Blues sign RFA Joel Edmundson to one-year deal

Joel Edmundson was heading toward arbitration with the Blues this off-season, but the team today fixed that pending issue. They signed Edmundson, a key part of their defensive top four, to a one year, three million dollar deal. This is a nice bump up from his previous deal, which had a $742,500 cap hit and an AAV of $925,000.

Next post-season, when the deal is up, Edmundson will still be an RFA. That fact makes it easy to fall into the “this is a make or break year!” for Edmundson narrative. While an off-year won’t help him, it’s very difficult to argue that his performance last season solidified Edmundson’s place on the roster for a while. The physical defenseman logged at least 20 minutes a night most games, with several stretches seeing him on the ice for more (on March 30th and 31st, for example, he played 26:28 and 27:23 against Vegas and Arizona, respectively). His month out with a broken arm from February 8th to March 18th coincided with a particularly unpleasant stretch of play for the Blues.

His arbitration hearing was scheduled for tomorrow.