Blues re-sign Jackman

The St. Louis Blues have re-signed defenseman Barret Jackman to a 4 year, US$14.4 M contract extension. He will earn US$3.6 M in every one of the next 4 seasons.

Jackman was eligible to become an unrestricted free-agent on July 1st and might have been dealt by the Blues, if an extension hadn't been reached, by tomorrow's Trade Deadline.

Jackman is the 3rd player to have been pulled of the trade market today, joining the likes of Toronto's Mats Sundin and Calgary's Alex Tanguay.

The 2002-03 Calder Trophy winner has 2 goals, 6 assists, 63 penalty minutes and a -12 plus-minus rating in 58 games played this season.

With this signing, the Blues now only have defenseman Bryce Salvador to re-sign, but if he isn't before tomorrow, he will quite probably be dealt.

What the sellers have to offer

With a big number of teams, currently, out of the Playoff Picture, a slew of players could be available by the Trade Deadline.

Amongst these teams are the Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders and Chicago Blackhawks.

All these teams have interesting unrestricted free-agents come July 1st, except the Edmonton Oilers, but do not rule them out as sellers, as they have an important number of young defencemen and forwards that could be on the way out (except Gagner, Cogliano, Pitkanen...).

The teams with the most valuable assets to ship off is the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their UFAs include Dan Boyle, Vaclav Prospal and Chris Gratton. Boyle and Prospal would be welcome on any team, as for Gratton, his 55% faceoff success rate makes him somewhat of an intriguing option as a 3rd line center.

The Blackhawks along with the Oilers are the out-of-the-race teams that have the least to offer.
The Blackhawks seem to be willing to keep their young core of players together, and therefore only have UFAs Martin Lapointe and Andrei Zyuzin. Edmonton is in the same situation and their only ''notable'' UFA is Geoff Sanderson.

The Maple Leafs and Kings, respectively 29th and 30th in league standings, have some valuable UFAs to offer. Mats Sundin is most notably the top UFA forward in the market this year as the Trade Deadline approaches, and Toronto's only asset, if they decide to not trade Tomas Kaberle.
The Kings' notable UFAs include Rob Blake and Ladislav Nagy.

Finally, the Blues and Islanders also have some valuable assets to offer. St. Louis, unable to re-sign Barret Jackman up until this point in time, might be forced to trade him, and the Islanders surely want to get something in return for UFAs Miroslav Satan, Trent Hunter and Bryan Berard.

The Market this year seems quite bleek from a 100% sellers point of view, but wait until Trade Deadline day to see where Atlanta (UFAs: F Marian Hossa, F Bobby Holik, F Mark Recchi, D Steve McCarthy, G Johan Hedberg), Columbus (UFAs: F David Vyborny, F Sergei Fedorov, F Mike Peca, D Adam Foote) and Vancouver (UFAs: F Markus Naslund, F Brendan Morrison) stand, as their position could force them to add some valuable assets to the Trade Pool.

Central Division Trade Profiles, Candidates

Central Division: Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Nashville, St. Louis

The central division is divided in two clans: the playoff teams (Detroit, Nashville) and the non-playoff teams (Chicago, Columbus, St. Louis).

The Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues are, all at this moment, out of the playoff picture. To add to that, all of them seem to not be ready to contend, and therefore aren't necessarily considered as buyers at this point in time. They also do not seem to be sellers, but they could become some soon.

Amongst the players these 3 teams could part with are forwards David Vyborny, Michael Peca, Sergei Fedorov and defensemen Adam Foote, Barret Jackman and Bryce Salvador.

Eventhough their current status, the Blackhawks have also been linked to Swedish center Peter Forsberg.

As for Nashville and Detroit, both are likely to be buyers.

Detroit, eventhough being ranked 1st in the league in points, feels they need to add a Top 6 forward. Mats Sundin is the most likely to fit the bill.

On Nashville's part, their goalie situation is a concern, due to Chris Mason's inconsistency and Dan Ellis' lack of experience, and, with no reliable goalies on the market, will have to do with what they've got.

This Western Conference division is filled with teams' which status' could vary as the Trade Deadline approaches. Wait right down to the wire, as these teams, except Detroit, could be in and out of the Playoff Picture in no time.

2007-08 New Jerseys -- Central

Chicago Blakchawks:

Columbus Blue Jackets:



Detroit Red Wings:


Nashville Predators:

St. Louis Blues (Unofficial):

Briere gets offer from Canadiens

MONTREAL- According to TSN's Darren Dreger, the Montreal Canadiens have offered star forward Daniel Briere a contract.

The offer is worth US$42 million over a period of 7 years, an average salary of US$7 million per season.

Briere has also been tendered contract offers by 8 other teams, but has "narrowed his list down" to 5 teams, including the Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings.

Briere is currently in Los Angeles, California.

Rumor Central

BUF- According to Buffalo TV station WGRZ, the Buffalo Sabres offered unrestricted free-agent Daniel Briere a contract late last night. No indications have been given on the length, or even salary associated with the contract.

NYI- Per Darren Dreger of TSN, the New York Islanders are ready to offer forward Ryan Smyth a 7-8 year contract, with an average salary of US$6 million per season. His salary's pattern over that span would be similar to Kimmo Timonen's, which would mean a hefty salary during the first 3-4 years, followed by decreasing amounts for the remaining seasons.

NYR- The Rangers are not at all close to re-signing forward Michael Nylander, reports the New York Post's Larry Brooks. He is said to be "playing it smart", as by waiting for big name UFAs Scott Gomez, Daniel Briere, Chris Drury... to be signed, he drives up his own value.

STL- According to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Blues have submitted a contract offer to Keith Tkachuk, whom they acquired the rights of negotiation to on Tuesday. The contract is worth US$7 million over a span of 2 years (US$3.5 million per season).

Blues acquire Tkachuk

NHL.com and St. Louis Blues.com, the St. Louis Blues have acquired F Keith Tkachuk from the Atlanta Thrashers.

St. Louis has acquired the rights to Tkachuk and a conditional 4th round pick in the 2008 entry draft (which could become a 3rd round choice in 2009) for a conditional 1st round pick in 2008, the one that was sent to St. Louis as a part of the initial February trade, which sent the veteran forward to Atlanta.

"We have acquired the rights to Keith Tkachuk which gives us exclusive negotiating rights with him and his family prior to becoming an unrestricted free agent on July 1," said Davidson. "Keith has played a major part for the Blues organization over the past seven seasons and played some of his finest hockey under Head Coach Andy Murray."

Tkachuk was initially dealt to Atlanta as part of a "rental" trade, which was "supposed to solidify" Atlanta's core of forwards.

A few weeks later, Altanta was eliminated in the 1st round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, more specifically in 4 straight games by the New York Rangers, a team that finished 3 places lower than the Thrashers, but only accumulated 3 less points than the Georgian club.

Even before he was dealt to the Thrashers, it was rumored that Tkachuk would return to the Blues during this offseason.

Blues place Drake on waivers

ST. LOUIS- Today, the St. Louis Blues placed their captain Dallas Drake on waivers.

This is the 1st step for the buyout of the 14-year old veteran's contract, which is worth an estimated US$1 million.

Drake signed a two-year contract worth US2.2 million last summer. Last year was his second as team captain and sixth with the Blues.

If Drake clears waivers, he will be paid two-thirds of his salary for this season over the next two years. The cap hit on the Blues' payroll, as the result of his buyout, will be of US$1.1 million this season.