From The Rink: St. Louis Blues Re-Sign Crombeen, Remaining RFA's to sign and the Preseason Schedule Release
As the off-season continues to progress, the Blues keep their name in the news on almost a daily basis.
Crombeen Re-Signs:
On Wednesday the Blues continued to fill out their roster by re-signing forward BJ Crombeen to a two year deal. The deal is worth $950,000 the first year and$1.05 million the second year and his cap hit is only $1 million.
Crombeen is coming off the most games played in a season in his career but his points did decline for the second straight year. Since being picked up off of waivers from Dallas in 2008, Crombeen has played in 225 games with 25 goals, 21 assists and a whopping 444 penalty minutes.
Crombeen joins the ever growing list of Restricted Free Agents to re-up with the Blues. Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, Chris Porter, Roman Polak and Nikita Nikitin have all inked new contracts in the last two weeks.
Remaining RFA’s needing to sign:
While the Blues have done well to lock up a majority of their RFA’s before the July 1st start of free agency, there is still a lot of work to be done. The Blues currently have 4 players still without contracts that figure heavily into this team’s plans.
Ryan Reaves saw some significant time on the big club and his play will enable the Blues to part ways with Cam Janssen while still keeping the physical play but with a sprinkle of more offense. Reaves should get a similar deal to Crombeen but it may be for longer and the money more spread out.
Ben Bishop has been looked to as the future of the Blues in goal but with the acquisition of Jaroslav Halak and the stellar play of Jake Allen, that may not be the case any more. That being said, St. Louis needs a backup goalie and Allen is still too young to take that role on. Bishop will come cheaper than last year’s back up Ty Conklin and should produce better numbers then Conklin was able to muster last season.
Matt D’Agostini had a breakout season with the Blues last year and that could turn into a halfway decent payday. While not fully established as a high end scorer, D’Agostini will still fall in place a little behind Berglund and just ahead of Crombeen’s deals. D’Agostini had a career year as he nearly doubled his point total of his career in just this one season. With 21 goals and 25 assists, Matt ranked in the top 5 of the team in points scored.
TJ Oshie has been the fan’s favorite player since he first stepped onto the ice for his first game. Oshie seemed to be progressing well before an ankle injury sidelined him for a good portion of the season. TJ worked hard to return to the team earlier than predicted and played well down the stretch, easing some of the worries of fans and management alike. Oshie may get either a 1 year deal to prove he is fully healed or a 3 to 4 year deal to keep him in the Blue Note for his formative years.
Preseason Schedule Released:
The NHL and the St. Louis Blues released the pre-season schedule today and the 8 game schedule can’t come soon enough. The Blues open play on September 20th at home against the high powered Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Blues will play 5 games in 5 straight days starting with the game against Tampa. The Blues will also face the Wild, Avalanche and Stars between September 20th and October 1st. All game times are Central.
Sept. 20th – vs Tampa Bay 7 pm
Sept. 21st – @ Tampa Bay 7 pm (location TBD)
Sept. 22nd – vs Minnesota 7 pm
Sept. 23rd – @ Colorado 7 pm
Sept. 24th – @ Dallas 7 pm
Sept. 27th – @ Minnesota 7 pm
Sept. 29th – vs Colorado 7 pm
Oct. 1st – vs Dallas 1:30 pm
The full regular season schedule will be released on Thursday at 1 pm Central. Stay Tuned to bluemenonice.com as we will break down the match ups and circle some key dates to watch.
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