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A rock and a hard place.
That's where the new Blues management team (headed by president Mark Sauer) find themselves in this whole Brett Hull contract fiasco.
Let's review.
About ten years ago, then-GM Ron Caron pulled the trigger on a late-season trade that placed the final pieces in the Calgary Flames' 1986 Stanley Cup puzzle. Dealing back-up goaltender Rick Wamsley to the Flames didn't seem so bad...but shipping out cornerstone defenseman Rob Ramage as well?
At the time, the words "fire sale" crossed the minds of thousands of long-suffering St. Louis hockey fans.
But among the bodies that the Professor obtained from Calgary was a twenty-something year old right winger with a familiar last name: Hull.
The other player Caron picked up?
The eminently forgettable Steve Bozek.
In the immediate aftermath of the trade, Caron dropped a ton of bricks onto Hull's shoulders: "You know, I think [Brett Hull] has the capacity to put together a 60 goal season in the NHL."
We should all be so wrong--the Professor's estimate was low by nearly a third.
But in the fall of 1997, Brett Hull's future in St. Louis looks to be on shaky ground.
That's because Hull's multimillion dollar contract with the Blues expires at the conclusion of the current season.
Now, the NHL's free agency rules make it easy for a player of Hull's age (33) to switch teams. Without a binding contract, at the conclusion of the '97-98 season, Hull would be truly free and the team that signs him would not be required to provide the Blues with any compensation.
But the Golden Brett has stated publicly that he wants to finish his career in St. Louis...if the Blues compensate him to the tune of $25 million over five years.
On the one hand, Sauer and GM Larry Pleau have both stated that they share Hull's desire to see that he concludes his career in St. Louis--as a member of the Blues.
On the other hand, Sauer has presented Hull and his agent with a contract offer that Hull and his agent view as totally unsatisfactory--reports indicate that the deal is worth about $10 million over three years, plus incentives that are based on team performance.
So, as the Blues thirtieth season gets underway, the squabble between Hull and the team's management has busted out into the open...and has tarnished Larry Pleau's first season as general manager, and Joel Quenneville's first full season as head coach.
But besides all that, the Hull squabble exposed one very obvious wart as far as Brett Hull the hockey player is concerned.
That's because Hull, in some of his pre-season rantings about the contract hassle, made references (some oblique, some not so oblique) to injuries in the upcoming season.
What, you say?
Well, Hull pointed out that, in the walk year of his contract, it would be foolish for him to play in a fashion that would result in an injury, because that would reduce his value as a free agent.
So, in what looked to be rather convoluted logic, Hull expressed the opinion that it would be better for all concerned if the Blues would satisfy his demands for a new contract.
Wow.
Former Blues czar Mike Keenan (you remember Keenan, don't you? The color commentator for Toronto Marlboro junior hockey games?), upon hearing Hull's obviously selfish talk about injuries during his free-agent year, must have broken out into a big smile (or whatever it is that Keenan does to express happiness).
Recall Keenan's parting shots after his St. Louis dismissal.
He claimed that the biggest frustration of his entire coaching career was that he could never get Brett Hull to play for the good of the entire team...and that Brett Hull seemed most interested in Brett Hull.
Hull's own words about playing not to get hurt in the upcoming season suggest that Keenan may have just been right.
Which, other that his view of Grant Fuhr's skill level, could have been the only thing that Iron Mike was right about during his 2+ seasons in St. Louis
What a damning indictment of Keenan, and of the only true superstar ever to model the Blues uniform during the prime of his career.
St. Louis' hockey fans deserve better.
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