"And Boom. Goes the dynamite."
"Losing sucks - there is no doubt about it. It is embarrassing."
"I think our biggest asset - really, if you could call anything an asset last season. Was our youth. We have a lot of pretty solid young players coming through the pipe line."
"Last year - we wanted to compete. But...we didn't do that. I think there is a number of things that we need to figure out as a team."
"Before a pick was made at the draft - we felt we had a strong group of youngsters in our system - all in and around the same age. We were pretty keen as an organization to rebuild within the generation of players we already had."
"Carlsson - we brought him over at 18. We have really enjoyed watching him evolve as a player.
"Puljujarvi spent the end of last season playing with Sutter in our farm system. He had a great beginning to the year with us in St. Louis.
"Juloevi was very solid when we called him up at the end of last year. Like him, Bernhardt played some solid minutes as well. We think they both can be very solid guys moving forward."
"Valk, Sutter, Lauta, Grachev, Kurker, Mcfarland, Puljujarvi. They have all shown flashes of very solid play. We believe we can grow our team around these players."
"Gustafsson played to the best of his abilities in net for us. We felt that for the direction we were going to be taking - a veteran in net would be the better choice. We know Mason well and with the cap space we now have, we are happy to have him back."
Well - he gone done it. The General Manager of our St. Louis Blues trade. Everything. Pretty much. He kept some of the bits he liked. Above is what he had to say for it. For now, it would appear that the St. Louis Blues will be taking a new direction.
"I think we are going to have a bit of a rough year next year. I would say don't come to our games expecting perfection - but still come. Come and enjoy flashes of brilliance. Mixed in with many opportunities for learning."
He touched on each of his selections.
4. St.Louis Blues - Juuso Valimaki
"We had a number of targets at 4. Valimaki became a guy that we talked more and more about and how well he could possibly complement Carlsson in the future. Carlsson is on the road to becoming a very consistent offensive defenceman, with grit - his area of opportunity is defence. Valimaki fills that hole on a pairing. We were very excited to select this young man at 4. we got word from a couple of GM's who were hoping he would fall past 4."
9. St.Louis Blues (via Colorado Avalanche) - Cody Glass
"We really liked Rankin and he played some amazing minutes for us - the trade call with him was tough. But we just could not pass up Glass at 9. We added to get him. Glass is essentially a taller version of Sutter - we will leave it up to the two of them to determine who becomes the better of the two. I won't get into that amongst my guys - but feel free to speculate on upside."
19. St.Louis Blues (via Nashville Predators) - Conor Timmins
"I will be honest - we were really hoping Callan Foote would drop to us at 19. But Timmins was next on our list - Tall skilled Dman with some grit. We think he will be a good two-way guy. He could work on his consistency - but we think he has a bright future."
27. St.Louis Blues (via Pittsburgh Penguins) - Kristian Vesalainen
"Again - consistency could be and issue - but like with Timmins we see a lot of potential. Vesy is a guy who can shoot the puck and bring a lot of grit. He is a big kid. We are excited to see him grow."
31. St.Louis Blues - Ostap Safin
"Strong defensive potential with decent skating abilities. Another big kid. He has a shot - but his expertise is on defence."
42. St. Louis Blues (via San Jose Sharks) - Cale Fleury
"He showed a lot of consistency this season. He could use some work on his skating - but overall we see him as market version of Valimaki. We think he can be a solid player for us."
49. St. Louis Blues (via Nashville Predators) - David Farrance
"Our risk on Carlsson is paying off - so we elected to go with a smaller offensive Dman. We think he can be a strong player and we plan to utilize him as we did Carlsson."
50. St. Louis Blues (via Chicago Blackhawks) - Robin Salo
"We wanted to round out our stable of D prospects and we felt that Salo fit into the same mold as Fleury."
58. St.Louis Blues (via Arizona Coyotes) - Santeri Virtanen
"We rounded out our top 60 with Virtanen. He is a good checker and with the forward group we have - We felt we needed checking depth."
Well folks - That was the draft for our favourite team.
