I gotta say, I think this was a mistake… McKee ended last year VERY strong until he got hurt. A defenseman that will sacrifice their body the way that McKee does is priceless. Nothing against Weaver, but I would much rather have McKee…

Not always the biggest fan but he was for the most part a solid third pair Dman, and occasionlly solid 2nd pair. As the game got more important I thought he got better. Next year he would have been a 3rd pair Dman which would have been a good fit. Maybe earning too much for that role, but then the Blues arent saving that much.

The move would appear to be justified only if they expect to promote one of the kids, Jungland or Tyson Stratchan which could be a positive, or a trade/UFA which could be a postive or negtaive, or otherwise the slot goes to Weaver or simlar and thats not an upgrade.

I would rather have McKee than Weaver as well, but the $$ has to come into it, and with any luck, we’re talking about a 7th d-man here. Let’s hope that Brewer gets healthy and Pietrangelo is ready… then we’re just wrangling over a depth guy, at which point the $$ is all the more important to consider.

Johnson Polak
Jackman Colaiacovo
Brewer Petro

That’s not bad if Brewer comes back. I do have to think we’ll see something happening, though. Brewer is still a question mark and is Petro ready for 82 NHL games? I think we pick up a decent 2nd/3rd pairing guy in the next few weeks.

I don’t like this one bit…dump a guy who had a good season last year, on the hope that Brew comes back strong…Nope, don’t like this one bit.

It’s a money thing, friends, and let’s be really honest here. Jay McKee, for all the hoopla that he came in with and a pretty sterling reputation as a shot-blocker in his days with Buffalo, just didn’t work here. Is he a good defenseman in the NHL? Absolutely.

This is a guy who was CONSTANTLY a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and on more than one occasion found himself on the wrong end of Andy Murray’s wrath. I’m not saying he’s a bad player by any means; I’m just saying it didn’t work with the Blues. I hope it works out well for him elsewhere.

I’m not totally surprised by this move. We’re going to be crowded on the blue line next year anyway. This removes one possible distraction for the team.

JD and the gang obviously have something in mind. This group never makes a decision like this for sole purpose of saving dough…there’s somebody on their radar.

This is a move that the Blues simply had to make. McKee is a solid veteran presence on the blue line and a fantastic shot-blocker, but simply no longer has the foot speed to keep up with today’s NHL forwards. He also lacked the skill to move the puck out of the zone effectively, which led to numerous turnovers.

meh…. he hasn’t earned his pay since coming to the Blues. He was not/never worth the 4mil he was getting. I don’t blame the Blues for this, we signed the same quality (combined) in return with Weaver/Winchester at half the price.

I’m glad McKee see’s that he was getting paid way more than he was worth. Too bad it came to this but needed to be done.

Look at it this way, if he was worth that price some club would have traded for him. He wasn’t…..

Dunno what’s drawing the ire of all the fans in support of McKee, here.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, he did do some good things here. He continued his consistency in the shot blocking department here, as he did in Buffalo. He would also lay out a guy every now & then. But, the fact is that he did sit quite a bit as a healthy scratch here @ times, & do you honestly wanna pay a guy $4 mill to sit up in the press box??? Cuz I don’t, & most rational fans shouldn’t want to, either. I understand the fear, w/not knowing ’bout Brew & the in-experience of Weaver, but honestly, @ those salaries, I’ll take Weaver over McKee easily.

Also, face it, these are the kinds of decisions this management group’s gonna have to make when guys like Oshie, Perron, Berglund, Johnson, Backes, etc., come up for contract. They’re smart for shedding salary now, in preparation for when those days are upon us.