Blues ready to Go

Some of the prices and signing bonus given out this off season were nothing Blues' general manager Shaun Stephens wanted to take part in. When push came to shove, he was happy with what was brought into St. Louis and Stephens expects to push for a playoff spot this year while, coming in right on budget.  Lots of 2 way contracts given out but only a few contracts of note to talk about

Tanner Kero - 3 Years 1.75 Million - RFA signing from the NYR.  I will not tell you the words Mr. Auzins told me before he said he was all mine.  Why not, needed some depth at the LW position and to return a 3rd rounder in return for him was perfectly fine for me since we had a few of them.  Paying on potential here.

Trevor Daley - 3 Years 3.75 Million, 750K bonus - First offer given out and no push back from anyone.  Needed a top pairing and got one fairly cheap.  While he is probably not a true top paring player he will compliment Brooks Orpik quite while.

Michal Kempny - 4 Years 1.25 Million - Once again no push back on a first offer and am extremely proud to have Kempny in St. Louis.  Needed a bottom pairing guy that would allow the likes of Pelech, Carlsson, Kulak and Carrier to floorish another year in the AHL.

Micheal Haley - 3 Years 1.25Million - Bit of an overpayment for a 4th line scrub, but needed the depth on the wings and we will see if this contract comes back to bite me down the road.  Going to allow my AHL team to be stronger as I wont have to call a kid or two up earlier then needed.

Projected opening night lines - Although anything can happen in Camp

Kero-Henrique-Bailey

Byron-Helm-Hyman

Vesey-Dowd-*Battle

Wilson-Petan-Haley

Extra battle: Megan, Petan,Carrier,Miller,Grimaldi,Brown

Orpik-Daley

Carlo-Stone

Kulikov-Kempny

Extra: Samuelsson

Lehtonen-Pickard