Over the next week St. L will wake up with a what the H did we do that for...
This was the year they were supposed to win.... They traded their first round pick and best d-prospect for Bouwmeester and their 2nd round pick for Leopold. No matter how you cut it and what a great series it was with LA.... they lost 4 straight and did not do as good as they did last year.
They don't pick in the 2013 draft until pick #86.... basically taking a year off from stocking the talent pool.
They have Berglund, Stewart, Pietroangelo, Shattenkirk as RFA's .... all of these in the ROR class of Restricted Free agents.
Using David Perron as their bench mark.... He signed a 4year 3.8M/year deal as a RFA last year.... it would be hard to see any of these guys signing for less than 4 M year. Adding 16M for these 4 that leaves the Blues 8M in cap space to sign 5 players.... IF they spend to the cap.
Their best prospects Tarasenko and Shwartz were playing for them. Ty Rattie their next best prospect had basically the same year playing in the WHL as a 20 year old... not a sign he is close to NHL ready.
Cracknell is a UFA.... looking for his 1st one-way contract.... Likely to get a great deal based on his last 20 games with the Blues.
AND they are going to be paying Bouwmeester 6.6M next year.
The future looked a lot brighter this time last year.
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