Speculation: Tavares Tells Toronto, "I'm YOUR Huckleberry Now". Fans leaguewide mourn.

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Brian39

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He'll get that if he goes to a team like STL or MTL, but I wouldn't rule out him going to a contender for less.

I agree that he will get $12+ mil offers and might take less to go to a location of his choosing. However, I'd be surprised if he takes a discount that brings him below $10 mil AAV, especially if it isn't with the Isles who can give him that extra year.
 
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Chojin

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The thing that worries me is that our goaltending situation is as much of a mess as the Islanders'. Lou reportedly told JT that they're working on upgrading that position, so if that means it's important to him, we're in trouble.
 
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67Blues

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The thing that worries me is that our goaltending situation is as much of a mess as the Islanders'. Lou reportedly told JT that they're working on upgrading that position, so if that means it's important to him, we're in trouble.
And the Blues can't? Allen will be under a microscope and I expect him to get the hook pretty quickly. If Husso is as good as he is advertised, having Allen as a backup at $4M and Husso on ELC is still a very affordable goalie tandem.
 

Dbrownss

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And the Blues can't? Allen will be under a microscope and I expect him to get the hook pretty quickly. If Husso is as good as he is advertised, having Allen as a backup at $4M and Husso on ELC is still a very affordable goalie tandem.
I wouldn't try to sell JT on either, but all Army has to do is say it's an area they will address if it's a hindrance again
 
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BlueDream

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And the Blues can't? Allen will be under a microscope and I expect him to get the hook pretty quickly. If Husso is as good as he is advertised, having Allen as a backup at $4M and Husso on ELC is still a very affordable goalie tandem.
Correct, that's how things work.

Other teams can say they are going to fix their weaknesses. But the Blues can't.

Or something.
 
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mk80

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I think overall we have a lot of positives to offer in a lot of the areas Tavares will be evaluating (lets all keep in mind it's not all based on the hockey side even though that is a big part) but I think we can check boxes in: how our future projected roster will be around him, the upgrades to Enterprise Center, new practice facility being built in the next couple years, lower cost of living compared to NYC area, salary space for a long term contract in the $10M range, ect.

It all depends on what Tavares views as the best situation for both on and off the ice. While I think we can make a very competitive offer, there are many hats in the ring and ultimately it comes down to how Army sells everything that we can offer.
 

Chojin

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Correct, that's how things work.

Other teams can say they are going to fix their weaknesses. But the Blues can't.

Or something.

The point is that, if having solid goaltending is a top priority, we would be at a disadvantage to other teams. Come on, people.
 
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Brian39

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I think overall we have a lot of positives to offer in a lot of the areas Tavares will be evaluating (lets all keep in mind it's not all based on the hockey side even though that is a big part) but I think we can check boxes in: how our future projected roster will be around him, the upgrades to Enterprise Center, new practice facility being built in the next couple years, lower cost of living compared to NYC area, salary space for a long term contract in the $10M range, ect.

It all depends on what Tavares views as the best situation for both on and off the ice. While I think we can make a very competitive offer, there are many hats in the ring and ultimately it comes down to how Army sells everything that we can offer.

I'd imagine Hull, Walt and potentially Marty will be part of the presentation to talk about how great it is to live in St. Louis as an NHL player. St. Louis can't compete with New York, San Jose, etc in some quality of life aspects, but many of our alumni stay here and praise the city for being a great place to raise a family. I have to imagine that sales pitch will come from Blues alumni and not Army directly. We have a lot of respected ex-players in our organization and it would be silly not to take advantage of that organizational strength.
 

Dbrownss

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The point is that, if having solid goaltending is a top priority, we would be at a disadvantage to other teams. Come on, people.
goaltending is too fluid. Guys have monster years then choke. Guys who struggled in the regular season end up thriving in the playoffs. Look at Holtby and how he was up and down. Vezina guy to trade bait to potential Stanley Cup winner. On the flip side Grubauer........he was dethroning Holtby....oh wait.


I do agree that the Blues aren't in a position to sell goaltending as a position of strength. But Allen has shown he is very capable, it's just the consistency, which is linked to piss poor goal support, which Tavares can absolutely help out with. Past that though, as long as Army tells JT, the Blues are all in through his contract, I dont see it being a nail in the coffin scenario if JT wants to come to Stl. I'd be more worried about coaching then goaltending personally
 
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BlueDream

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The point is that, if having solid goaltending is a top priority, we would be at a disadvantage to other teams. Come on, people.
That’s not what you said though. The Islanders have worse goaltending than us so why would they be a better option?
 
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mk80

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I'd imagine Hull, Walt and potentially Marty will be part of the presentation to talk about how great it is to live in St. Louis as an NHL player. St. Louis can't compete with New York, San Jose, etc in some quality of life aspects, but many of our alumni stay here and praise the city for being a great place to raise a family. I have to imagine that sales pitch will come from Blues alumni and not Army directly. We have a lot of respected ex-players in our organization and it would be silly not to take advantage of that organizational strength.

