Steve Ott Signs With Detroit Red Wings

The Steve Ott Era is no more in St. Louis. As DK pointed out this morning in his excellent piece on why Ott should walk, Ott was paid a lot of money and did a lot of nothing except intangibles. Ooooh, intangibles.

He was acquired in a trade between the Sabres and Blues (the infamous Ryan Miller deal, essentially as a throw-in to make the salaries work out). He made about $800K in that final 23-game stretch for the Blues (if my per-game math is correct), then $2.6MM in each of the past two full seasons. So in two seasons and two months, Steve Ott made approximately (perhaps a shade over) $6MM.

In that time, including playoff games, Ott played a total of 140 games. You would think something useful would have to come from paying a guy $6MM to play 140 hockey games, yes?

Well, in those games, Ott amassed a grand total of . . . three goals and 17 assists for a total of 20 points. 20 points in 140 games played.

Yikes.

Yeah, that trade went well. Thankfully, he's now the Red Wings problem, for one season at $800,000. What Ken Holland was thinking is beyond me, but I'm not going to criticize the Wings for saving the Blues from Ott when a much more capable Vladimir Sobotka is returning (probably).

Here are some of my favorite reactions to the news:

Oh man I have said so many unkind things about Steve Ott to this point in his career. I don't see a reason to stop now.

— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) July 1, 2016

Ott will be around to help keep the flies off the kids that the Red Wings now don't have any space in their lineup for because of Steve Ott

— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) July 1, 2016

Here are the top reasons the #RedWings signed Steve Ott https://t.co/9LkpD46c1H pic.twitter.com/dgHEK9spXZ

— Kyle M. (@KyleWIIM) July 1, 2016

I leave Twitter long enough to get the kids and eat dinner and... WHAT?! Steve Ott?! WTF?! There goes Detroit's moral high ground.

— Tom Ferratt (@ferratho) July 1, 2016