Blues defensemen Mike Weaver and Carlo Colaiacovo have been waiting for months to find out whether the club is interested in bringing them back next season.
One way or the other, they'll find out soon.
Weaver and Colaiacovo are two of the Blues' six unrestricted free agents headed to the NHL's free-agent market, which opens Thursday at 11 a.m. (St. Louis time).
The Blues have had recent discussions with the agents for both Weaver and Colaiacovo, but neither player appeared to be close to an extension Tuesday.
"I've had two really good years with the Blues, and I'd love to stay, but at this point, it looks like free agency is on the horizon," said Weaver, 32. "If things don't change before Thursday, I'm going to be excited to go into unrestricted free agency."
Colaiacovo, 27, said Tuesday that his feelings were "kind of mixed right now. My position hasn't changed in the sense that St. Louis is the first place I want to be. But I would've thought there would be a little more communication the last couple of days, which there hasn't been. It makes you think a little, but at end of the day, I'm still confident things will work out."
The Blues have more unfinished business of their own heading into free agency than they've had in past years. Among the team's six unrestricted free agents, Chris Mason, Paul Kariya, Darryl Sydor and Brad Winchester aren't likely to return. But counting Weaver and Colaiacovo, and including the team's eight restricted free agents, the Blues have nearly half their team still unsigned.
"When you start building from within, through the draft, that's what happens," Blues President John Davidson said. "You draft a kid and they come out of entry level after three years, so you're going to have some in-house stuff to take care of. It's just business. Our priority right now is to take care of that business. (Blues incoming general manager) Doug Armstrong is having conversations with the agents."
Whether or not the Blues finalize extensions with Weaver and Colaiacovo will determine whether the team has a couple of needs on defense come Thursday.
In 77 games, Weaver averaged 16 minutes, 57 seconds of ice time last season and was a part of a penalty-killing unit that finished No. 1 in the NHL (86.8 percent).
"With me, I built a reputation on penalty killing and making a good first pass out of the zone," Weaver said. "There's no gray area with me. People know what I'm able to do. I've got a great track record to prove it."
In 67 games, Colaiacovo scored seven goals, including four on the power play, and his 32 points ranked second behind Erik Johnson (39) among the club's defensemen.
"I definitely feel like I can fit in that (offensive) role again," Colaiacovo said. "My comfort level is there and I think my game picked up when (Blues coach) Davis (Payne) came on board. The style he stresses suited my game more."
Davidson said Tuesday that he would meet with Armstrong today to get an update on the contract talks with Weaver and Colaiacovo.
"There's deals ... it's just a matter of doing them properly," Davidson said. "Every team makes changes throughout the season; you can't keep everybody. These two players have the right to go to free agency.
"There's people out there (in free agency) that can play. Also, we've got people getting better. Can Alex Pietrangelo make our team? Can Ian Cole make our team? Ty Strachan? We'll figure out what we have to do."
Outside of the questions on defense, Davidson said that he didn't see any glaring holes on the Blues' roster heading into free agency.
"I don't think so," he said. "When you don't have a 40-goal scorer, everybody thinks you need scoring. You want to have that big scorer, but we're going to have to chip away at it. If we score like we did in the second half of last season, we should be in good shape. Plus, we're hoping Brad Boyes will rebound and give us some more scoring.
"We like our team. We've gradually made some changes, adding (goalie) Jaroslav Halak and (center) Vladimir Sobotka. Sometimes it's better to do what we've done in making a couple of trades, as opposed to spending more money on free agents. We're just chipping away at it. We're trying to get better as we move from day to day."
