Offseason Changes to the Roster?

[drwoland]

I don't know how you can malign the current team for "not getting it done," and want Ovechkin in the same breath. Talk about not getting it done.. couldn't get it done on a team with Semin, Green when he was scoring at will, Backstrom, etc etc. Dude would fill seats, but I doubt he'd bring a cup here the way he plays defense.

[Oaklandblue]

I don't know how you can malign the current team for "not getting it done," and want Ovechkin in the same breath. Talk about not getting it done.. couldn't get it done on a team with Semin, Green when he was scoring at will, Backstrom, etc etc. Dude would fill seats, but I doubt he'd bring a cup here the way he plays defense.

When you consider that any A-Grade player we acquire falls apart due to injury or slumping or old age, maybe if we brought in a name player who sucks balls that they'd do the opposite and be the answer to our goal scoring issues. Hell, if Hitch can teach Hull to play D, he can do the same for Ovie, which is why I was like SIGN HIIIMMMMMM. If anyone can make it work with a player like that, it's Hitch.

When you think about it that way, it sounds brilliant.

Something DOES need to be done about this, though, and it needs to be done yesterday.

[WaukeeBlues]

IDEA

Edmonton Oilers

They've been stuck in neutral after drafting top level scoring forwards that can't seem to work together or play enough defense.... which we have an abundance of.

This isn't madness, the Oilers need to seriously shake something up this offseason and their top offensive guys of RNH, Hall and Yakupov are clearly not gelling or have the supporting cast to give them some time and space. I think Hall is off the table but commentary I've been hearing from north of the border indicated to me that the Oilers are seriously shopping one of their former #1 overall's (and possibly for less than you think considering their numbers have NOT been earth shattering to say the least) for some help on defense, where they have on veteran and (essentially) nothing else but rookies.

you get RNH or Yakupov out of the canadian limelight and with some damn good surrounding players like we have... who knows. Quite frankly I haven't seen enough from either of these guys to know for sure that they aren't busts but PROVEN top level scoring talent is basically unacquireable (new word) so that's a thought

[Oaklandblue]

IDEA

Edmonton Oilers

They've been stuck in neutral after drafting top level scoring forwards that can't seem to work together or play enough defense.... which we have an abundance of.

This isn't madness, the Oilers need to seriously shake something up this offseason and their top offensive guys of RNH, Hall and Yakupov are clearly not gelling or have the supporting cast to give them some time and space. I think Hall is off the table but commentary I've been hearing from north of the border indicated to me that the Oilers are seriously shopping one of their former #1 overall's (and possibly for less than you think considering their numbers have NOT been earth shattering to say the least) for some help on defense, where they have on veteran and (essentially) nothing else but rookies.

you get RNH or Yakupov out of the canadian limelight and with some damn good surrounding players like we have... who knows. Just a thought.

You know...

[STLADOGG]

Here's the cap situation for anyone wondering.
http://www.capgeek.com/blues

[flyingnote38]

IDEA

Edmonton Oilers

They've been stuck in neutral after drafting top level scoring forwards that can't seem to work together or play enough defense.... which we have an abundance of.

This isn't madness, the Oilers need to seriously shake something up this offseason and their top offensive guys of RNH, Hall and Yakupov are clearly not gelling or have the supporting cast to give them some time and space. I think Hall is off the table but commentary I've been hearing from north of the border indicated to me that the Oilers are seriously shopping one of their former #1 overall's (and possibly for less than you think considering their numbers have NOT been earth shattering to say the least) for some help on defense, where they have on veteran and (essentially) nothing else but rookies.

you get RNH or Yakupov out of the canadian limelight and with some damn good surrounding players like we have... who knows. Just a thought.

You know...

Eberle's name came up on "rumor board" linked to the Blues as a possibilty..........of course player X to the Blues is a popular topic right now. In most cases, it features their bad contract underperforming forward for a package that has to include Tarasenko etc etc.

But someone floated the Berglund balloon and fans of the Rangers, Nucks, Habs, Leafs, Isles among others all saluted. So who knows?

[STLADOGG]

IDEA

Edmonton Oilers

They've been stuck in neutral after drafting top level scoring forwards that can't seem to work together or play enough defense.... which we have an abundance of.

This isn't madness, the Oilers need to seriously shake something up this offseason and their top offensive guys of RNH, Hall and Yakupov are clearly not gelling or have the supporting cast to give them some time and space. I think Hall is off the table but commentary I've been hearing from north of the border indicated to me that the Oilers are seriously shopping one of their former #1 overall's (and possibly for less than you think considering their numbers have NOT been earth shattering to say the least) for some help on defense, where they have on veteran and (essentially) nothing else but rookies.

you get RNH or Yakupov out of the canadian limelight and with some damn good surrounding players like we have... who knows. Just a thought.

