Blues Hopeful For Playoffs Berth

Blues GM Shaun Stephens has been very active recently in making deals that looks to push the Blues into the playoffs, and maybe even be a contender as they are 7-3 in their last ten.  We will go over some of the deals and hear Shaun's explanations for making them...

First we will start with the blues shipping out Alex Edler to their Division rival the Dallas Stars in exchange receiving Michael Stone.

" Alex had told us he would not be coming back next season and even though we were looking to making a run at the playoffs we knew we could not afford to lose him for nothing.  Dallas had a very intriguing person on the backend that I had scouted quite heavily in Michael Stone, he plays on both sides of the puck very well.  I feel like by the end of this season and moving forward he will be a top pair defenceman playing in all situations.  Plus his 1.8 million price tag for the next 3 years for what I think we be a top notch player fo us could not be beat.  Obvioulsy we had to take a little bit of a step back when making this deal but I think in the coming years it will put us 3 or 4 steps ahead."

The Blues played just over .500 hockey after that deal but never seemed to make any headway in the Standings so Stephens decided to pull off a blockbuster in hopes of changing things.  This is wear the Buffalo Sabres came into play.  St. Louis dealt top a top end prospect Max Domi and Grinder Tomas Kopecky to Buffalo in exchange for Paul Statsny, Shane Doan, Brandon Carlo, BUF 2nd and PIT 5th.

"  I would first like to publically apologize to Cisco in Detroit for not giving him a fair shake at Domi like I told him I would, I felt teribbly bad after making the deal and them remembering he was the first to come to me about Domi.  It was hard to trade Domi that is for sure, especially being a London Ontario native but in order for this team to climb in the standings it had to be done.  Just when you think Doan is going to retire he is going to have himself a 30 goal campaign he must be drinking the Jagr water.  Getting back Statsny helped solidify our 2nd line and PP unit moving forward.  Carlo is very intruguing, he plays a very defensive game on the back end but we can see some offensive ability starting to come out in his game recently in the Dub.  Kopecky had to be added in order for the Blues to stay under the cap.  We have gone 2-0 since this deal has been completed and have in fact moved up into 7th place in the conference standings for the first time under my lead."

The third and final deal involving NHL players was sending winger Lance Bouma once again to division rival Dallas in exchange for a 5th round pick in 2017.

" We liked what Lance brought to the table when he was in the lineup but unfortunately he was rarely in the lineup with injuries.  He is a RFA at the end of the season and their was very minimal chance we would have been picking up his contract at what he was asking so we decided to cut ties and give him a fresh start .  It helped clear up some cap room in case anything else comes our way moving forward as well it gives us a chance to help restock our prospect cupboard."

When asked if we should see anything else happening before deadline day Stephens had this to say:

" As of right now unless something unforseen comes our way and lands on our doorstep then I don't see anything else major happening.  We might make a minor tweak here or there depending on our injury status but right now I think we are Status Quo."