Ej and McClement traded to AVs

[STLADOGG]

...but now the Brewer trade makes a little more sense.

At what point and why would the Brewer trade not have made sence? You got something for a guy who was going to walk at the end of the year?.?.?

I mean it makes sense because we got a young defense man to replace one of these two guys(Brew, EJ)

[DaDitka]

...but now the Brewer trade makes a little more sense.

At what point and why would the Brewer trade not have made sence? You got something for a guy who was going to walk at the end of the year?.?.?

I mean it makes sense because we got a young defense man to replace one of these two guys(Brew, EJ)

I see.

I was just saying the Brewer trade was good and made sense even without this move. You got something for a guy that was going to walk and NN was going to step in a and fill his minutes.

[STLADOGG]

Ok...so Cole is gonna get canned?

[STLADOGG]

...but now the Brewer trade makes a little more sense.

At what point and why would the Brewer trade not have made sence? You got something for a guy who was going to walk at the end of the year?.?.?

I mean it makes sense because we got a young defense man to replace one of these two guys(Brew, EJ)

I see.

I was just saying the Brewer trade was good and made sense even without this move. You got something for a guy that was going to walk and NN was going to step in a and fill his minutes.

Yeah your right and I was thinking the other guy we got in this trade was a forward.

[DaDitka]

Ok...so Cole is gonna get canned?

?????

[cardsfan04]

With the cap room we freed up w/ Brewer, we should have no reason not to make a strong play at Brad Richards.

You do of course realize that cap room is not a problem for us. We are actually having to be careful not to go below the salary floor.

Yeah, I get that. We had 12 mil or something free before the trades. But, we have a number of free agents that will be expecting raises this offseason. If we give him 8 and give others some raises, we don't have a lot of room to work. Freeing up 3 mil makes it easier to do both.

[DaDitka]

Blues Recall McRae, Strachan from Peoria
Saturday, 02.19.2011 / 10:00 AM / News
St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced Saturday the club has recalled forward Philip McRae and defenseman Tyson Strachan from the Blues’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen.

McRae, 20, has dressed in 46 games for Peoria this season recording 26 points including 12 goals and 14 assists. While with the Blues, the 6’2, 200-pound forward dressed in seven games notching two points including his first career NHL goal on January 26 at Calgary. A St. Louis native, McRae was originally drafted by the Blues in the second round, 33rd overall, in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. He will wear number 38.

Strachan, 26, appeared in three games during his recent stint with Peoria recording one assist. The 6-2, 215-pound defenseman has played in 24 games for the Blues this season, recording one assist and 29 penalty minutes.

The Melfort, Saskatchewan native was originally drafted by Carolina in the fifth round, 137th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and was signed by the Blues as a free agent on Oct. 9, 2008.

What I figured.

[northwest dave]

Wow. Nice move on picking up two quality players for one and a half players. EJ was not living up to his expectations...hopefully he can turn it around. JMac was a waste of space here. Nice defensive player, but between Crombeen and Oshie, the blues are fine. And quite honestly, the blues need scoring...JMac doesn't produce enough.

[richtedm]

I love it.

Short term, this team will miss McClement more than it will miss EJ. Longterm, EJ could haunt the Blues... but when you realize we swapped him for a guy who was already haunting the Blues then whats really the difference? Also Shattenkirk could be a real good player in his own right. Getting Stewart is what makes me the most happy. I wouldn't have been terribly upset to see EJ for Stewart straight up. Getting Shattenkirk is gravy in my mind.

Also the first round pick, so long as its not top 10, isn't the end of the world. Either we get a top ten pick this year, or we give up a mid to late first rounder next season (assuming that by chance the Blues actually make the playoffs) and could potentially be getting a really high second round pick back.

Gotta give to get, and this team just got A LOT better offensively. Team could miss McClement and EJ defensively, but at the end of the day the D hasn't really been all that impressive anyway. Now they can continue to be unimpressive defensively but maybe just maybe be impressive offensively.

[sseagle]

Sid the Kid couldn't get us into the playoffs.

That said, we are a better team today then we were two days ago.

