Davidson interview cont’d . . .

Q: Based on what Chris Mason did this season, do you look at him as the Blues’ No. 1 goaltender heading into next season?

JD: “Well if ‘Mase’ plays the way he played in the second half, he’ll get lots of work. But you want to have protection. You want to be in a good position with two guys. Chris is going to be 34, I think, and when you’re at that age, you can be at your best. He’s got lots of experience. He’s a well-conditioned guy. He handled the load, he handled the pressure. One of the keys about a guy like him . . . the players want to play for him. He’s one of those types of guys. In New York, Mike Richter was like that. Players loved to play for him.”

Q: What did you think about Mason’s performance against Vancouver?

JD: “He was great. I take nothing away from him. He came up and apologized for the game-winner in overtime. That’s hockey. He helped put us in position to be there. The only way I can equate to that is I got into a playoff run with the Rangers one time, and Jacques Lemaire beat me from outside the blue-line on one in Montreal in the Finals. Those things happen, it’s just what it is. We couldn’t ask for any more out of Chris than what he gave us. I have no issues with Chris whatsoever. He was great.” 

Q: Could Ben Bishop be the backup next year or will you search for a veteran backup?

JD: “I think that when you look at our team right now, a guy like Ben Bishop would love to come here and make our team. We have to value if he’s able to . . . we have to understand that if he’s not, he has to play. He went through a good learning experience here the last 6-8 weeks because of Rick Wamsley. They worked every single day. I think he’s better for it, but he also needs to play . . . if Ben comes in here and has a great camp, and it looks like he’s going to be a player, then fine . . . but what we’re saying here is we’re not going to let him sit. He’s got to play. He’s very young and doesn’t have a lot of experience. We have to be in a position where you have to another goaltender here with Chris. If it’s not Ben, we want Ben playing and that’s going to be in Peoria. Jake Allen is not ready yet. We hope that he’ll play for Team Canada in the World Jr’s. He’s fast-tracking, he’s a good young goalie. So we’ll look at that for sure.”

Q: Do you want to re-sign Keith Tkachuk?

JD: “It’s so early that we haven’t thought about (it). That hasn’t even been on the radar screen for us. We want to get through exit meetings here with our players and our exit physicals and our surgeries and whatever is necessary. Then we want to talk to our coaching staff about everything from A-Z with them. Then our pro scouts, then our contracts, who we have and who we don’t have. It’s not fair for me (to speculate on a contract for Tkachuk) . . . but I can tell you this, if we had traded Walt for a really important draft pick, we would not have made the playoffs in my opinion. He was a great leader in our room all year. He was very good as a person that was a conduit between our players and our coaching staff. He was a warrior. I’m very satisfied with Walt. Walt’s always been a very interesting guy. You all know that better than I do in St. Louis. But this season, there’s not one ounce of negativity from my mouth about him and the way he played . . . the way he treated himself, the way he treated the team, the way he carried himself . . . it was  awesome.”

Q: What’s the latest update on Eric Brewer?

JD: “He had another operation on his back. He was making good progress and another piece of the disk broke off. He went through a second surgery that was very successful. I’d say that was in the last 10 days. He had it down in California, and he’s on the road to recovery. He’s got time on his side to get ready for camp, which is why the decision was made to have (the surgery) now as opposed to waiting another month. It wasn’t a major operation or anything like that, but it was something they had to do. Very strong chance (Brewer will be back for training camp). Now listen, if the nerve doesn’t regenerate, there could be an issue, ut we don’t foresee any problems whatsoever.”

Q: Is the team in a position now where if a guy like Aaron Palushaj isn’t ready, you’re not looking for him to come in and make an impact?

JD: “I think the legitmate answer there is we don’t have to fast-track. The first two years we were here, we needed to get assets. But we needed to find more. We made some of those trade-deadline deals to find opportunities to pick people. Then we had to get them here because they were just names in the wind. It took us two years to get through in that area. The people were great in St. Louis. They tried to understand what we were doing. There was some frustration when we didn’t play well, but guys were trying. We just weren’t good enough. We got some young people into the lineup real quick, an example would have been (David) Perron. Now we’re not in that position. Now with the Lars Eller’s and Ian Cole’s . . we told Ian Cole’s . . . ‘If you want to turn pro, let us know; if you want to go back to school, go back to school.’ We do not pull people out of school. Ian Cole wanted to go back to school and that’s great. Aaron Palushaj wanted to come out. We’ll see if we can get him to be a bigger, stronger player, and if it takes one year, two years, three years, that’s what it is. There’s no more fast-tracking, we’re past that.”

Q: Regarding the forwards, do you need to go out and find a scorer, a right winger . . . do you need anything up front?

JD: “People are going to ask, ‘What are you going to do July 1.’ We’ve already signed Andy McDonald. We didn’t let him get to July 1. That’s a big key for us. He would have been one of the quality centerman out there to be available. There’s not many in that zone . . . Detroit has already signed (Henrik) Zetterberg . . . McDonald was there and we re-signed him. There’s some others that could be free agents if they don’t get re-signed, but not every many of McDonald’s ilk. . . . Everybody wants to upgrade their team. We’ll take a look at everything, we’ll see who’s going to come back under contract, who we’ll extend contracts to. Then we have to balance our team out. There’s a lot of different things to look at. I don’t think I could legimately sit here and tell you that we need a . . . I mean, everybody would love to find an (Alex) Ovechkin and score 60 goals or find a 40-goal scorer . . . but none of those guys are going to be available for the most part. If there’s people available, we’re going to look at it. Our ownership has been very good that way. But we recommended to re-sign Andy and we’re glad we did. You saw the way he elevated in the playoffs. If we would have lost Andy, it would have been a very different world for us. We’ll look at everything possible, but we’re building from within.”

Q: Some fans worry about all of your young talent - Perron, Oshie, Johnson, Berglund - all coming up for contracts in a couple of years. Do you worry about being able to keep them all?

JD: “Tell (the fans) they are the ones who wanted us to go out and find all of these guys. So we found them. We’ll deal with that when it comes. Water is going to seek it’s own level. If they’re deserving players, we’ll do what we can to keep them. If we have seven, eight, nine guys that all become great players, all the same age, we won’t be able to keep them all . . . that’s just the way it is. Same with any other organization. It will be a nice problem to have.”

Q: What is your evaluation of the job Andy Murray did this season?

JD: “He had a great year. He’s been very good since he’s been here. He’s helped stabilize our organization. He’s under contract. There’s no issues. Andy’s not going anywhere. I mean, I have a very hard time understanding someone would question the job he’s done coaching this year. I just don’t understand it. He might win ‘Coach of the Year’ for all I know.”

Q: Did you have a favorite moment this year?

JD: “Yeah, when we got in the playoffs.”

Thanks for reading,

JR