The Blues will begin discussions with Don Meehan on Wednesday as they try to hammer out an extension for Eric Brewer. The two sides will meet over the phone, as no deal is imminent.
Hammering out a deal in the next week will be a tall order for Blues President John Davidson. How much money the Blues are willing to spend will obviously determine whether or not Brewer remains with the St. Louis Blues.
Brewer is looking for a long-term contract in the range of four million dollars per season.
I don’t see the Blues going that high, and I don’t see Brewer accepting much less.
The Blues are in a tough situation simply because they want to keep Brewer and they realize they may not be able to replace him if he gets away. You often see organizations overpay for certain guys to prevent them from leaving. He’s a 27-year-old defenseman who has been an absolute horse the last 30 games.
Sources out of Edmonton say the Oilers are no longer pursuing Brewer.
The Blues are not close on any deals that would send Bill Guerin or Keith Tkachuk out of St. Louis. Things could obviously change, but as we sit right now no deals are imminent. Teams are not offering what the Blues want in return.
The Blues as an organization have an incredible challenge ahead of them.
You have a number of guys who are saying they want to stay in the organization.
No one has any real idea what the team is going to look like in the next week. We assume the Blues will be able to re-sign guys like Radek Dvorak and Jamal Mayers.
Depending how much money they give to Brewer could affect whether or not the club will be in a financial position to re-sign a Mayers or Dvorak.
Not to mention Keith Tkachuk and Billy Guerin. We all know these guys will want to be paid in the off-season. They’ll both be able to command at the very least 3.5 million per season, which is what Doug Weight will make next season for the Blues.
You only have so much money to spread around.
The Blues will certainly make a decent push to bring both these guys back next season.
The organization believes that outside of Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Briere, and Chris Drury, players who will be looking for six to seven million dollar a year deals this summer, Guerin and Tkachuk are as good as any other unrestricted free agent forward out there.
Certain players could change their minds and decide they don’t want to stay in St. Louis next year if the organization isn’t able to hang on to some important pieces.
One player told me he wishes the Blues would leave the team in tact and not to feel the need to make changes.
I think most rational people would agree that getting something in return for a player who may not be back next season makes sense at this point.
The organization believes the club needs to finish the season with a 17-4 record to make the playoffs. Basically they feel anywhere from 93-95 points will earn you a playoff berth.
Wamsley Is Still Making Saves!
One person that hasn’t received enough credit this season is Assistant/Goaltender Coach Rick Wamsley.
Wamsley stuck with Legace during his early season struggles. The former NHL goaltender saw some flaws in Legace’s game and worked hard to correct them.
Legace has always had a good butterfly, but Wamsley felt his footwork needed some touching up.
If you notice Legace in the past would try to recover mostly with his hands. Usually when you try to recover hands first it requires an unbelievable save to stop the puck.
The constant footwork drills Wamsley has Legace do have paid off. You now see Legace recover feet first on rebounds.
If you watch Legace play you realize how good his feet are. He looks very comfortable going into the first shot which is when a goalie needs to be set.
Legace has at least a couple of year’s left where you can expect him to play at this level. He feels fresh, he may be 34 years old but hasn’t played in 1,000 games. He has backup numbers in terms of games played.
Negotiations with Legace are on hold while Pleau attends the GM meetings in Florida. Talks have been positive thus far and will pick up later this week.
Wamsley is enjoying his time back in St. Louis where he once played. He was the Blue Jackets goaltending coach the last few years. He spent most of his time traveling back and forth between Syracuse and his home just outside of Toronto.
Wamsley’s ability to coach the defense from a goaltenders perspective has helped the Blues defense. He helps the defense understand what a goaltender is seeing at all times.
He teaches his defense to understand how to push a play to a certain angle to it make it easier for the goaltender to make the save. He wants his defense to understand that the goalie is there. The goalie understands his job is to cover up for the defenseman’s mistakes, which is why Wamsley wants to limit their mistakes to one or two per game. A two on one situation is always a two on two if a defenseman is able to use his goaltender properly.