Certainly true that everyone can and should be involved in the pitch if it helps. Even players who are friends call each other in every sport to make unofficial pitches (not sure if anyone on our roster is already that close with JT) but it happens. Ultimately I use Army's name as a collective term for anyone involved in bringing JT or any Free Agent for that matter here.
 

Dbrownss

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Certainly true that everyone can and should be involved in the pitch if it helps. Even players who are friends call each other in every sport to make unofficial pitches (not sure if anyone on our roster is already that close with JT) but it happens. Ultimately I use Army's name as a collective term for anyone involved in bringing JT or any Free Agent for that matter here.
Pietrangelo
 

CaliforniaBlues310

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Pietrangelo

Yep. Been friends since they were kids. I think he’ll help a lot in getting him here, actually. I think he realizes Tarasenko is the best winger available for him to play with as well. Having the combos of Tavares-Tarasenko and Schwartz-Schenn puts us up there in the top tier of top 6’s and he knows it.
 

Chojin

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Apr 6, 2011
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That’s not what you said though. The Islanders have worse goaltending than us so why would they be a better option?

The thought process was:

1. JT is likely to leave the Islanders
2. Islanders hire Lou
3. Lou promises JT that they're going to try to upgrade goaltending
4. If Lou thought that was important to JT, maybe it actually *is* important to him
5. If solid goaltending is important to JT, he might prefer teams in free agency with solid goaltending
6. We don't have solid goaltending
7 JT might skip the Blues because other suitors may have better goaltending

The point wasn't that JT is gonna stay because Lou promised to upgrade goaltending, which is something we can't do (which is absurd). The point is that he may prefer teams that already have solid goaltending.
 

TK 421

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The Blues have actually been very successful with at least one guy in goal for several years now through 2 head coaches. We all obviously know we can be better in that regard but that largely revolves around the percieved uncertainty as to who our starter is and wanting more consistency at a position known for inconsistency by even the most highly regarded tenders in the league. I would argue that overall the Blues as an organization have proven adept at finding guys who are perceived as career backups who then go on to post career best #'s here. That to me is more success than many teams can boast just by itself.

As others have said this is a relatively easy fix and we have a 23 year old Husso in the mix now. Like Dbrownss said our head coach is almost certainly a bigger factor than our goaltending in what decision Tavares makes. Speculation on our part to be sure as we have no idea what JT will use to determine his future but I would think the HC is more of a factor particularly after having a noob HC in Doug Weight as his HC.
 

The Note

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Read somewhere recently that Tavares has family in state. Anyone know the specifics?

I believe his significant other has family ties in Missouri.

*Disclaimer*

Edit 2- It was his sister. I don’t know where I got his wife, but it was his sister going to Mo State. Don’t know where I got significant other. My bad, everyone.
 
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Itsnotatrap

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I believe his significant other has family ties in Missouri.

2BB5FA8A-858A-4B7B-BEC2-AC5130610E8C.gif
 

WeWentBlues

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Huge plus for us if true. Anyone have dialogue with Strick? I believe this was said in the same interview on NHL Radio the other day where he led with the Subban rumors.

Andy Strickland was on NHL Radio this afternoon and pretty much said that Predators are shopping Subban.

It doesn’t seem as if Nashville has to get rid of his contract, so I guess there’s really something to the idea that he just has a tendency to rub his teammates the wrong way. It would seem as if you could get him at a relative bargain if that’s the case.
 

WeWentBlues

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Only thing I have been able to find on Google is that his younger sister Laura played field hockey at Missouri State.
 

Brian39

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Certainly true that everyone can and should be involved in the pitch if it helps. Even players who are friends call each other in every sport to make unofficial pitches (not sure if anyone on our roster is already that close with JT) but it happens. Ultimately I use Army's name as a collective term for anyone involved in bringing JT or any Free Agent for that matter here.

I wasn't trying to criticize/assume you meant Army would be the only one. I was simply trying to point out that our alumni group is a big positive and I'd guess that they will be in the room for the sales pitch. I have a lot of confidence that our sales pitch will be excellent. I'd guess we will have a large group in the room, made up of D and B Armstrong, potentially Petro, and some combination of Hull/Jackman/Marty/Federko/Walt. That's an impressive group from a reputation standpoint as well as a couple guys who have ties with Tavares (easy to forget that Army has ties with Team Canada and has helped assemble teams that have landed Tavares an Olympic Gold Medal and a World Cup gold medal). The only way we don't bring that type of group to the table is if we aren't high enough on Tavares' list and his agent sets ground rules to the negotiation that limit time/participants. If that's the case, we probably don't have a chance anyway and his agent is just going to use our number to drive up a bid from another team.

I have no idea what Tavares is thinking, but I have little doubt that our presentation and sales pitch will not be beaten if we're given a chance to have a half/full day meeting with him. Army's decision making (trading Stastny, holding off on extending Fabbri/Ed yet, no word on Hutton) makes it clear that we are leaving the cap space open to take a run at Tavares. We're not going to make a half-hearted sales pitch to focus on other players that week. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that meeting, but hopefully some details come out at a press conference on July 2.
 
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