Suggestion For Blues At Contract Buyout Time
by Brad Lee on Jun 16, 2010 12:00 PM CDT
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PrintIn the next 13 days, the Blues could make a decision that would almost fully complete the transformation of this team.
Tuesday marked the two-week window for NHL teams to buyout contracts for the coming year. Last summer, the Blues bought out defenseman Jay McKee before the final year of his four-year free agent deal that paid him $4 million a year. He joined much maligned center Petr Cajanek as the only two players to get money for leaving the team. I'm here to argue captain Eric Brewer should be the third.
The last 12 months has seen the changes begin to mount for the franchise. First they fired head coach Andy Murray in mid-season. The Jack Adams finalist saw the front office add a backup goaltender and some spare parts in Peoria after leading the Blues to the best finish of the league and seventh in the conference. His team started the season flat after a whirlwind start in Sweden and the gravely-voiced Murray paid with his job, just three months after the front office picked up his option for this year (remember that).
Off the ice, Larry Pleau retired this offseason as general manager allowing Doug Armstrong to officially take the reigns of the organization. Keith Tkachuk called it quits. It's strongly believed Paul Kariya has played his last game in the Note. Other unrestricted free agents are Carlo Colaiacovo, Mike Weaver, Brad Winchester, Darryl Sydor and Chris Mason. If none of them return (and I know they're negotiating with Mason, but that's not a done deal yet), that's seven players off the NHL roster who saw a lot of ice time this past season.
Add a major investor in the ownership group putting its shares up for purchase and there are a lot of things in flux down at 14th and Brett Hull Way. I say change is good, embrace the change and dump the captain of the team.
Right before signing his four-year extenstion with the Blues three seasons ago, Eric Brewer was in the middle of playing all 82 games in the season - the only time he's done so in his 11-season career - while posting 23 points (tying a career high). It seemed like a decent decision. He had shaken some of the funk from his early days with the Blues when he seemed more robot than man, an unemotional player in fiery game. Since he signed, he's played in 164 of a possible 246 games (two-thirds) and zero of four possible playoff games (zero-thirds). Struggling with injuries, he's posted 21 points the last two seasons...combined.
I said all that to say this: The Blues played poorly this past season with an improved lineup from the year before (the return of Kariya, Brewer and Erik Johnson coupled with a decent backup goaltender in Ty Conklin). They talked often about being able to flip the switch and make a magical playoff push because they'd done it before. But inconsistent effort on a nightly basis and sleepwalking through third periods with the lead too many times doomed this past season. Sure you can point to immaturity and not knowing what it takes to win over 82 games. But you know what helps a team deal with those issues? Leadership.
Sure, the term is probably overused in the NHL where leaders are called out with little letters on their chests (chin if you're a goalie). But it's hard to deny that a steadying hand in the dressing room and on the bench was missing this season. Leadership was lacking when two-goal leads were getting coughed up on a weekly basis. The younger guys need to step up, assume the leadership mantle and lead the charge. How better to do that than by giving David Backes the captaincy?
And before you say it in the comments, I know this probably won't happen because of the economics. The Blues are losing an investor, they're paying Andy Murray to not coach. They're paying McKee to not play for them. Add whatever Murray's salary was, plus $1.3 million for McKee and $1.4 million for Brewer this year (and next) and that's a lot of change walking out the door with no return. But I say it's worth it.
Losing Brewer would free up another spot for a younger defenseman (Jonas Junland, come back), it would free up some money under the salary cap (I'm sorry, even more money under the salary cap) and gives the team a better primary leader.
Do it, Doug. Keep the change coming.
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I support this 100%
St. Louis Game Time
by Marcus E Pettersson on Jun 16, 2010 12:49 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
The "C" has to go
even if Brewer doesn’t.
Can I second, third, and fourth this?
Oh wait…you beat me to the second with that 100% support…just third and fourth it, then.
If the buyout is $1.4 million this year and next, that means he’s making $5.6 in ‘10-’11, right?
