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Live Chats
Blues chat with Jeremy Rutherford
Bring your questions and comments about the Blues, and talk to Post-Dispatch hockey writer Jeremy Rutherford.
by Mike Smithon Sep 26, 2012 at 4:15 PM
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I posted the story on stltoday.com this morning and I'll have more in tomorrow's newspaper, including reaction from David Backes, T.J. Oshie and even Cam Janssen, who is very familiar with what JD did to revive hockey in St. Louis. Beyond that, there's not a lot more to tell until the Blues and Davidson speak, which might take a few days. The bottom line is that new ownership is cutting costs and, after restructuring the front office, saw shaving Davidson's contract as a way to trim back.
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Nothing positive at this point, other than the two sides are scheduled to talk tomorrow. However, I'm hearing and you've probably read elsewhere that the NHL and the NHLPA aren't scheduled to talk about the stumbling block issues tomorrow. The have other items on the agenda. You might ask why they don't focus on the economics and revenue split. But the truth is, these other items will have to be addressed at some point. A deal won't be done anyone until the revenue issues are solved, and when that finally happens, they don't want to be holding up the season with other stuff that could have been taken care of long ago.
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I was at the Blues' informal practice this morning. In attendance today were (off the top of my head) Jackman, McDonald, Nichol, Langenbrunner, Schwartz, Pietrangelo, Grachev, Shattenkirk, Oshie, Backes, Elliott and D'Agostini. The players I've spoken with plan to hold out a little longer before going overseas. With a guy like Pietrangelo, he's coming off a recent minor surgery, so he said that he plans to keep skating in St. Louis until he's 100 percent and then he'll see what the landscape looks like.
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Obviously that decision will have to wait until the season starts, but I can tell you that I spoke with Ken Hitchcock yesterday and he's really impressed with the offseason Schwartz had, building up his strength level. I'd still bet on Schwartz staying in Peoria when the Blues do open (if they open), but Schwartz has their eye right now. And with the NHL shutdown, Hitchcock will be traveling to Peoria to watch the Rivermen, so Schwartz has a chance to impress in the AHL.
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To my knowledge, there's not a singular website where you can track players and stats from many different European leagues. It would be nice, and perhaps someone out there knows something I don't know, but I'm not aware of it. If you really want to follow, I'd suggest googling the various league websites. They all have them, although you'll have to find the translator tab on a few....No boom pow.
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Actually I'm a bigger fan of washers than food, believe it or not. I remember seeing an email or tweet about this, but I don't remember where you guys are playing. I have a charity event Saturday, but I'll stop by if time permits. And feel free to mention the food, too. That might help time be permitted.
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Many thanks go to JD for being the "face of the franchise" when many of us had our doubts about the Blues. JD took a great deal of ownsership in trying get the Blues to the Cup and it is a sad day that he will not be riding down Market Street to celebrate his efforts. Any word on where he might end up?
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I think a lot of people echo your sentiments. I've heard from a lot of bummed out people today. As far as Davidson's future, I'm not sure at this point. I believe he's in the Calgary area right now and I'm sure he'll continue exploring his options. Many Blues players I spoke with today said Davidson wouldn't have a problem landing somewhere special. I'm not sure if he plans to jump back into management or return to television, but most people believe we'll continue to see him in hockey somewhere.
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When Stillman was in the process of purchasing the Blues there were rumors that Brett Hull was going to have some sort of front office role with the club. Do you think, or have you heard anything that would make you believe this Davidson move has anything to do with that? Not that I think they would make Hull the new President, but maybe clearing up payroll space??
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The answer is no. Stillman was hopeful of bringing Hull on board in a management role, but I honestly don't believe it was ever going to be on the hockey operations side. I was told that Brett wanted to be involved on the business side. Some time after Stillman's group was introduced in May, the discussions with Hull went a different direction and it was clear that he would NOT be joining the organization in a management position. There's still a chance that he comes onboard and helps the Blues in some business ventures, but it won't be the role previously discussed. And it certainly won't be to replace Davidson. The Blues weren't looking for a replacement for JD, They were looking to save money.
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It appears that Tarasenko is still getting the negative treatment from SKA. Only about three minutes of ice time in his first game, and then only late in a blowout game. At least he used the time to show his skill and scored. The rumours were that he wanted his contract with SKA to contain an "out" if he received limited TOI. What have you heard on this?
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Originally SKA declined to sign him, which it seems like you're aware of, because his agent wanted some specific clauses in the contract and the team balked. I was told that Tarasenko briefly thought about returning to North America. But eventually SKA accepted some clauses (not sure what they were), and then coupled with the fact that he'd be playing with Kovalchuk, Tarasenko agreed to the contract.
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I touched on this earlier, but I will add this: There was some belief among Stillman's group, including his investors, that the Blues no longer needed a 'face of the frachise.' The organization was no longer trying to reconnect with the fans; Davidson had already done that successfully. They have Doug Armstrong in place and felt that he can be their hockey guy. However, having said that, I think it's about the contract. If Davidson made $600,000 a year, instead of $2 million a year, it's my belief that he's still with the club.
