I love Alex Steen as a player. He's very solid defensively and his points per 60 over the last few years has been that of a 1st liner.
In saying that I'm not in love with the contract. He has had problems staying healthy and that will surely continue as he gets older. At 32 his best days are behind him, too, so he'll be trending downwards through the entirety of his contract.
Steen is a very good player but in today's day and age giving term to a 32-year-old, especially one who has had a history of injuries, is risky business.
Peter Tessier
So at age 32 we want to invest 24 million dollars in players? Unless he's Byfuglien who has 40 million coming it's going to be hard to make that pay off, well it will be for the Jets too.
Here's the thing with deals like this- how easy would it be to replace Steen? That's the thing that drives GMs in these situations. If they let a player walk can they fill his shoes? It's harder in the NHL than other sports so you end up with deals like this. It's not awful, but it's not grand and luckily the actual money paid to Steen decrease as he gets older.
For the Blues they are betting on a sustained production and play level. That won't be easy but I think it's a safe bet for the first two years but after it could get tough to like the deal. Hopefully that won't be the case for the Blues.