[Re-Signing] C Stewart with Blues

[SamJamIam]

The Blues are positioned nicely - very solid forward group - and plenty of cap space to lock up Pietrangelo.

Not impressed with their decision to give up a 1st+ for Bouwmeester - imo they would have been in a tremendous position of strength this summer with his cap space in a buyer's market, but at least he's a UFA at season's end. Aside from him their highest cap hit is their captain at only 4.5... I'm relieved they cut that deal actually.

[bigpush]

I think giving that up for Bouwmeester was worth it. He came in and made a huge impact right away and seems to have a fair bit of gas in the tank. Kind of showed just how terrible the Flames were.

My main question is, where did the ownership group find their money? Were they in a bad short-term position last year and thus hoping for a lockout? Because spending to the cap would be decidedly more than they have ever done in the past and reports fairly recently indicated they weren't reaching the revenue they wanted.

[SamJamIam]

I also was wondering about that as this team has never spent to the cap.

This is what I found out about the new ownership group who bought the blues in May of 2012.

Tom Stillman who was a minority owner prior to 2012 is now the main component of the new ownership group. He is the CEO and chairman of Summit Distributing which distrubutes beer in Missouri, most notably for Miller and Anheuser-Busch. I don't know about his net worth but apperently he used to play hockey in college and still does. "The new ownership group includes several prominent business and civic leaders" as well apperently. I do know that the farm team Peoria, which the Canucks purchased was losing money which should help. The blues also are apperently 7th in league attendance, which surprised me so should be getting decent revenue from the team especially with 2 straight playoff appearances.