Blues Re-Sign Brian Elliott
On Monday morning, the St. Louis Blues reportedly re-signed veteran goaltender Brian Elliott to a three-year, $7.5M deal ($2.5M cap hit).
With Jake Allen already “on the roster” for next year (based on comments from Blues management), this means Ryan Miller’s days in St. Louis are over. St. Louis paid a significant price for Miller, who it now appears will only play 25 games in a Blues sweater.
This is just another reminder at how crazy it is when teams mortgage everything for the current year’s run. I’m all for if you are close and can get a piece, do it, but don’t go all in. This move will get the current GM in St. Louis fired within two years. It is very similar to Shero in Pittsburgh.
Each year around the trade deadline, I want the Blackhawks to get a 2nd line center…and then instead I get players like Campoli, Oduya, Handzus, Regin…I yell and complain for about 2 hours and then the Hawks just go and get to the Conference Finals in 2 consecutive years without mortgaging their entire future from a pick and prospect perspective. Listen, we are just fortunate to be fans of a team, who from the top to bottom, seems well run and appears to have a clue.
When talk of the Blues being interested in Miller I thought People had to be kidding. It seemed to me they were deep with good goalies and already a dirty team, so adding Miller and Ott seemed an odd move to me. I was thinking they needed scoring…like Vanek or Gaborik.
Hey, at least they tried…its not a deal I would have made, but it told their fans (not the strongest base in the league) that they are serious about winning. We will see over time how much it cost them, but again, at least they did something.
Peter, sometimes you pull the trigger and sometimes you don’t. With the Hawks, I have not been a big fan of a big deal because of how good our core is, and and how deep our system is (IMO). The one deal I did want the Hawks to make was for Ryan O’Reilly from COL. Tab posted an article suggesting the deal last year while COL was at odds over a giving O’Reilly a new one. Regardless of what we would have paid with picks and prospects, he’s young, a great 2 way forward with speed and skills that will mix things up. He would have become one of our core right away.
Next year at least we will have a battle between Ben Smith and TT for the 2nd line Centre spot.
…I said it before and I have no problem saying it again, I love when teams OVERpay to go All-In (Pittsburgh last season and St.Louis this year) and DON’T WIN!!
Really, anybody have any idea how many (FEW!) times “pulling-the-trigger” actually worked? The team won the Cup….? The Islanders trading for Butch Goring in 1980. I’m not doing any research, but that one comes to mind.
Larry Murphy, James Neal, Marian Hossa, Ray Borque, Brett Hull, Marcus Nasland are some of the ones I can remember of significance. Dont think many teams won the cup the year the got that players though… Maybe Detroit with Murphy, Borque soon after? I dont know. But those are some good players at least that stuck around with the teams they got traded to and did some damage at least.
How many 1st round picks did the Predators pay for Hal Gill (!) and a couple weeks of Peter Forsberg? I still think Nashville fired the wrong guy.
Heard San Jose might be interested in Ryan Miller – at this rate he will be playing in Hawaii by the allstar break next year, haha- great move St. Louis.
Scottie P. – Hossa was a(n expensive) free agent = the Hawks didn’t go “All-In”. I’m SO glad that Hossa is a Blackhawk. Bourque won a Cup in Colorado. Murphy won two Cups each with Pittsburgh and Detroit. (I don’t know that I would consider the deals in which these two were involved going “All-In” either…)
Dickie that’s a great point. That was the only time Stan has gone sort of “all out” on a FA…and it was crucial. The Hawks knew they needed a veteran playmaker to help Toews and Kane and Tallon was “wrong” about Havlat…not that Marty was a bad player, but he wasn’t the team leader, or example that they were hoping for. So Stan had the “balls” to let Havlat walk and signed Hoss right away for big dollars and a long term. Obviously now looking back, its a steal.
Let’s not lose sight of where the organization has come from, folks.
Tallon wasn’t “wrong” about Havlat – the best he could do at that time was Havlat. The fact is, Kane & Toews weren’t on the mind of Tallon when he signed Havlat because Havlat signed w/ the team in 2006… 12 months before Kane was selected first overall. The Blackhawks – specifically Tallon – had to take baby steps to restore the faith of free agents (and their agents) that the Hawks were a team worth signing with, and they did that by signing guys like Havlat (a nice, not great) player, then Huet and Campbell… THEN Hossa. People in this town – and Marty himself – didn’t understand why the Hawks would let him walk in favor a player who was knocked for being “fragile” in Hossa. Has 81 missed games? Sure. Has he been an absolute beast since joining the organization? Absolutely. No-brainer then as it is now.
Many on here proclaimed the Blues the winners of the trade deadline, clearly that move didn’t pay off. Let’s remember last year Pitt were also proclaimed winners at the deadline. Fast-forward 16 months Pitt is rebuilding their front office and most likely their roster. Next season STL will be starting the season with a journeyman and a rookie goalie. Its good to be a Hawks fan!
Tab, Tallon said himself that Havlat was the established veteran leader/scorer that this franchise needed to help the rebuilding process…the fact that the Hawks let Havlat walk in the face of leading our team in scoring spoke volumes about what they thought of Hossa. And while signing Havlat wasn’t a bad thing, he wasn’t the kind of player they needed for those elite dollars. Clearly Hossa was…
Brad – I beg of you… read what I post. I was simply reminding some folks whose memory of the organization’s timeline aren’t accurate that Havlat was NOT signed to lead Toews & Kane into the future because neither was on the roster when Tallon signed him.
Everyone will agree that Havlat wasn’t worth “elite” money, but the Blackhawks were a million miles from being in a place to recruit elite free agents. Reminder: Havlat was coming off a 2006 postseason in which he had 13 points in 10 games… and was joining a Hawks team that had two (2) players with more than 16 goals in 2005-06 (Kyle Calder and Mark Bell). In the summer of 2006, Patrick Sharp’s resume showed a 25-year-old with a career-high of 9 goals in a regular season. The fact is: Havlat was the most established offensive threat on the roster when he got to Chicago.
The Hawks couldn’t even get a call back in 2005-06 without overpaying in dollars and/or years. The Blackhawks/Tallon gave Havlat three years (not ridiculous) and $6M per, which in 2006 was tied for the 18th highest cap hit in the NHL.
These are all facts – not opinion.
Tab please do not bring up Kyle Calder or Mark Bell anytime again soon,….urgh! BAD!
Tab – great timeline/history. Facts.
This was an organ-EYE-zation that was SO screwed-up they (years before Havlat)signed Doug Gilour rather than Brett Hull…brought-in Theo Fluery (- anybody long for those good old days?)
Agree DD or when they had Peluso, Grimson and Steve Smith playing. They must of led the league in penalty minutes.
Tab, Isn’t that why Campbell got such a lucrative deal – he was willing to come here? I am no Tallon fan but I forget his hands were tied much more than what we have now. I hate to think where we would be if the old man didn’t kick off when he did and Rocky didn’t make the move to take over the club. Didn’t he make a deal to take over the club from his brother? I don’t think the old man wanted to leave it to Rocky because he had all these crazy ideas like home games on TV, a real front office, paying players to stay here. Oh I just gave myself a shiver thinking about how close we came to missing all of this!