Doug Armstrong Wonders What Might Have Been For 2019-20 Blues

[bluetunehead]

I remember Maroon giving an interview and he said him and Army had a made a handshake deal about his contract next season. As soon as he said it he tried to backtrack and claimed he probably shouldn't have said that. Ive always wondered if that had something to do with him not being renewed.

Maroon was awesome. I wish they would have kept him.

So would there have been something illegal about a handshake to come back?

Not sure why Armstrong would take offense to the point of reneging on the agreement.

I don't know anything about the rules for talking to players or dealing with contracts. It was just weird that he said it and then immediately backtracked. And he backtracked like he new he just made a mistake in saying that. I'm not sure if he made the whole thing up or if it was a dumb joke or an illegal type deal that shouldn't have been mentioned publicly. It does seem weird that he was here, won the Cup, was an effective team player then went somewhere else for league minimum or a million bucks whatever it was. I found it strange that Army didn't resign him and always wondered if that was why. He was literally one of the top 3 tough guys in the league at the time.

As far as I know, there is nothing wrong with a GM discussing contracts with players that the team has the rights to. There are rules about signing contracts before certain dates, but, I don't think this would qualify. Bottom line is, this is a business.You really don't have anything, until you have it in writing, and signed. I would think that Pat would say looking back, that Army did him a favor. He ended up with a pretty good situation I think.

It would definitely be poor form for Maroon to discuss in public before he was eligible to sign an extension (in the case of 1-year contracts that is January 1), if only because no GM wants their plans publicly revealed ahead of time. It would be against the rules for them to make a legit agreement at the time of his original contract to sign another one down the road. That would be virtually impossible to enforce, but technically it would be illegal. It could be considered cap circumvention if they agreed to X dollars for 1 year and then a bigger, longer deal in a year when the team had more cap space, for instance.

[HighStick]

I remember Maroon giving an interview and he said him and Army had a made a handshake deal about his contract next season. As soon as he said it he tried to backtrack and claimed he probably shouldn't have said that. Ive always wondered if that had something to do with him not being renewed.

Maroon was awesome. I wish they would have kept him.

So would there have been something illegal about a handshake to come back?

Not sure why Armstrong would take offense to the point of reneging on the agreement.

I don't know anything about the rules for talking to players or dealing with contracts. It was just weird that he said it and then immediately backtracked. And he backtracked like he new he just made a mistake in saying that. I'm not sure if he made the whole thing up or if it was a dumb joke or an illegal type deal that shouldn't have been mentioned publicly. It does seem weird that he was here, won the Cup, was an effective team player then went somewhere else for league minimum or a million bucks whatever it was. I found it strange that Army didn't resign him and always wondered if that was why. He was literally one of the top 3 tough guys in the league at the time.

top 3 tough guys in the league?? seriously??

Reaves, Wilson and Maroon. Who else was a known tough guy in the league in 2019 that was tougher than those 3?

[SameOldBlues]

Excuses are for losers, plain n simple. Every other team had to play under the same rules and conditions as the Blues, so its embarrassing to constantly hear excuses about what could have been all these years later still.

I bet you’re fun to watch a game with huh?

You’ll never know, Nostradamus.

[bluetunehead]

I remember Maroon giving an interview and he said him and Army had a made a handshake deal about his contract next season. As soon as he said it he tried to backtrack and claimed he probably shouldn't have said that. Ive always wondered if that had something to do with him not being renewed.

Maroon was awesome. I wish they would have kept him.

So would there have been something illegal about a handshake to come back?

Not sure why Armstrong would take offense to the point of reneging on the agreement.

I don't know anything about the rules for talking to players or dealing with contracts. It was just weird that he said it and then immediately backtracked. And he backtracked like he new he just made a mistake in saying that. I'm not sure if he made the whole thing up or if it was a dumb joke or an illegal type deal that shouldn't have been mentioned publicly. It does seem weird that he was here, won the Cup, was an effective team player then went somewhere else for league minimum or a million bucks whatever it was. I found it strange that Army didn't resign him and always wondered if that was why. He was literally one of the top 3 tough guys in the league at the time.

top 3 tough guys in the league?? seriously??

Reaves, Wilson and Maroon. Who else was a known tough guy in the league in 2019 that was tougher than those 3?

Matt Martin, Cody McLeod, Deslauriers, Kassian, Clifford, Roussel, among others. A guy like Byfuglien was certainly feared even if he wasn't a regular fighter. Most of those guys dropped the gloves as much as Maroon ever did.

I'm not sure I'd say Maroon was Top 3 in the league, but he was probably in a group of about 10 'tough guys' of note in that era.

[stlblue06]

It’s possible Army is referring to the regret of not trading for MT 3 years ago. Watching MT once again be on the front page of the hockey world with his 3rd cup finals and 2nd cup win in a row.

The 3 year mark of the trade was earlier this week and articles popped up talking about it.

MT also brought back the cup to St. Louis again on Monday.

[stlblue06]

This is all just silly, the Blues had just as much opportunity to repeat as anybody else.

Disagree.

They may all have had the same circumstance but Covid was huge and impacted the players, rosters and teams in different ways.

Yep when you win the cup every play on your team’s value goes way up. In the salary cap era when the cap was steadily increasing every season, Covid giving the nhl a flat cap for what 3-4 years made it much harder for the Blues than most teams.

Most teams only have a limited number of years with the majority of the same players they won the cup with. It is a fact the Blues didn’t get the chance the following year as it was cancelled when the Blues were 1st in the conference 90% through the season (the summer bubble tournament does not count).

Then the following year there was a half season with no fans, only played the same 8 teams in your division, players sitting out 10 days with Covid, rescheduled games all over the place and so on was not a real season.