He leaves the technical stuff for Assistant Coach Brad Shaw who runs the defense.
One defenseman quick to acknowledge Wamsley is Barret Jackman who is playing his best hockey since his rookie year when he played with Al Macinnis.
Jackman is healthy and developing into the defenseman the organization hoped he would. He’s handling the puck, making nice breakout passes, showing great patience, and is as strong as they come on the boards.
Jackman will tell you he hasn’t played this good since his rookie season.
Going through the injuries the last couple of seasons was really tough for the former first round pick. He had suffered knee and shoulder injuries in junior but never needed surgery.
Jackman is used to hearing criticism and he heard his share while recovering from surgery on more than one occasion. He understands if he doesn’t meet the Calder Trophy expectations people are going to criticize.
Andy Murray has shown confidence in Jackman by playing him in all situations.
The one player receiving non-stop praise from his teammates is Barret Jackman. This includes Keith Tkachuk who can’t say enough about his play.
Jackman and Tkachuk have become good friends. Tkachuk was already in St. Louis when Jackman entered the NHL. I’ll never forget Jackman not backing down from Tkachuk during a training camp scrimmage prior to his rookie campaign. Tkachuk was obviously trying to see if he could intimidate the rookie.
Jackman says the trade rumors have become the topic of jokes in the dressing room, but he’d hate to see both Tkachuk and Guerin leave the club.
Meanwhile JD loves the fact that Jackman shows no fear on the ice and continues to show leadership off of it.
It took some time but Jackman has learned how to play aggressive without making himself susceptible to injury. He has changed his style and figured out that he doesn’t need to lay the big open-ice check on guys that are much bigger than he is. His ability to simplify his game has helped him greatly.
He’s already established himself as a tough player in the league and has come to the realization that he doesn’t need to fight everybody to prove he belongs in the NHL.
He missed a lot of time because of injury, and most people don’t understand how long it takes to recover and get your game back in order. You don’t see two many baseball players sit out for two years and come back right away having no issues hitting 100 mph fastballs.
Blues Clues!
Marin Rucinsky will undergo additional tests on Wednesday to further diagnose his hip flexor. After having an MRI taken on Monday, Rucinski will be given a diagnostic injection to determine if his hip joint is the cause of his ongoing hip pain.
Dan Hinote will have his shoulder operated on in Colorado next Month. I had reported Cleveland earlier this week.
Jay Mckee continues to skate with the club as he is hoping to return by the end of the month. He took a day off recently after feeling some soreness in the pelvic area. He has still stayed away from contact.
Peoria Rivermen forward Konstantin Zakharov has apparently left the organzation. He recently took everything except his hockey pants and helmet from the locker room. He left some tip money for the equipment managers and has vanished.
His agent has sent him text messages and has not heard back.
He was playing great hockey as of late and was starting to produce offensive numbers. Russia is the only place he could go and play because they are not part of the IIHF. His father is the former President of the Belarus Ice Hockey Federation and currently coaches in Belarus. The Blues could challenge if he shows up in Belarus wanting to play there. His dismissal came out of nowhere and shocked the Rivermen players and coaches. He did the same thing last year after playing eight games in Akaska in the ECHL.
A recent story appearing in a Switzerland newspaper says Rivermen defenseman Tomas Mojzis has agreed to a contract with a Swiss pro team and will begin playing there this Saturday. Agents over in Europe try to steal clients that aren’t theirs all the time. His contract is up at the end of this season but he has given the Blues no indication he is leaving the Blues organization this week. Regardless, the Blues feel this is a false story and he wouldn’t be able to play this season over there anyway because of IIHF rules.
Vladimir Orszagh has skated four times as he continues to rehab his reconstructed knee. He does an easy 15-minute skate and is hoping to increase his skating very soon. He says getting back on the ice is just as good for him mentally as it is physically.
After a recent game Jackson Drake, the son of Blues Captain Dallas, went up to his dad telling him he wasn’t aggressive enough in the game. Dallas responded to his critic by saying gees thanks a lot!
More to come,
Andy Strickland
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St Louis Blues Blogger •1380 ESPN • 
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