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The sleeper is the fans. I'm guessing most of you will be sleeping through winter with no hockey in the foreseeable future. Bad jokes aside, I've mentioned on this chat that really the only guys who fit in the sleeper category are Tarasenko, Schwartz and Cole. I don't think anybody else could really surprise you. Maybe Stewart, but he's done it before. Maybe Berglund, but we know he's capable.
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Simple: players don't want to give up a penny of salary. The gave up 24 percent last time around, were told by everyone that the owners got their way and now are deadset against rolling back the salaries. Conversely, the owners are not going to be ready to strike a deal until salaries are rolled back. Hence the stalemate.
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JR, does Bettman even bother listening to small market owners like Tom Stillman? It just seems that he really only listens to Snyder, Jacobs, Illitch, etc. It seems like that small minority of large market owners seem to run things. How are they able to get away with that? Why doesn’t the majority of owners, the ones actually hurting the way things are currently run, just vote Bettman out if he’s not even really listening to them and their needs??
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We have no evidence to support who Bettman listens to. Moving forward, while I've been guilty of speculating that a team like the Blues would probably support the NHLPA proposal to reconstruct revenue sharing, I've heard rumblings that the PA's proposal might not actually be better for the Blues. Under the plan, there are more dollars for revenue sharing, yes, but more teams receiving those dollars. Therefore, the Blues might actually receive less in rev sharing under the PA proposal than they currently do.
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JR, while I understand that the owners got their way last time around and the players gave up 24%, the players also seen a 70% increase in the avg player salary ($1.4 to $2.4 mil) over the last 7 years while the rest of this country is struggling. Meanwhile Forbes has reported that 18 of 30 owners lost money last season. Even if the players had to take another pay cut, they are still way ahead!!! I don't think to many fans feel players are underpaid. Not many of us find jobs with a starting salary of 1/2 million!!! Don't get me wrong, I feel little sympathy for the owners, they did this to themself, but you can't realistically expect more then 50% of all teams to lose money and continue with the same structure.
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I think many people probably feel that way and I understand it. I think what we're seeing from the players is based on principle more than saying they can't live with making $1.7 or $2 million dollars. Again, they were looked at as the side that made all the concessions last time and now unified this time, they're not going to give in. A lot of it is based on principle.
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I believe the players ARE willing to give up salary as long as that money goes into a revenue sharing plan to help the teams that are losing money. The rich owners don't seem to want to help out the small market owners, they just want to pocket the money. So why should the players give back money, that was already negotiated in good faith, so that rich owners can richer and small market owners still can't afford a competitive team?
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Well yes, the players have said they'd give up money if their proposal was accepted and more money went to revenue sharing. But we've seen that the NHL will not accept that proposal. So the players are going to respond by saying, 'OK, we'll giveup money for something else.' Their stance is pretty clear. In the end, they may give up some money, but they're going to get some concessions from owners in the process.
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He lives here. I don't see him working for the organization in the near future, but perhaps down the road. I've never heard him state an interest in working in hockey, or the Blues for that matter, but I'm just saying I wouldn't rule it out. He's a smart guy and could be an asset some day.
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Yes, that's been an ugly aspect of the lockout so far. Many teams, not all, have laid off employees and there could be more, depending on the length of the lockout. The disturbing part is that many owners and players will make money again when the lockout is over, but many of the employees let go won't get their jobs back.
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Public outcry via social media does seem to be playing a larger role in our society today, not just in sports. I do believe that the outrage after the Monday Night Football episode contributed to the referee settlement. But I don't think the same thing could happen with social media and the NHL lockout. The NFL is a different animal. The spontaeous response from fans and current NFL players, seeing their tweets on Sports Center, was a huge push for change. I don't see anything like that happening with the NHL lockout, so the league and the players are going to continue fighting for what they believe in until there's a resolution.
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Isn't the idea of a salary cap to help keep a competitive balance and not let the big market teams sign all the stars? I assume the salary cap isn't going away. While I would love to see the Blues be able to spend more freely, is it the large market teams responsibility to keep the lower revenue teams afloat? To keep a competitive balance, would a smaller cap/floor window help?
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Yes, but as many of you know, the cap is tied to the league revenue. When the revenue goes up, which it has significantly, the cap ceiling and the cap floor goes up. It wouldn't help to lower the floor because big-market teams would continue spending to the ceiling. There are other options to the current situation, but not enough space here to detail those.
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Hey jr, as a huge fan that only gets to come home at christmas time every year I really look forward to my one or two blues games a year while I am in town. Do I have any shot of seeing a game this year or am I just coming home to see the beautiful Arnold water tower and mens league at the old fenton forum? Thanks for the chats, they help stay in the loop from a long way from home!
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I think you might be throwing out a blanket in front of the Arnold tower. If you haven't been back in a while, we've got a new shopping area and some more photo-enforced traffic cameras in case you're driving too fast to get to a restaurant. Hopefully we'll all be watching hockey soon.
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