J.D.’s Been Busy

So last summer the St. Louis Blues sold Chris Pronger*, but this summer, with John Davidson at the helm, the Blues are eagerly working free agency to become, quite quickly, a competitive team. While the free agent signing list of the Blues is long and reads rather impressively, I can’t help but wonder how all of these signings are going to gel as the collective unit that is a team. I see two possibilities: 1.) The free agency signings quickly help the team to compete for a playoff spot. 2.) The free agency signings help the team on paper but don’t translate to effective change on the ice.

Although I’m more of an Eastern and far Western conference girl (Canucks, Oilers, Ducks, I enjoy watching), I’ll be watching curiously to see which of those two possibilities comes to fruition in St. Louis and how that fruit influences John Davidson’s future decision-making.

* Sold is a harsh term. Yet seeing Pronger play (dominate is a better word for what went on) throughout the 2006 playoffs, well, one wonders how St. Louis didn’t demand more for Pronger. (One should also note that I am firmly convinced the Penguins sold Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals; however, the Penguins apparently sold a defective product to the Capitals, one that wasn’t repaired until the 2005-06 season in New York. On the other hand, as Pronger’s dominant play showed, the Oilers did not receive a defective product, not as long as on-ice performance alone is the sole determinant of a quality product.)