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Net Return On Investment?

August 11, 2013, 9:07 AM ET [49 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The St. Louis Blue woke up this morning with a $57 million payroll for the 2013-14 season.

Their new owner, Tom Stillman, gave the green light earlier this year to Blues GM Doug Armstrong top sign and lockup the young veteran core of his team.

The Blues haven't gotten to $57M by blowing stupid money on over priced UFAs see Toronto Leafs Leafs and David Clarkson. Instead, Armstrong has re-invested big money in his core by fortifying his core. David Backes, TJ Oshie, and Patrik Berglund are locked up long term, and now their supporting cast members are locked up, too.

If only the Blues were in a position to sign their RFA #1 D man Alex Pietrangelo, who is reportedly seeking an average annual salary of $7 million per season for 7-8 seasons.

Stillman told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he’s impressed with the way that Armstrong is investing the organization's dollars into the core players.

“When we purchased the Blues a little over a year ago, we said that our plan was to straighten out the business side and put a strong, competitive, contending team on the ice,” Stillman said. “In my view, all we’re doing here is following through on what we said we would do. We’ve invested more heavily in the team itself, and we’re doing that because we want to win. We also think that is a smart investment because that is what’s going to make the franchise stable and sustainable as a business.”


Rutherford writes:

With about a month left before training camp, the Blues have $57 million committed in cash payroll for the 2013-14 season. That’s an increase of $4.8 million from last year’s payroll, ranking fifth among NHL teams in biggest boosts this offseason — behind Nashville ($8.6 million), Columbus ($7 million), Los Angeles ($6.8 million) and Edmonton ($5.2 million).

The Blues’ figure doesn’t account for the re-signing of restricted free agent Alex Pietrangelo. If the defenseman is paid more than $3.8 million in 2013-14, the Blues will leap over Nashville to No. 1. If more, their payroll could climb to as much as $62 million — up nearly $10 million from a year ago.



Leaving Pietrangelo unsigned at this late stage of the summer is a dangerous and risky proposition for Armstrong and the Blues. It appears to my eyes like the Blues are thinking that they are going to re-sign Pietrangelo for $4.5-$5 million per season.

I'm here to tell you that the Blues are sadly mistaken of they think that Petro is going to sign off on a hometown haircut like that. He's one of the top 10 D men in the entire NHL and he's only going to get better. He's only 23 years old.



Armstrong has done a ton of business this summer by signing Jordan Leopold, Jay Bouwmeester, Jake Allen, Kevin Shattenkirk, Chris Stewart, Magnus Paajarvi, and Derek Roy to new deals,


They've left themselves in a tough cap position.


Makes me wonder how the owner will feel if/when the Blues play another tremendous regular season again, then, lose a heart breaking series in round one of the playoffs to the LA Kings due to poor goaltending.

For all of their free spending in the past year, the Blues haven't upgraded their starting goaltending, have they? Halak and Elliott will be UFAs on July 1, 2014. Jake Allen is under contract, however, is the goalie of the future, not the goalie of today.

Assuming they sign Pietrangelo for $6.5-$7 million per season, the Blues will be at $61 million at the start of the season.

At this pace, the Blues won't have the needed cap space to make a trade for Ryan Miller after the month of November.

Its a huge gamble to build a winning core of forwards and D, and then cross the fingers and hope that the goaltending wins games and playoff series.

Otherwise, all of the investing and fortification of the core was all done in vain.

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Looks like Team USA will be prepared its World Junior Championships heavyweight belt when the puck drops on 2014 JCs in Malmo, Sweden in December.


Team USA emerged the victor at the National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid. Teams USA, Canada, Finland, and Sweden all participated in the week long training camp that featured practice sessions and scrimmages.

Team USA's special teams units scorched Canada for 3 PPGs and 1 SHG in Saturday's final.

In the end, Canada blinked first.


Quentin Shore scored two goals and an assist to power Team USA to its lopsided 5-1 victory over Canada.


"I think that the game played like we hoped it would," said Don Lucia, head coach of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team. "If we're going to be successful, we're going to have to have good goaltending, which we had today. Our specialty teams play was outstanding, especially our penalty killing. We scored some power-play goals. We were opportunistic today and it's a lot easier to play with a lead."








Jon Gillies made 24 saves in the victory. Canada's Jake Paterson stopped 20 of 25 shots.


Sabres draft choice JT Compher was a scratch for USA.

Don't let the scratch fool you. Compher didn't do anything untoward or wrong. His number was called and it was his turn to sit. Sitting out Saturday's finale vs. Canada in no way is a strike against Compher. Team USA coaches and GM know full well what type of player that they have in Compher. He's a fiery. abrasive, in-your-face player who loves to get under the skin of his opponents. Compher's chances of making Team USA's final roster are still very high.


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Swedish forward and Sabres 2013 draft choice Gustav Possler (5th round) proved a lot of hockey "know-it-alls" wrong in Lake Placid. Credit the Sabres for grabbing this kid when they did. I'm wondering why he wasn't selected in the second or third rounds of the NHL draft. He's an exceptional skater with buttery soft hands. he loves to compete for pucks and rarely gets caught out of position. He'll look good in Rochester in 2014-15. For now, he'll head home to Sweden and play for his club team in Modo.


Possler played a polished and competitive brand of hockey. In 5 games played, he tallied 2 goals and 2 assists.


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