Who wants to see more of Chris Stewart? The St. Louis Blues want to see more of Chris Stewart.
The Restricted Free Agent forward agreed to terms with the club on a two year, $8.3 million dollar contract Friday afternoon. The deal will pay out $4.1 million in 2013-14 and $4.2 million in 2014-15.
Stewart, a 25 year old Toronto native, appeared in all 48 games last season and led the Blues in goals (18) and points (36). In his career split between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis he’s racked up 100 goals and 202 points in 319 games.
An initial gut check reveals a fair deal for both sides.
The player is rewarded with a pay raise for his productive regular season. Stewart was on pace a 30 goal, 60 point effort had a full 82 game schedule been played. It was exactly the type of performance the brain trust was looking for when they handed him a “prove me” contract a year ago. The team gets a manageable cap hit ($4.15 mil AAV) and salary. Prior to the signing the Blues had a little less than $13 million in space to sign their remaining RFAs: Alex Pietrangelo, Magnus Paajarvi, and Jake Allen. According to reports there is a little more than $8 million in cap space remaining and the Blues have stated publicly that trades will not be required to fit under the leagues upper limit of $64.3 million.
Additionally, the Blues do not risk a bulky, inflated, and cumbersome contract bogging down their payroll budget long term. An important benefit when attempting to sign promising young talent coming off their ELC and secure solid goaltending since Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott both hit the market in the same offseason.
The short term nature of the contract should ensure a hungry forward eager to prove himself leading to his presumed entry in to the open market in the summer of 2015. At least it should considering the lockout hasn’t curbed spending when the bell rings to open free agency. David Clarkson is a prime example of the type of contract Stewart will be shooting for (and the recklessness of spending). It also gives the Blues time to see if Stewart is worth that type of contract. To weigh the cost of losing such a (potentially) prolific scorer vs. the constraints such a deal would put on the budget.
For as much reason as there could have been to move Stewart for a centerman that would allow captain David Backes to move back to his natural right wing, there are as many reasons to hold on to No. 25.
With the addition of Derek Roy an element has been added to the middle of the ice that Stewart hasn’t played with since he was in Colorado. Vision in the middle. The presence of a distributing pivot should increase the scoring opportunities created. At least there is a better chance to compared to pairing Stewart with a clone, in terms of playstyle, like Backes or Patrik Berglund.
No, Vladimir Sobotka was not an option as a playmaking center to enable Stewart to be all the Blues hope he can be.
The addition of a forward who could be more consistently reliable in bench boss Ken Hitchcock’s system should trickle down to produce more opportunity, that’s a hard sell to make to an unsettled core fan base. Trading away the teams leading scorer as a way to increase effectiveness would not be well met. Season Tickets are a hard enough sell as it is these days. The loss of a goal scorer and a fighter (one of 12 players since 2008 to amass 200 points and 300 PIMS), the two most entertaining parts of the game, wouldn’t make it any easier.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that up and coming scorer Vladimir Tarasenko will be due for a new contract in 2015. The same summer Stewart will as well. Should the Russian sniper take off and become the lethal offensive force he’s expected to the decision between who to keep may be very difficult. In those two years prospects Dimtrij Jaskin and Ty Rattie should have received plenty of seasoning in the AHL and be poised to take a significant spot on the NHL roster. While it would hurt to lose such a strong asset in Stewart for nothing, failure to maintain cost efficient depth is much worse.
Much is expected of Stewart. It will be interesting to watch just how much he delivers on.
Quick Hits
- Roy will ear No. 12. Looks like Jaden Schwartz will hold on to No.9.
- Hitchcock is again looking at specific pairs to base his lines off of. This time around its: Backes & Steen, Roy & Stewart, Paajarvi & Berglund. I would expect TJ Oshie to fit in with Backes’ line, Tarasenko with Roy’s line and Schwartz with Berglund. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Schwartz with Backes and Oshie with Berglund.
- The 2013-14 NHL schedule is out.
Hit the link to see more. I’m planning a post this weekend or perhaps early next week deep diving in to it. It’s nice to see they open with five straight at home with game one on Thursday, October 3rd at 7pm CT versus Nashville.
- It was announced that NHL players will be allowed to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Whether or not this winds up being the last time for a long time they do, we’ll see. But for this go around it was a no brainer. The opportunity to create more positive buzz for the sport in America simply shouldn’t (more like can’t) be passed up. Sadly, the time difference, 9 hours, will be brutal.
The Blues could have several players representing. The obvious ones to watch for potential selection are Backes, Shattenkirk, and Oshie (USA), Pietrangelo (CAN), Halak (SVK), Steen and Berglund (SWE), Sobotka and Polak (CZE), and Tarasenko (RUS). This is another topic I plan to deep dive more in to over the next week to 10 days.
- Though the Blues have said they don’t need to make a trade, I still have personal reservations about how likely it is they go in to the season with a payroll nearly $10 million above where it was just a year before. Perhaps Stillman and his investors have something in the works, but I just don’t see how the existing STH and corporate support base will make up the difference.
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Time for your take. What do you make of the Stewart contract? Good, bad? Think Halak will still be moved to clear out payroll?
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Thanks for reading. As always, feel free to follow me on Twitter:
@jtquirin 
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