NickBoston

"St. Louis Blues News"

St. Louis, MO • United States • 27 Years Old • Male

Only Minor Moves Made as Blues Head Into Home Stretch

After all of the speculation concerning the possible movement of Paul Kariya, Keith Tkachuk, Brad Boyes, and Carlo Colaiacovo, the Blues listened to the offers given but said "Thanks, but no thanks".

Instead, the Blues kept their main roster together as they head into the final 20 games of the season, and potentially a spot in the playoffs.

Rumor had it that Kariya was going to be traded to Vancouver, but nothing ever materialized. The supposed trade was contingent on Kariya signing a one-year extension with the Canucks, but Vancouver didn't seem too willing to budge on that offer. In return, the Canucks were going to dump their bad contract on the Blues in forward Pavol Demitra, along with goaltending prospect Cory Schneider.

Tkachuk was heavily rumored to be headed to Boston, despite the fact that he's out 10-15 days with a broken pinkie. However, Tkachuk has a no-trade clause in his contract, and was unwiling to waive it to go play for his hometown team.

Brad Boyes was rumored in trades with Edmonton and Montreal, but the Blues weren't willing to give up a former 40-goal scorer without a sizeable return that would help this team now and in the forseeable future.

Colaiacovo was looked at by Washington, but he didn't get a lot of attention in trade talk. Plus, it would've been very contradicting on the part of the Blues to trade away an offensive-minded defenseman that they thought so highly of last year after the trade with Toronto.

They did acquire winger Matt D'Agostini from Montreal in exchange for prospect Aaron Palushaj, but all of the big-name movement everyone though was going to occur was simply one word...

Speculation.

As the Blues head into the home stretch, how will the lack of movement help or hurt this team that's only three points out of a playoff spot?

We shall see.




Nick Boston