Blues Make Mega Deal
Blues have traded former first overall pick Erik Johnson, Jay McClement along with a conditional first round selection to Colorado in exchange for Chris Stewart D-man Kevin Shattenkirk. and a conditional second round selection.
A couple of late night notes…
This trade reminds me of the Chris Pronger trade that also broke very late in the night. Word is this trade was actually agreed to very early in the day.
Kevin Shattenkirk has unbelievable vision and passing ability. Has a chance to develop into one of the top offensive D-men in the league. Chris Stewart tells me he already is one of the best offensive defenseman in the NHL. His ability to read plays is similar to what we see from Alex Pietrangelo.
Stewart brings a powerful game loaded with offensive upside. His combination of speed and finish will come in handy for a Blues team that lacks scoring.
Both Stewart and Shatttenkirk will be in the lineup Saturday vs. Anaheim as they are headed to the airport in San Francisco very early this morning.
Stewart tells me he and Shattenkirk were told of the trade around 11:30 Pacific Time Friday night.
Erik Johnson and Jay McClement are off to San Jose at 7:30 Saturday morning to meet Colorado. They were told of the trade immediately after stepping off of the plane as the Blues returned from Buffalo, New York.
Johnson tells me he’s shocked by the news.
A new change of scenery may be good for Johnson who hasn’t looked or felt comfortable all season long.
For one reason or another Johnson hasn’t progressed the way he or the organization had hoped this season. Johnson had fit in nicely with the St. Louis sports scene and was instantly made a star before he ever put a Blues jersey on. The expectations were through the roof and it became obvious the pressure was mounting. Missing an entire ear with an ACL injury two years ago certainly was tough to overcome.
The emergence of Alex Pietrangelo made Johnson expendable.
Jay McClement is a very dependable face-off and PK guy. He can chip in periodically offensively and can play with offensive players. He's doesn't play the grittiest game but he's your prototypical third line center who can matchup against opposing top players.
More to come,
Andy Strickland
Strickland.andy@gmail.co
More to come,
Andy Strickland
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Long term it is all a question of the whether the Blues develop into a contender or not.
As far as this season goes this trade really has the potential to inject some new energy and life into the Blues locker room, and most importantly, change the look of our offense. Shattenkirk is the kind of D-man we need on the point on the pp, and Stewart is really going to open things up for whoever plays on his line.
Best case long term for the Blues is Petro becomes a #1 franchise defenseman, Stewart an all-star power forward, and Shattenkirk a #2 offensive defenseman.
Shattenkirk, as a rookie, has already surpassed EJ. As far as I'm concerned, EJ for Shattenkirk would've been an acceptable trade by itself.
AND THEN Colorado throws in CHRIS STEWART?! The Blue Killer himself?! This guy immediately becomes our top scoring threat, and will be an amazing addition. Finally somebody who WANTS to put the biscuit in the basket.
EJ just wasn't working out. Toughest part of this trade is seeing McClement go. True professional, became a fan favorite for his work ethic. However, one less grinder and adding a big-time scorer is very nice. Not to mention we just added Pietro #2 in Shattenkirk (or maybe Pietro is Shattenkirk #2)...what a stud!
Amazing trade, great job by Army to come out on top of this one. No doubt in my mind this will be one of the more iconic moves we'll look back on in 5 years. Welcome to St. Louis, Chris and Kevin! I'm sure Conks and Halak will be staying away from Chris in practice...he's had enough fun with them.
Last thing I was expecting to see on this site at 4 am.
Not sure what to make of this deal yet. Not that sad to see EJ go, but I was hoping for someone along the lines of Parise or Jordan Staal. Then again we got two really good players. A real power forward and a puck moving D man, both still young with upside. Our forwards are going to be harder to handle (imagine Backes and Stewart rolling out a steady one-two punch on the top two lines), and our D will be quicker (mostly because Brewer's gone).
Am I right this is by far the youngest defensive corps in the league?
Can anyone imagin what this team could look like with Perron coming back into the lineup and Tarasenko joyning in 11/12 ??? Holy shit...
P.S.:
I'm glad now I haven't already bought an EJ jersey. Prongs got tradet right after I bought his jersey and now this. Gonna go for T.J. or Piet...
. . . VERY holy indeed!! flag this comment
Why did the draft pick have to be thrown in?
. . . need to chat more, but I gotta clean up & get my hair did . . . eh, cut.
Excellent job Armstrong, you and jd must have read my post last night on this very website.
Now we have 2 petros....amazing. Plus Stewart is the real deal
. . . Northeast I like your passion man! Hop on the roller coaster 'cuz it's going to be a ride!! @ least try to imagine the possibilities of Backes, Stewart, Macdonald, Perron, Oshie, Tarasenko, Petro, Polak, & Co. . . .
I bring this up because Johnson would begin to start losing value in GMs' eyes around the league especially when he's made it clear he wants to be paid like a number one over all pick, even though he hasn't lived up to his potential just yet. I believe he was getting there. I think Murray stilted his development during his time here. I think the first team Johnson was on here had like a 3% chance of making the play offs and sometimes the best thing to do with kids is let them go out there and play their games and be allowed to make their mistakes and then talk about it. Instead of talking down to someone even if you have more knowledge I feel humility is a better teacher than arrogance. COn't
Shatternick during his draft was spoken of in high regards. MacKenzie was beaming about this kid, his shot, his skating and especially his hockey mind.
McClement I respect a lot and was always ready to defend but this year he's not been quite the same. He used to have a bit more pop in his offensive game(of course his shot has always sucked), and I haven't saw that. His -13 is inexcusable this year. Okay Crombeen was his linemate. But -13 against the top guys on the other team kind of hurts the team. If he's your shut down guy and he's -13 it doesn't bode well for you in the standings. I still love Jay and he has been one of the prouder moments over these past horrid years.
