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
“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.