In this season of mediocrity Blues fans are screaming for G.M. Larry Pleau to do something, anything to get his team over the hump.

But the days of quick fixes are long gone. The previous regime would have sent 8 first round draft picks, and the entire first line at Worcester to Vancouver for Pavel Bure.

Prior to that they probably would have once again signed Petr Nedved to an offer sheet back in September when he was holding out in Pittsburgh.

But this is a different Blues management philosophy, one that stresses "player development." Those are foreign words in these parts.

Over the past 15 years the Blues have drafted some solid NHL players.

Several, in fact, are thriving in the league right now. Bret Hedican is a speedy puck rushing defensman in Florida, Cliff Ronning is a crafty playmaker in Nashville, Rod Brind'Amour is one of the league's best all-around forwards in Philadelphia, Nelson Emerson, Igor Korolev and Tony Hrkac are handy forwards with good hands and are thriving in Chicago, Toronto and Dallas respectively.

And Guy Hebert just inked a 3-year, $12 million contract extension in Anaheim. But all of those players are enjoying their most success in the NHL for other teams.

Pleau is out to change that.

The current group of prospects is key to the future of this
organization.

Marty Reasoner, Derek Bekar, Lubos Bartecko, Daniel Corso, Jochen Hecht, Jan Horacek, Andrei Podkonicky, Christian Backman, and Ladislav Nagy are some of the prospects who will have to develop over the next three years or this franchise could be in big trouble.

The Blues currently have about as many top end players as a market of this size can afford with Pierre Turgeon, Pavol Demitra, Chris Pronger, and Al MacInnis. Throw Grant Fuhr into that group, not because of his current performance, but because of his $3.1 million salary. The trick will be to have enough prospects emerge as capable NHLers, with a handful of established stars, and a few Craig Conroy, Scott Pellerin, Scott Young types thrown in for good measure.

If Pleau can pull that off, then he should realize his vision of turning the Blues into a New Jersey Devils-type organization that continues to restock itself with young talent.

In the meantime there is not a whole lot Pleau can do. The Blues aren't going to trade any of their established veteran players, or their youngsters and draft picks, for a Band-Aid.

He can't package Michel Picard, Bryan Helmer, Chris McAlpine, and Rich Parent for Theo Fleury or Mark Recchi. So he'll have to continue to rely on finding the guy who is buried in somebody else's organization, and hope he can rescue him like he did with Helmer, Pellerin, Conroy, Ricard Persson, Jamie McLennan etc.

So it's a good news bad news scenario down on Clark Ave. The good news is the Blues finally have a REAL plan. The bad news is that the immediate future (meaning this season), is going to be ordinary to say the least.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mike Rainey is a producer at KFNS-AM 590 (St. Louis)