The deal was pretty even for both teams. You can say it takes defensemen longer to develop in the game. Putting Nikithin down as the rest I think is unfair. He's been playing at the pro level for a longer period of time. SUre Russia isn't as good as the NHL but I'm sure he learned alot from former NHL players over there not to mention other pros there. I wonder Cananda, then Russia, USA and then Sweden sometimes interchanged but over all the top talent comes from the first two countries listed.
We still have lots of talented d-men in Peoria coming up as well.
Both Petro and Shatternick hae picked up the game a little quicker than EJ. It always felt like EJ was about to break open then he'd seemingly hesitate out there. He seemed to lack vision to go with his immense talent. I compare his vision to Petro's who has impeccable vision in far less games. Petro has shown that vision since his first NHL game. Johnson for all his talent makes Brewer-like plays in games. I'm not saying Petro's game is mistake free but he can save himself from skating up the ice by seeing openings before they are created much the way Patrick Kane can.
I wonder somewhat at what would have been available throughout the league for Johnson? WOuld Burke have given us Kessel and something else? What would have Boston given? Vancouver?
All in all a very even trade and I like the hard decision being made. The reason is this team had begun to get complacent. As I've learned the hard way complacence kills. I've seen it happen. Much the way for the Blues it was making this team stagnant. As far as the first and second swap it made the trade a bit more even for Colorado in sense a straight up 1-1-2 for 1-1-2. Though I think being number one over all should have had some weight I guess you have to prove why you were first. Thus simply put the market on Johnson was becoming less bullish every day.
Don't forget to give it a few games, yes a few precious games. But don't worry Brewtal is gone and we can win again, evidenced yesterday when after their captain is traded they shut down a hot team. flag this comment
I'm fairly confident - based on watching Chris Pronger - that EJ is EXACTLY that elite defenseman, despite his apparent lack of progress. So, I'm not exactly jumping for joy that we got some more scoring. At least we've still got Pietrangelo. I have honestly never seen a defenseman that smart at that young of an age. Some nights - and it gives me chills to say this - I start to think this kid might be Lidstrom-caliber. World-class skill to go with insane hockey IQ.
I don't know. I feel like we traded a sports car for two Toyota Camrys. flag this comment
I hope that Johnson pulls it together. I just see him as having a long way to go mentally. Pronger made better decisions early, sometimes looking slow because of his ranginess, but more often making the correct decision defensively.
Interested in your thoughts. Trading away so much unrealized talent is so hard. I hope that the Blues did their homework on the return... flag this comment
I couldn't figure out how to say one of my problems with Johnson well so it took too many words. Then I spoke to my good friend up in Michigan. He mentioned Johnson had a problem of not making that simple first pass but holding onto the puck too long so that a forechecker could chase him down and the other team had time to set up defensively and take away his options and the rest of the Blues are flat having to come back and loop around to create openings which we know with some of our players is too much for them.
EJ is still great escaping with the puck but his hesitations are costly. I watched him play for Colorado last night and it was strange but that distance of not seeing him in a Blue note was revelatory. You see a kid with tremendous speed, athletic, great hands but lacking a lot of hockey sense and unwilling or unable to rely on his teammates. That is a cardinal sin to scouts watching a young player with loads of skill and talent. You'll slip in value if you are afraid to show trust in your team mates. WHY? The NHL is that good. But in any league or hell life work smarter not harder. Johnson expends loads of energy and fails to create much with he can do. Sure sometimes he began end to end rushes but then he was somewhat mystified MURRAY screamed in his head and instead of thinking goal its as if he feels selfish and looks for a pass when he should think goal.
He'll be good as he learns. COlorado's not a bad place for him to be at this time. Less pressures on him the rest of the season. flag this comment
Shattenkirk is two points behind Petro in his first full year!
All this potential for EJ, and I hope he realizes it, doesn't amount to squat for a team that needs to start making the playoffs regularly. We've been talking all year long about the surplus of D-men that we've got. One's gotta go. The fact that Army was able to turn Johnson into two more than serviceable players that can help this team offensively so that we can potentially be in the playoffs this year and for years to come is a move worth making. flag this comment
EJ hasn't done anything for himself in terms of value while Stewart had a breakout year last year and Shattenkirk is looking like a Calder candidate.
We've been drinking the EJ kool-aid since he was drafted. What does the on-ice product show us? Still a lot of potential... and that's about it. flag this comment
stewart should fit in well with the blues.. there are several line combinations i could see him having success with.. but might take a little while to find the best one.. he had some solid linemates in col but i think he was making them look better as well
kevin is the shat.. not much more to say than that.
all in all, it's a time will tell sort of trade.. all about potential.. a hard one for a lot of blues fans because of the pronger trade memories still pretty fresh.
i saw a lot of hysterical blues fans reacting to the trade on facebook.. but how many of them only know a couple names on the roster? it's hard to find anyone who doesn't think this is a win for the blues.. this puts my mind at ease
jay will be hard to see go.. i'm good friends with a cousin of his, so the chances of me ever getting free tickets from that loose connection have dissipated.. i don't think i have to say it but he did his job well.
the conditions on the picks are nice.. good to know if we tank the rest of the season we can keep our #1.
i was all for trading EJ... but not to get a an All-Star or one that will definitely be one in the future makes no sense!
BLUES will benefit for a year or two on this... but long haul Avs win this trade!
flag this comment
He's got to get his mental game straight. I'm not completely sold that he's going to figure it out. Jason Spezza on the defensive side??? flag this comment