St. Louis Game Time- The Game Day Guide to St. Louis Blues Hockey- www.stlouisgametime.com
Brewer's salary for '10-11 is $4.5M...
… his cap hit is $4.25M.
Buyout should be $3M; cap hit will be $1.5M this year and next. If some cap-strapped team wants to trade for him to buy him out, they’ll end up saving $2.75M against this year’s cap.
If theres a Blues fan out there that doesnt support this idea....
we need to hunt them out and lynch them……
My name is dablues7 and I support a Brewbot buyout……
I still maintain Vladimir Konstantinov got what he deserved...If you can't handle that then kiss my ass......
"I've got a bad feeling about this..."
At first I wasn't too into buying out Brewer, but after looking at the end-of-year stats I'm pretty sold
Right now the NHL roster has Brewer, Jackman, and Polak. The Blues are looking to re-sign Johnson, and are looking carefully at re-signing Weaver and Colaiacovo — two players that I’m all for bringing back.
Cola played 67 games, and earned 32 points(7G, 25A – 2nd for all Blues defenders, behind Johnson), ending the season with +8 in plus-minus.
Weaver played 77 games, and while he only collected a meager 10 points this season (1G, 9A), he became an important part of our penalty-kill and had some pretty good moments this season.
Now compare Brewer, who played only 59 games this season due to injury and racked up 8 goals and 7 assists. Brewer, while getting his 15 points, ended the season with -17 plus/minus rating – the lowest of all Blues players, which is unbelievable considering his usual partner Johnson ended the season with a +1.
I’d like to bring back Cola and Weaver, one for offense and one for defense. If we bought out Brewer, we could do just that and have an empty slot open for a training camp success.
Yes, I think that sounds just fine.
$1.4 million to have the Brewbot not play...
seems like a bargain to the $4 million we’d shell out to have that cretin skating for us. Great point on the lack of leadership as well. If that was his intangible quality, it isn’t enough for this team of kids. Give the “C” to Backes!
Couldn’t agree more
You know which games were my favorites to watch over the last two seasons? The ones in which Brewer didn’t play. Got nothing against him personally and tried to give him the benefit of the doubt every year, but the guy just makes too many mistakes to be paid as much as he is and play as many minutes as he does. IMO his extension is the biggest mistake the new regime has made. I understand why they did it, in hopes that he would grow into the #1 defenseman role and the captaincy, but that sadly has not happened. Time to cut our losses and move on.
Especially if this is going to be another throw-away type season (which signing Mase and not signing any high profile FAs would suggest) it makes no sense to carry his dead weight and block the way of one of the prospects. At least they would have a legit excuse for making shitty mistakes. Repeatedly.
And I can’t wait for him to be gone so that we don’t have to hear Kerbs and Chase defend the guy like he’s a retarded kid in a playground pickup game and give him the hard hat award every third game because they feel sorry for him.
www.stlouisgametime.com
by Angst vorm Nichts on Jun 16, 2010 5:01 PM CDT reply actions
There was a time when keeping Brewer around made sense...
(there was nobody better, to justify the Pronger trade, etc.)…those days are gone, and it’s time to move on…a fresh start might do his career some good anyway.
The next captain
Is there any reason to believe Backes really should be the next captain, other than the fan perception of what he brings to the team as a “leader”? I’ve always wondered why people were so in love with the idea of Backes as captain and if it’s more of a Blues fans-love-blue-collar-physical-players thing than something more real.
Well, who do you think should be Captain?
David Backes is an Olympic-caliber 26-year old who plays a physical game that is characteristic of the St. Louis Blues. He gets nothing but respect from the coaching staff, the officials, and his players. He is a fan-favorite, but is experienced enough to stay focused on the team and play smart hockey (unlike some other players). He will drop the gloves for a teammate without hesitation. If you Google “David Backes”, the third result is an article titled “David Backes is dismantling Team Canada with his fists”. If that doesn’t make him captain-material, I don’t know what does.