You know...

Eberle's name came up on "rumor board" linked to the Blues as a possibilty..........of course player X to the Blues is a popular topic right now. In most cases, it features their bad contract underperforming forward for a package that has to include Tarasenko etc etc.

But someone floated the Berglund balloon and fans of the Rangers, Nucks, Habs, Leafs, Isles among others all saluted. So who knows?

Apparently Berglund for Lundqvist, Nash, ans St. Louis. It's an E5 right now lol.

[JCShutout]

First and most important change is to get rid of Armstrong. Ultimately, in exchange for:

E. Johnson
McClement
Nikitin
Bishop
Eller
Perron
2 1st round picks
3rd round pick
Carrier
Cundari
Berra

We got:

Shattenkirk
Bouwmeester
Pajaarvi
2nd round pick
Miller/Ott rental
Kris Russell

Added in bold some important names you forgot. They JayBo trade was great.

Army has made some really good moves, and some bad ones. He traded the wrong youngster in Perron, but I have a feeling David would have stayed at the 20-22 goal scorer here with more depth and a more defensive game around him. Someone had to be moved. The biggest issue is, he probably should have just gotten more for Perron. The Miller trade didn't work. Traded too much for not enough. The Shatty and JayBo trades worked out very well. He also resigned our core guys to good deals. He should stay.

[Oaklandblue]

I don't know if this is possible, but the thought struck me, so I figured I'd share it:

Since we have Ryan Miller's rights, could we just trade them to another team for a package for a player? Right now, if it was me, with the goalie situation they have right now, maybe... San Jose? Or Edmonton? Or....well, you get the idea.

Maybe Army could make up for this bad trade somehow in this way and trade off some chips we can't stand anymore *Looking at you, Bergy* ?

Thoughts?

[flyingnote38]

I don't know if this is possible, but the thought struck me, so I figured I'd share it:

Since we have Ryan Miller's rights, could we just trade them to another team for a package for a player? Right now, if it was me, with the goalie situation they have right now, maybe... San Jose? Or Edmonton? Or....well, you get the idea.

Maybe Army could make up for this bad trade somehow in this way and trade off some chips we can't stand anymore *Looking at you, Bergy* ?

Thoughts?

the conditional picks would come into play, but yes we could do that.

[WaukeeBlues]

I don't know if this is possible, but the thought struck me, so I figured I'd share it:

Since we have Ryan Miller's rights, could we just trade them to another team for a package for a player? Right now, if it was me, with the goalie situation they have right now, maybe... San Jose? Or Edmonton? Or....well, you get the idea.

Maybe Army could make up for this bad trade somehow in this way and trade off some chips we can't stand anymore *Looking at you, Bergy* ?

Thoughts?

Definitely not unprecedented. We acquired Tkachuk's rights (IIRC) before July 1 the season we rented him to the Thrashers to make sure we got exclusive negotiation rights before other teams could make him an offer. The compensation for it is really low though and according to the trade we made for Miller wouldn't we lose our first round pick if we dealt Miller before the draft?

[dmiles2186]

We know this but Army confirmed it today...

[tweet][/tweet]

[Krigloch the Furious]

Awesome!

[Kerfuffle]

I haven't seen Jake Allen play but have read the hype on him. If he's a Jonathan Quick in the making you guys will have a solidified goalie position to make another run.

[cprice12]

A team with expectations of a deep playoff run does NOT anoint a goalie with only a handful of games played in the NHL as the #1 goalie going into the season

Well someone must have forgotten to tell that to Detroit and Jimmy Howard.

And how many cups have the Wings won with Howard? How many trips to the conference finals?

I don't understand how you don't think Miller was a problem. One win-just one-in those last six games and we face MIN. And game three is wholly on Miller. We didn't give what we did for him to be slightly inferior to Crawford. That absolutely was a problem, though I agree with the analysis that the lack of clutch scoring was probably more important. The Steen extension looks highly questionable to me right now. And the Perron-for-a-bag-of-pucks trade also looks questionable but the Blues PR machine got everyone hating that guy so intensely I'm sure they're just looking past the fact that he outscored everyone on our roster other than Steen on arguably the worst team in the league.

