BluemanGuruu

trustinjarmo knows nothing, MO • United States • 38 Years Old • Male

The Hunt for Steve Stamkos

i began calling for about two and half weeks ago, or before the blues had the mini explosion of wins,the tanking of the season. this way you end up with steve stamkos. then you dump half of these worthless non goal scoring schmos.

tops on my list to not resign or those who need to be traded:

1)tkachoke(keith tkachuk). when you see a guy show up once in a while and seeminlgy at will, you begin to ponder their commitment to playing winning hockey. ever since the blues traded away a bus load of talent for this guy, he has been the cancer of the team. we've paid him far too much and have yet to get back in return all we gave to get him whether you consider his performance on the ice or last season's trade. in the new nhl a gm has to balance talent as far as production is concerned, a known face or ticket selling commodity and the cap. well for the price of production and the cap hit the only thing the blues get from this guy is a known face and fat butt.

2)martin rucinksy. he began his retirement in the pre-season. in barely any games played he leads the lead in hooking minors. we save over $2 million in cap hit and put somebody on the ice that has pride in themselves and hopefully the logo on the front.

3)hinote: at a million a season and with the addition of a more energized cam jenssen he's not needed. plus he can't score. plus the blues already pay a one-way contract for chris porter who plays a similiar style but has capable hands to produce at a better rate.

4)ryan johnson next year he will want to be making at minimum about $1.2 million a season. he'll want a few years. thanks but no thanks. enjoyed your heart and energy but sorry kid you're a loser plain and simple. yan stastny can take your place as well as a few others most notably jay mcclement.

5)dj king. overpaid. since hockey feels like a harlem globetrotters game slash circus because of goons like king just fight from the line i hate this style, it doesn't even share the romance of a canadian junior line fight. i like it when emotions during play boil over and then presto you have a fight with meaning. or you hit me like that let's go. or you went after our soft guy. but the whole concept of you scored a couple of go ahead goals i need to excite my team but i can't score so....has no place in hockey. bottom line, not enough skill, not enough speed. replaced by cam janssen.

6) matt walker. yeah he should probably be higher on the list. SCHOOL IS IN AND OPPOSING FORWARDS TAKE YOU THERE! this guy would bite on tkachokes twenty year old chip power move. he's slower than...well i don't think i've ever seen a defensemen skate this slow and sloppy. hell i skate better than him and that doesn't say much. he can't score, moves the puck poorly. he does hit and is willing to drop the gloves. not enough. welcome to the new nhl kid. you belong in the ahl maybe. replacement? polack, wagner, dupont take your pick.

7)eric brewer or jay mckee. it's tough to say but one these chumps needs to go and free up some money so he can replaced with a defensemen that has skill or even the same mold but is paid far less. see above dmen also as possible replacements. but my personal pick is to resign bryce salvador.

the bottom line is this we need a competitive team that plays hard every night. we also need to be capable of scoring. yes it is hard to score in this league but there's a handful of players who manage to do it at considerably higher clip. some people call them snipers, some even might suggest that david perron is of this ilk.

but while fielding a more competitive team the budget needs to have some flexibility both long term and short. decisions have to be made and sometimes these must be painful to some fans and their illogical attatchments to dinosaurs such as tkachoke or players who are pumped up by the media though they have never scored more than seven goals in a season(ryan johnson).

so you take into consideration that you could end up with a fourth line costing you roughly over $3.5 million in cap space. that's plain foolish. also just as foolish is comparing ryan johnson's salary to say a paul kariya or tkachoke and mention he only makes such and such(over $900,000), and he does so much. well, it is not enough. dan hinote does not do enough. dj king does not do enough. jamal mayers is about right though we have upgrades for him as well.

but if the blues are lucky enough to hold up a jersey this summer that says stamkos 08 then this team just became deadly. then the fat must be trimmed. then in the end we will have a completely dangerous set of three scoring lines next season as well as a commendable salary cap with flexibility for the years as they go as long as either brewer or mckee's salary is moved and tkachoke's as well though one more year of that cap hit won't be the end of the world though his influence on young players could be.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to leave a comment.