Weaver, Winchester and McKee…oh my.

So, yesterday, the Blues re-signed Mike Weaver and Brad Winchester to one year, $800,000 contracts and subsequently bought out the contract of Jay McKee. Good moves or bad? Let’s take a closer look at these guys.

News

Jeff Woywitka – The Blues did not make a qualifying offer, therefore Woywitka becomes a free agent.

TSN are reporting that the Blues have dropped out of the race to sign Dany Heatley. I guess nobody is upset about that.

Worryingly it looks like Roman Polak will not be re-signed prior to free agency. He’ll therefore be open to offer sheets. St Louis Post-Dispatch

Stay tuned for a deeper look at the signings of Brad Winchester and Mike Weaver plus the contract buyout of Jay McKee.

Breaking News…

Andy Strickland has just tweeted that the Blues have signed both Brad Winchester and Mike Weaver to 1 year, $800,000 contracts. To follow Andy on twitter then go here: Andy Strickland Twitter

Andy is also reporting on Hockeybuzz.com that the Blues have bought out the contract of Jay McKee.

Rumour Mill

First up, a bit of news.  The Blues and defenseman Roman Polak are in the midst of discussing contract terms.  Polak received a qualifying offer of $522,500 but is hoping to negotiate a multi-year extension.

Hockeybuzz.com has been reporting a possible three way trade that could involve the Blues. In that scenario, the Wild would end up with Dany Heatley from the Senators and the Blues would end up with goalie, Josh Harding. Don’t be surprised if the Blues try and sign Harding to an offer sheet.

Detroit Free Press reports that the Wings have decided not to offer a new contract to goalie, Ty Conklin. It’ll be interesting to see if the Blues take a run at Conklin.

NJ.com has an interview with Devils backup goalie, Scott Clemmensen. Looks like he might well hit free agency on Wednesday too. The Blues might be spoilt for choice for a good backup.

Andy Strickland is reporting interest from the Blues in signing UFA Sergei Zubov. He also states that Jeff Woywitka is not expecting a qualifying offer by today’s deadline and that BJ Crombeen has countered a two year offer he received from the Blues. Crombeen expects to hear back from the Blues shortly.

That’s it for today…unless something major hits, of course.

2009 Draft

At the draft in Montreal, the Blues selected the following players:

Round 1 – David Rundblad (#17 overall)

NHL Entry Draft Prospect Profile – David Rundblad I was very unsure about this pick at the time. However, having read what NHL.com have to say about him…I’m much more optimistic. It also gives us another strong defenseman – and teams are always on the lookout for that. The Blues have trade options now.

Welcome…

to Blue Skies.  A brand new St Louis Blues hockey blog.

The aim of this blog is to keep you updated with the various Blues news and rumours together with providing viewpoints on the latest happenings.   Roster and salary cap information is available on lots of other sites so what we plan to do is have player profiles.  Not CURRENT players.  Players from the past.

Hopefully, the viewpoints will be a little different than the norm – one of the reasons why is that I live in the UK.  Nowhere near St Louis at all!  In fact, I’ve never even visited the States yet (but plan to next hockey season).

So start spreading the word.  And if you have a viewpoint etc that you’d like to contribute then feel free to email.