Miller could have been a little better, but he wasn't "the problem" in the playoffs.
He wasn't good down the stretch during the season, I'll give you that. But we were also shut out twice in the last two games of the season as well.
Game #3 was most certainly NOT on Miller. Are you kidding me? WE WERE SHUT OUT. I don't care that he allowed a bad goal...he made a dozen great saves over the course of the rest of the game. He more than made up for that bad goal. The offense failed in their duties to score some goals. Period. By saying that game was Miller's fault, you are essentially saying he should be expected to shut out the Hawks in their own building just to give us A CHANCE to win in OT. That's simply unrealistic and ignoring the fact you have to score at least one goal to win a game.

[Nyghtewynd]

I fear that most of the comments in today's presser centered around (a) Army and Hitch are not planning on changing much, and (b) most of the changes are going to come from within, as today was mostly a laundry list of "It wasn't on _________" and how Jaskin/Rattie/Allen are all going to get jobs. This does not leave much room for improvement.

[Oaklandblue]

A team with expectations of a deep playoff run does NOT anoint a goalie with only a handful of games played in the NHL as the #1 goalie going into the season

Well someone must have forgotten to tell that to Detroit and Jimmy Howard.

And how many cups have the Wings won with Howard? How many trips to the conference finals?

I don't understand how you don't think Miller was a problem. One win-just one-in those last six games and we face MIN. And game three is wholly on Miller. We didn't give what we did for him to be slightly inferior to Crawford. That absolutely was a problem, though I agree with the analysis that the lack of clutch scoring was probably more important. The Steen extension looks highly questionable to me right now. And the Perron-for-a-bag-of-pucks trade also looks questionable but the Blues PR machine got everyone hating that guy so intensely I'm sure they're just looking past the fact that he outscored everyone on our roster other than Steen on arguably the worst team in the league.

Miller could have been a little better, but he wasn't "the problem" in the playoffs.
He wasn't good down the stretch during the season, I'll give you that. But we were also shut out twice in the last two games of the season as well.
Game #3 was most certainly NOT on Miller. Are you kidding me? WE WERE SHUT OUT. I don't care that he allowed a bad goal...he made a dozen great saves over the course of the rest of the game. He more than made up for that bad goal. The offense failed in their duties to score some goals. Period. By saying that game was Miller's fault, you are essentially saying he should be expected to shut out the Hawks in their own building just to give us A CHANCE to win in OT. That's simply unrealistic and ignoring the fact you have to score at least one goal to win a game.

.897 GAA. Six million dollar player, playing for a contract. Game 3 may have not been on Miller, but had he played at his .924 level that he's supposed to be at, I believe we'd have taken the series and it would have given us the momentum to carry us. For what he's asking for, for the hype behind him and his numbes, YES HE SHOULD HAVE STOLEN A GAME. Elliott's done that for us in the playoffs and he's the backup and his GAA makes Miller look like an AHL goaltender. I don't put all the blame on him, but he let enough soft ass goals in that they were a major difference maker.

Elliott can suck eggs during the regular season, but the fact is in the playoffs, he has been the better and more consistant netminder. Asking Miller to be a step above that, for what he wants and asks for, is not some silly request. It is a requirement.

[flyingnote38]

puck daddy seems to think Miller was fairly bad in the playoffs

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... 17694.html

That save percentage in the 4 games we lost is brutal.

I also don't get how people hold Miller blameless for game 3. I get that we got shut out but the goal against was soft. If that goal is unstoppable, then no blame for Miller. But that softie decided the game any way you slice it

[Oaklandblue]

puck daddy seems to think Miller was fairly bad in the playoffs

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... 17694.html

That save percentage in the 4 games we lost is brutal.

I also don't get how people hold Miller blameless for game 3. I get that we got shut out but the goal against was soft. If that goal is unstoppable, then no blame for Miller. But that softie decided the game any way you slice it

I believe our PP unit lost Game 3 for us. Miller let in a shit goal, but the team wasn't ramping up to help him, either. To me, it's hard to argue a shutout because NO ONE on our team scored, so it wouldn't have mattered. Silly way to think granted, but the fact remains.

Would it be superstitious for me to say that he should have kept the white goalie mask and not switched?

[flyingnote38]

Blues property under contract for next year 18 players $47 M cap hit
David Backes
T.J. Oshie
Alex Steen
Magnus Paajarvi
Maxim Lapierre
Vlad Tarasenko
Dmitrij Jaskin
Chris Porter
Ryan Reaves
Ty Rattie

Jay Bouwmeester
Alex Pietrangelo
Kevin Shattenkirk
Barret Jackman
Roman Polak
Jordan Leopold
Ian Cole

Jake Allen

RFAs 3 players anticipated cap hit $8 - 9 M
Schwartz
Sobotka
Berglund