Morning Hits: Blues, Coyotes, Senators, Players Traded Too Early, Wild and Montador

“If you look at our roster, we had a young team that is coming into the middle stages of their careers, where they’re going to start to get paid more,” Stillman said. “If we were going to keep them together, it meant a higher investment level.

“If we weren’t willing to invest more, we were going to have to lose some key pieces and that’s not what we wanted to do. It would be hard to maintain the contending team that we want to have, but it would also send the wrong message to our fans and supporters.”

“I think if we find one more offensive player, scorer it would certainly help. I like our defense, I like our goaltending depth. Even our organization, I just think up front we need more skill,” he said.

“We still have three forward positions available for either finding someone in a trade, signing a free agent, or somebody like a Max Domi or a Henrik Samuelsson comes to camp and wins a job. We have very good flexibility right now, but If we can find another bonafide top two NHL player that’d be our preference.”

They could move out a defenseman. Keith Yandle and Derek Morris will be mentioned in the rumor mill again.

“If we want to even spend a few extra million dollars, that just goes right out of my pocket. It’s a business, people have to understand. This is not philanthropy. I love the team, but there’s only so much you can bear.”