anyone expects him to make the jump and score 50 right away) can pot goals on the regular and our offensive woes become a thing of the past, Oshie's actual worth to this team will become very clear to everyone who, at the moment, expects him to do nothing except produce points.

[cardsfan04]

very good signing for both sides

[fargoblues]

very good signing for both sides

Absolutely agreed.

[dmiles2186]

Kerber just tweeted: "Now Oshie, Backes, Perron signed for next 4 yrs together, Tarasenko next 3, Steen next 2, Polak next 4, Jackman next 3, Goalies next 2"

It's not the flashiest, highest-scoring core. But everyone of these guys was brought in either through draft or trade. Smart front office moves that put the right pieces in place. Kudos.

[DaDitka]

Oshie's actual worth to this team will become very clear to everyone who, at the moment, expects him to do nothing except produce points.

I don't think Oshie's value should be tied solely to points by no means.....but the points are why he get's 4 mill instead of 2.5.

While I appreciate TJs hard nosed two way play....there are a lot of wingers out there that can offer that. What we hope makes him different and justifies over 4 mill a year is that he produces enough points that it allows you to play that two way forward regularly in your top 6.

He's never going to be the 30+ goal scorer 90% of this board was expecting him to be at this time last year. But a 20+ goal scored that plays as hard as TJ is worth more to me then a one way 30 goal guy who doesn't forecheck and is a liability in the defensive end.

[cprice12]

Oshie's actual worth to this team will become very clear to everyone who, at the moment, expects him to do nothing except produce points.

I don't think Oshie's value should be tied solely to points by no means.....but the points are why he get's 4 mill instead of 2.5.

While I appreciate TJs hard nosed two way play....there are a lot of wingers out there that can offer that. What we hope makes him different and justifies over 4 mill a year is that he produces enough points that it allows you to play that two way forward regularly in your top 6.

He's never going to be the 30+ goal scorer 90% of this board was expecting him to be at this time last year. But a 20+ goal scored that plays as hard as TJ is worth more to me then a one way 30 goal guy who doesn't forecheck and is a liability in the defensive end.

He's had injury issues his first couple years in the league as well. Might have slowed his development some as far as goal scoring goes.
I don't think anyone can dispute that he has the skills to hit 30 goals at some point during this 5 year contract. Whether he does or not is a different story.
He hasn't reached his prime yet. So if he elevates his play and matures some more, this could be a very nice contract in a year or two.

[gaijin]

I like it. Oshie is my sons' favorite player, so it's good to see he'll be around for them to watch for some more years.

Although I suspect they like him because his name rhymes with "Yoshi."

[WaukeeBlues]

Kerber just tweeted: "Now Oshie, Backes, Perron signed for next 4 yrs together, Tarasenko next 3, Steen next 2, Polak next 4, Jackman next 3, Goalies next 2"

It's not the flashiest, highest-scoring core. But everyone of these guys was brought in either through draft or trade. Smart front office moves that put the right pieces in place. Kudos.

This makes me smile. We've shown the league last year that it doesn't have to be two guys scoring 50 and then a drop off to the next highest producer being 10 to be successful in this league. Nothing wrong with scoring by committee. We're deep and we're good and we're (relatively) cheap. Love it.

[glen a richter]

Kurker seems to be sort of in the same mold as well. We'll see.

[STLADOGG]

4 million? he probably makes that money back and more in jerseys, autographs, etc..

[theohall]

Kerber just tweeted: "Now Oshie, Backes, Perron signed for next 4 yrs together, Tarasenko next 3, Steen next 2, Polak next 4, Jackman next 3, Goalies next 2"

It's not the flashiest, highest-scoring core. But everyone of these guys was brought in either through draft or trade. Smart front office moves that put the right pieces in place. Kudos.

This makes me smile. We've shown the league last year that it doesn't have to be two guys scoring 50 and then a drop off to the next highest producer being 10 to be successful in this league. Nothing wrong with scoring by committee. We're deep and we're good and we're (relatively) cheap. Love it.

It's successful in the regular season. Playoffs? Not so much. Someone has to be capable of stepping up when the competition gets stiffer and none of the Blues forward lines did that vs LA. Don't even bring up Stewie's one-game effort which should have been there from Game 1 of the SJ series.

[glen a richter]

25's one game effort should have been there from game one of the season, forget just game one of the SJ series.

[philco_3]

4 million? he probably makes that money back and more in jerseys, autographs, etc..

Exactly...me and a guy at work were talking before he signed, we both thought 3.5 max.

[WaukeeBlues]

Kerber just tweeted: "Now Oshie, Backes, Perron signed for next 4 yrs together, Tarasenko next 3, Steen next 2, Polak next 4, Jackman next 3, Goalies next 2"

It's not the flashiest, highest-scoring core. But everyone of these guys was brought in either through draft or trade. Smart front office moves that put the right pieces in place. Kudos.

This makes me smile. We've shown the league last year that it doesn't have to be two guys scoring 50 and then a drop off to the next highest producer being 10 to be successful in this league. Nothing wrong with scoring by committee. We're deep and we're good and we're (relatively) cheap. Love it.

It's successful in the regular season. Playoffs? Not so much. Someone has to be capable of stepping up when the competition gets stiffer and none of the Blues forward lines did that vs LA. Don't even bring up Stewie's one-game effort which should have been there from Game 1 of the SJ series.

We also played the 2012 playoff version of the L.A. Kings. Just sayin.

And I took the defeat of the Sharks as a huge positive. They had plenty of playoff experience and we simply don't. We needed that this year to grow for the next.

NOW I'll be disappointed not making it to at least the conference finals

[Oaklandblue]

I'm not an Oshie fan, feel free to hate. But I like how his contract is structured, even though I feel he's abit overpaid; did he work harder due to having a one-year 'make it happen or go away' contract and he wanted to be guranteed big money or because he wants to win. After watching a lot of videos of his play, and seeing his middle-of-the-road stats, I have to agree with everyone: His numbers are very, very deceptive.

Provided he doesn't become an injury case based on past injuries (we seem to attract those abit too frequently), I think this was a solid and good contract that'll do nothing but help us without screwing up our Cap or any cap lowering the league winds up doing.

And I'm not an Oshie fan.