On Kevin Shattenkirk and the St. Louis Blues …
Jeremy Rutherford: Kevin Shattenkirk’s agent Jordan Neumann: “I would say at this point, Kevin and I do think it is inevitable that he ultimately will get traded.”
Jeremy Rutherford: There is no truth to the rumor that Shattenkirk would only sign a contract extension with a team from the East. There have been teams in the West that are in the mix.
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Kevin Shattenkirk doesn’t think he’ll be with the Blues for much longer. Agent Jordan Neumann spoke with Blues GM Doug Armstrong before the draft about a contract. After finding out what Shattenkirk was looking for, the Blues started exploring a trade.
“Doug inferred that Kevin probably wouldn’t be re-signing there beyond next season, and therefore he thought it was in both our best interests and the Blues’ best interests that he pursue a trade,” Neumann said Monday. “I would say that neither Kevin nor I was surprised. I think we all kind of saw it coming. We really respected the fact that Doug reached out and talked to us about it, and that we had some fair warning, and that he allowed us to have at least a little bit of input as the process sort of took off heading into draft weekend. Kevin loves it in St. Louis, he’s really enjoyed his time, his career has really taken off there. But at the same time, he’s a very smart young man and we completely understand the business. It would be naive to say we didn’t expect it to be coming.”
Shattenkirk was almost traded at the 2015 draft. The Blues may have had a trade in place then, but it wasn’t finalized. Trading Shattenkirk may help create the extra room needed for RFA Jaden Schwartz and possibly UFAs David Backes and Troy Brouwer.
Shattenkirk could be looking for a deal deal in the $6 million to $7 million range.
Neumann wouldn’t comment about the Blues-Shattenkirk conversation about potential landing spots and about signing a contract extension elsewhere that may have taken place at the draft. Teams would want an extension in place before trading for him.