That is because he's a braindamaged loaf, and a fairy

[bluesfan115]

We are 7 points out of 8th, and eight pints out of 4th...and have six games from today till the end of the month. So to say Sid the Kid couldn't get us into the play offs at this time is a little knee jerky, don't you think??

As for the Brewer/EK and McClemment trade...I just hope we didn't just shoot ourselves in the foot. I have faith though, that our upper management saw something, and made a wise decision based on future consideration, and not what has happened in the last three to four months...

Everyone keeps harping on EJ in this trade, but I am more worried about losing McClement...He was by far our best PKer for the last several years, and had no problem giving up his body, in order to stop a puck from getting past our goalie...

I just hope that this trade will amount ot more goal scoring, because our D just got alot weaker over the past two days...

As always, just my two cents

[DaDitka]

Team could miss McClement and EJ defensively, but at the end of the day the D hasn't really been all that impressive anyway. Now they can continue to be unimpressive defensively but maybe just maybe be impressive offensively.

That's the part I love about this trade. Both of those guys were really - really struggling defensively lately. I just commented at last Friday's home game about how Jay MaC was the most useless player on the ice that night (not named Cam) and was discussing how we needed find a way to move him to make room for McRae.

IMO, we got better offensively and defensively.

[not_a_wings_fan]

I think we made a really good move here. I don't know what the short term impact will be, but both teams filled holes. I think both teams benefit from this trade.

Proud of the management for trying to do something to improve the team.

[Krigloch the Furious]

BASH. FVCKING. BROTHERS.
Backes and Stewart!
Who else do they put on that line?

Sad to see EJ go, but Pietrangelo is the man.
I'll give up a D-man anyday to get a beastly scorer.
This is good news!

[hughbisme1]

Hey Whats Up fellow Blues fans!! So we all agree Brewer had to go even though he played this year and Salvi should have been our guy instead of Jackman but somebody must have sucked off somebody to keep jackman and trading Salvi but that was then. Jackman has to go!
I was just having a conversation with someone yesterday and he said he would trade EJ today for offence and his reasoning "EJ underachiever, get what we can before he is exposed" It was unsettling but I think it may have been good, pietro def. stands out!! Mcclement was good at what he did but he didnt help us fill gaps we needed filled. What we get from Col looks pretty promising, we are addressing goal scoring and we have a really good d man coming which it sounds like he is basically like Johnson.

Boyes has to go, hopefully NJ will bite and we can land Parise(fingers crossed), its a win win for us!! But reguardless Boyes has to go!!

EJ, you will be missed but with the way the AVS play us, we all could end up hating him!!

LETZGOBLOOZ!!

[DaDitka]

With the cap room we freed up w/ Brewer, we should have no reason not to make a strong play at Brad Richards.

You do of course realize that cap room is not a problem for us. We are actually having to be careful not to go below the salary floor.

Yeah, I get that. We had 12 mil or something free before the trades. But, we have a number of free agents that will be expecting raises this offseason. If we give him 8 and give others some raises, we don't have a lot of room to work. Freeing up 3 mil makes it easier to do both.

You do realize this organization has no money and will not raise the payroll.

Moving Brewers contract frees up the $ to re up Oshie, Bergie, Winchester etc.

That's why acquiring Stewart is SOOOOO big, we weren't going to sign anyone in FA.

[DaDitka]

Boyes has to go, hopefully NJ will bite and we can land Parise(fingers crossed), its a win win for us!! But reguardless Boyes has to go!!

Someone has been hitting the sauce already this morning,

[ohio BLUES]

Boyes has to go, hopefully NJ will bite and we can land Parise(fingers crossed), its a win win for us!!

Welcome, dude. I also have the feeling that we're not done, and that we're positioning to trade up for a big fish. Parise may be out of reach, but man would it be sweet.

[gaijin]

Wow. Just wow.

First time I logged on since yesterday. I thought EJ was supposed to be our cornerstone for years to come, and lead us to a Cup. Serious turnaround to send him to a Conference rival.

Not sure if I can fully internalize the trade at this point.

[KC Express]

It's a decent trade. It really sucks to watch your team trade a former #1 overall, but someone was probably going to come along and over pay for him when FA came, based on nothing more than ceiling. The Blues can't wait forever for him to get his shit together and act like a #1 overall. Give him to a team that can.