PIETRANGELO AGREES TO DEAL WITH BLUES!

The St. Louis Blues and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo have agreed to a seven-year contract. Pietrangelo ended his holdout by getting the deal signed. Pietrangelo's new contract is worth a total of $45.5 million. This season he'll make $5 million, 2014-2015 $5.5 million, 015-016 $6.5 million, $7 million until 018-019, then in his last year of his contract in 019-020 he'll make 7.5 million. He was drafted by the Blues in the 2008 NHL draft, and was picked 4th overall. He played his first full season in the NHL with the Blues in 2010-2011. During the 011-012 season, Pietrangelo became the second defenseman in Blues history to have both six game-winning goals and six power play goals in the same season, the only other defenseman to do so in Blues history was Hall Of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis.

Pietrangelo's career stats in the NHL as of right now: 224 games played, 29 goals, 92 assists, 121 points, and is a plus 25. In the playoffs, he's played in 14 games and has 1 goal, 6 assists, 7 points, and is a plus 1.

Even though he's developing into one of the league's top defenseman, last year he seemed to take a step back.  I think that could have been due to the lockout, which pretty much seemed to be the case for other NHL players. But, when the Blues traded for defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, Pietrangelo seemed to improve after the trade happened. His best season was in 011-012, when he played 81 games, scoring 12 goals, with 39 assists, and 51 points.

It's nice to see the Blues finally get Alex Pietrangelo signed, with him signed they got their offseason done. And it should be good season for the Blues starting in October. If defenseman Ryan Whitney does well in camp on his tryout, what do you do with him? Do you end up signing him and trading defenseman Ian Cole? After all you can never have too much defense. I even wonder if Whitney does well in camp, if they could talk him into signing a two-way contract, that way he could be playing at Chicago. And if any of the Blues defenseman were to get hurt, he could earn the call up.

KUDOS TO THE BLUES OWNERSHIP FOR SPENDING MONEY THE RIGHT WAY. LETS GO BLUES!