Anyway, prediction for next season’s captains:
C – Backes – for the reasons stated above
A – Jackman – a veteran of the team, the A, and master of the “You’re An Idiot” look.
A – McClement – one of the smartest players on the Blues, and can communicate with officials without saying a word
I’ll throw Steen’s name in there for an “A” if one of Jackman or McClement don’t get it. Nose for leadership? I think so.
Side note: With the recent change in titles, does this mean Joe and I are now contractually obligated to hate the authors under the Shanny title?
No beer and no TV make Homer...something something.
by Poor College Student on Jun 16, 2010 10:00 PM CDT up reply actions
Am I the only one who'd like to see EJ with a letter?
I don’t see too many of the press conferences, but to me he seems like a leader on the ice
At the very least we need a new cap'n.
Buying Brewer out would give a younger player a chance to step in, or if there aren’t any that impress (which is doubtful), allow for a solid UFA pick-up who will actually, I don’t know, not seem to be on the ice for every goal against. I know that Brewer isn’t the worst defenseman in the history of the game, but his emotional flatness has got to be a problem when you have a bunch of young kids around the locker room. Frankly, Brewer reminds me of Buzz Killington.
I wouldn’t be upset to see Brewer go, but I honestly don’t expect it to happen.
Reporter: There`s a "stamp out the Beatles movement" underway in Detroit. What are you going to do about it?
Paul McCartney: We`re going to start a campaign to stamp out Detroit.
Pedantic, but we finished 6th in the conference in the magic happy comeback season. We still haven’t won a playoff game with brewer in the line up so may as well dump him, wont make any difference at all and he makes way too much money for me to feel comfortable saying being without him will make no difference at all.
Think cola is going to get squeezed out here through no fault of his own, he’s just not the guy for us right now, but he’ll catch on somewhere for sure. We have to make room for all of these defensemen we’ve drafted eventually, too bad we didnt try to trade cola and get a pick out of him rather than having to wait to see if anyone wants him as an RFA, and seeing as how the compensation picks would probably be higher than what we could have gotten for him at the deadline I dont know if that will happen.
Id like to see weavs back, hes be a good 7th man ala sydor this year, except better.
Agreed
For the money we save by buying him out we can get a better defenseman, or bring up another prospect. Assuming this doesn’t happen, I would be shocked and disappointed if he remains captain. Not being in the locker room it’s hard to speculate on who the most effective leaders are, but just from on-ice observations and interviews I’m no the Backes-for-Captain bandwagon, with alternate picks of EJ (I don’t think he has this leadership now, but think he can step up to it if challenged), Jax and <elite forward I’m hoping we sign>.
Its not gonna happen, but I'll play along
Brewer isn’t and never will be a fan favorite in St.Louis, where he will always be hated mainly for being the anti-Chris Pronger. He’s not fiery, doesn’t play on the edge, not a good interview, etc. etc. He is and always will be a harsh reminder of the worst time in Blues history. (PS. I have been a fan since 1970 and remember well when the team was about to move to Saskatoon. It was nothing compared to the disaster that Bill Laurie visited on the team when he decided he didn’t want to play with his hockey toy anymore.)
I will admit I don’t know where that captaincy came from, and I wouldn’t mind seeing someone else with the C (Backes would be fine. No Jackman please, and I really kind of like the idea of McClement), but that’s no reason to unload him for no return. He is a pretty solid stay at home defenseman who would be a starting 6 player on any team in the league. While his injury record is a concern, surely if we were willing to buy him out we could offer up him and an amount of cash equivalent to the buyout to the other GM’s and snare some asset, even if its a couple of draft picks.
And a thought experiment to occupy your summer GT-ers. Some fans need a least-favorite player on the team. Someone to scapegoat for losses. Remember Alexander Khavanov? Petr Cajanek? Patrick Lalime (no wait, Lalime truly did suck. nm). Currently Brewer fills that role, with an assist from Kariya. If those two are gone this summer, who takes over?
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But that's the way to bet. - Damon Runyon
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