OTTAWA - The Blues’ brass arrived at the draft table around 4:30 Eastern time and are now mingling with officials from other teams. The tables are in positioned in the order of the draft, so with the No. 4 pick the Blues are near the stage.

From my view here on media row, I can spot Mike McCarthy, JD, Al MacInnis, Andy Murray, Kevin McDonald and Jarmo Kekalainen, along with a few scouts. I spoke with JD for a few minutes about the Chris Mason trade and the team’s plans with the No. 4 pick.

On acquiring Mason for a fourth-round pick . . .

“We actually finished it late last night . . . late,” Davidson said. “We had a whole and now we don’t have a hole there. When you look at our situation with Manny, who’s a good goaltender, and then Toivonen playing in Finland and Bishop and Schwarz in Peoria, we had a hole, a real crater. We had to fill it and we filled it now.”

Prior to finalizing the Mason trade, the Blues dealt Jamal Mayers to Toronto for a third-round pick. So basically, the Blues traded Mayers for Mason and traded a fourth-round pick for a third-round pick, moving up 41 spots in the draft tonight.

“It’s sad to see Jamal go, he’s been a good person for us . . . not only with the team, but also in the community,” Davidson said. “But we had to fill a hole. And we didn’t want to take any chances July 1, primarily because people will disappear, particularly goaltenders. You don’t know what’s going to to be there. We had to do something so we did.”

Mason will cost the Blues quite a bit more than Mayers would have. Mason is signed for the next two seasons at $3 million annually. Mayers was also signed for the next two years at roughly $1.4 million per.

The Blues will actually pay Mason more than Manny Legace, who will be paid $2.4 million next season ($2.1 against the cap). With Mason making that kind of money, I asked JD if that changed the landscape of whom the Blues’ No. 1 goalie would be heading into training camp.

“I was a goaltender in this league and you always have competition,” Davidson said. “If you go play and play well, you’ll play. Manny’s a goaltender for the St. Louis Blues and Chris Mason is, too. We want them both to play well and they’ll both get a lot of playing time. I think it will help Manny. Knowing Manny’s workload last year and our one-goal games, it’s tough. This will give him a little bit of a reprieve. I know Manny has worked his tail off all summer. He’s really in good shape. He seems to be excited about next year. This is good for us and we have a better chance of winning now than we did yesterday.”

Davidson continued: “They’re our goaltenders, and if Manny plays as well as he has in the past, he’ll get lots of playing time. Chris is going to come in and help us and if they push each other, that’s wonderful. Internal competition, that’s a fact of life. I played for a long period of time, and there’s always other guys that want to play. There’s nothing wrong with a little motivation. We’ll worry about those issues when it comes up. If they both (play well), that’s a great situation. If Manny wants to further his career and play for a long time, we’ll get there.

“His contract is up at the end of the year. We respect Manny and we know his contractual situation. Manny’s got a chance to play a lot for the Blues. Let’s back it up. Manny’s played well for us . . . we’ve also provided an opportunity for Manny to play here. It’s been a good marriage and there’s a chance that marriage could go on for a long time. It’s just everybody has to do their job. We have a great deal of respect for Manny Legace. But now we don’t have to sweat it out until late in the summer.”

Mason got off to a bad start last season (like all the Predators), but Davidson said he’s not worried.

“I look at his overall body of work,” Davidson said. “I think there’s a lot of athletes in sports who can have an off year. It doesn’t mean that they’re not a good athlete in what they do. We know that he took his season seriously. He’s trained hard this summer. We checked with Paul Kariya on him, Andy Murray had him at Worlds. His character is exceptional, his work habits are exceptional. We think he’ll bounce back and play well.”

Will the Blues keep the No. 4 pick?

“It looks like it,” Davidson said. “There’s just too many good players there to get foolish and lose that opportunity.”

 JR