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Of course, what does St Louis get out of this?

A chance to watch Tkachuk burn out into irrelevence with old pal Weight.

Didn't St. Louis trade pretty much a Brinks truck worth of draft picks for this old creaky bum?

What a bore!!!!!!!! Would someone please trade someone worth talking about!!!!!!

"A chance to watch Tkachuk burn out into irrelevance with old pal Weight."


Well, yeah, true- but for a first round draft pick, it sounds like some of the stupid things I have done in GM mode in a hockey video game...

I had no idea that StL was *that* thick - I wonder if Bernie Federko might want to make a comeback -it sounds like easy money.

The Blues traded a *conditional* first round pick they were never going to be able to collect on - in effect, nothing at all -- for 4 days of the exclusive right to try to re-sign Tkachuk and at least a chance at a free 4th round pick if they fail to sign him. For nothing.

Conversely, Atlanta has downgraded the cost of possibly resigning Tkachuk from $$ and a 1st to $$ and a 4th.

It's a smarter deal than you guys are giving either side credit for...

"Didn't St. Louis trade pretty much a Brinks truck worth of draft picks for this old creaky bum?"

Do you mean in 2001? They send Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy, Jeff Taffe and a 1st to the Coyotes for him. In 2007 the Blues traded him to Atlanta for Glen Metropolit, 3 picks (1st 2007, 3rd 2007, 2nd 2008) and a (from the start extremely unlikely, really more of a poison pill than a pick) conditional 1st in 2008 if Atlanta re-signed him.

I appreciate the clarification, SBF. Although -I am not so sure about the point of the blues resigning an aging power forward at this particular moment. That's the part of the decision I don't understand so much.

"I am not so sure about the point of the blues resigning an aging power forward at this particular moment. "

Yes, that is the debatable part of it. St Louis paper now reporting Blues have offered Tkachuk 3.5 million times 2 years and it's up to him to sign before Sunday or not.

The Blues need a center and can't afford any of the big dog FAs .. KT played well under Murray and would like to keep his family in St Louis so unless he's offered alot more then 3.5 per makes sense...

Need a center? Guess it doesn't matter that Tkachuk sucks at center, and their most fearsome line actually has Slava Kozlov (a LWer) being more or less the center.

What happened to them last year? They changed their strategy of "Put Kovalchuk at the point and let him gun it."

Maybe somewhere along the line, they'll get some defense.