St. Louis Blues make contract offer to Keith Tkachuk
Blues veteran Keith Tkachuk received a contract offer from the club this week, and after some back-and-forth talks, an agreement could be reached as soon as today.
“I don’t want to get into it until it’s finally done,” Tkachuk said today. “We’ll know more today. We’re working on something right now.”
Tkachuk, 37, will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the month, but has said that he wants to return to St. Louis next season. He has played eight seasons with the Blues, posting 25 goals and 49 points last season.
Reached in Las Vegas, where he is for tonight’s NHL awards ceremony, Blues President John Davidson said: “It’s close . . . we’re trying to keep the phones going. We want to get another year out of Keith and he wants to stay in St. Louis. There’s common ground there.”
JR
We’ve won nothing with Tkachuk here so would it not be better to let him go and play the kids? We can’t do any worse.
I beg to differ J. Lee. The kids need leadership. They will only be sophomores (including Johnson coming off his awesome golf course incident). The likes of Brewer, Kariya and McDonald are too quiet of leaders. Walt leads by example, on and off the ice.
I hope this contract is for one year, with an option for a second. Anything less would be insulting to Walt.
To your point, we have won nothing with everyone inlcuding hall of fame players like MacInnis, maybe we should just ship the team out and trade it in for a team in a whole new sport?
Tkachuk doesnt apepar to be part of the problem, and given the likely dollar figure of the deal, he could be part of the sollution and at least add good depth to a thin team.
No, it wouldn’t be better to let Tkachuk go because there is nobody ready to step in and replace his production on the ice let alone what he provides for leadership in the locker room. The Blues didn’t win anything with Hull, MacInnis, Pronger, Sutter, Federko, Unger, Plante, Hall, the Plager’s, or the Gasoff’s either.
Oh Yes. The St. Louis Blues. The Chicago Cubs of hockey.
Actually, tegsss, the Chicago Blackhawks are closer to the Chicago Cubs of Hockey than the Blues are. They’ve got a 48 year drought going, ours is only at 42, but thanks for the insightful comment.
Maybe they can ask Tkachuk to pay himself with the 61.7M they’ve given him for his 8 playoff goals in over half a seasons worth of games and playoff overtimes, and that includes one game with a hat trick.
I hope he takes a pay cut. Might as well have him retire a blue. He will cost less than a comparable forward. JD and co know what they’re doing.
“Oh Yes. The St. Louis Blues. The Chicago Cubs of hockey.”
Actually, no. When the Blues lose, it’s not blamed on cats, curses, and people named Steve Bartman.
Jason Lee: We haven’t won anything with Erik Johnson, TJ Oshie, Perron, Bergland, Mason, or Backes either. Maybe we should get rid of all of them too.
“Oh Yes. The St. Louis Blues. The Chicago Cubs of hockey.”
Not really. The cubs have won the championship before. It was just a long, long time ago. The Blues have NEVER.
Without Tkachuk and his leadership we would of never made the playoffs, and the young kids would not be where they are in their devolopment today. He is teaching them how to play hockey the right way with hard work, compassion, leadership. It would be a loss to the St. Louis Blues if we could not reach a deal with him!!
Why would anyone bring the Cubs into this discussion? One hundred years without a championship. Never been done before in any sport. Give the Blues 58 more years, they’ll win one. That’s all it’ll take to better the Cubs. Not to mention, the Blues made the playoffs 25 straight years until a few years back. The Cubs have mostly stunk through those 100 regular seasons too.
Re, today’s point: I say “Welcome back Keith.” He’ll take a pay cut, provide leadership, and probably score 20+ goals. What’s not to like?
Walt is a no brainer as long as they can approach him with a trade scenario at the deadline, as they did a few years ago. If he is locked in and cannot be moved, not sure ….. but, he is undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons we made our run and his influence has been great, and there is no way our kids are ready to run the household just yet.
Do it JD-he is respected as a leader by all the young players. He helped get us in the playoffs. He is a leader and if Brewer can’t play, he should be Captain. Go get him, JD. He wears the Blue Note proudly.
I am continually amazed and disappointed by the amount of demonization of Walt. To those naysayers - we haven’t done anything with Walt? Hold on a tick, wasn’t it ‘01-’02 when the Blues went to Western Conference Finals??? (His first or second season with the team I believe) I don’t remember teams with the likes of Hull, Shanahan, Joseph, Janney, Brown… even Gretzky. I understand the frustration, but don’t have short term memory about it. Walt is hardly the reason the Blues haven’t won a cup. In fact, I’d say his leadership is a reason why they’re on their way up. At his age and production, he’ll come at a lot cheaper price then his last salary… and who else could the Blues get for the same money anyways? He should retire as a Blue.
BTW… the Blues have never won a cup, so therefore can’t (and shouldn’t!) be compared to the Cubs. You can’t have a drought if you’ve never won.