Regardless of what the Blues did in free agency this summer, nobody in the organization had bigger offseason plans than Dan Hinote. On Saturday in Colorado, where Hinote was one of the city’s most eligible bachelors while playing for the Avalanche, the 31-year-old Blues forward will say “I do” to Playmate model Amy McCarthy.

“Dan and Amy met (four) years ago through a mutual friend,” Missy Christiansen, Hinote’s sister, told the Rocky Mountain News. “A year later, they saw each other a few times, in Las Vegas and also a weekend in Boston, to celebrate a friend’s birthday. From that weekend that was it . . . it was love.”

According to the RMN, the couple will tie the knot at the Keystone Ranch in front of 400 folks dressed in 1950s-era clothing. The list of attendees will include one of Hinote’s best friends, Peter Forsberg, along with John Michael-Liles and former Blue Shjon Podein.

The 31-year-old McCarthy, who was the “cyber girl of the month” for Playboy.com in January 2005, moved to St. Louis and has attended many Blues games the past two seasons. She is a personal trainer for obese children locally, volunteers at Children’s Hospital and also writes for a St. Louis magazine.

Older sister Jenny McCarthy, a fellow Playmate and the girlfriend of actor Jim Carrey, has attended at least one Blues game. Jenny might be the more popular of the two, but together they drew quite a bit of attention.

“Jenny used to get up at five in the morning to glue her bangs into a wave,” Amy McCarthy told FHM Magazine. ”Then she’d spend two hours putting on eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara. I grew up low-maintenance because I couldn’t get into the bathroom.”

Hinote, who won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2001, has always been known as a ladies’ man. One of his former gal pals was a cheerleader for the Denver Broncos.

When a reporter asked Blues center Jay McClement last year if the young players on the team were “living the dream,” being a professional athlete and single, Hinote jumped in and said: “No, they’re not . . . believe me . . . they’re not.”

While Hinote can dish it out, he has also taken his fair share of shots from the Blues during his courtship with McCarthy. Typically after a morning skate, players bolt quickly from the arena and enjoy a few hours to themselves before they return for a game that night. Once last season, Hinote was hanging around and hanging around before he finally said, “Well, I guess I’ll head home.”

One Blues equipment staff member quipped: “Oh, you poor thing . . . going home to a Playmate model. We should all have those kinds of troubles.”

But it’s all in good fun with Hinote, one of the Blues’ more entertaining personalities.

“There are a lot of disappointed ladies out there now that the world’s most eligible bachelor is off the market,” Blues defenseman Erik Johnson, Hinote’s roommate on the road, said Friday.

So Dan Hinote is the world’s most eligible bachelor?

“Besides me of course,” Johnson quipped.

Perhaps someone will buy Hinote a new car as a wedding gift. He still drives around a beat-up Dodge Durango that looks like it’s never seen a water hose. In a feature on Stlblues.com, Amy McCarthy tells writer Chris Pinkert that not washing his truck is one of Hinote’s worst habits. “He says, ‘That’s what the rain is for,’” McCarthy said.

“ALLLL-RIGHTTTTTYYY then,” as Jim Carrey would say.

 Speaking of Carrey, will he be in attendance Saturday?

“I doubt it,” Hinote told the RMN. “That man’s busier than the president.”

Either way, it figures to be a night to remember. Congratulations to Dan and Amy!

JR