As general manager and coach, Keenan traded away the popular Brendan Shanahan, tested patience with other curious transactions and cultivated a toxic relationship with Hull. In 1984, the Blues drastically redesigned their look, adding red and darkening the shade of blue. The bottom of the numbers taper off to give way to the aforementioned stripes. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". St. Louis Blues - (NHL) Enterprise Center - Operations only, the City of St. Louis is the owner Stifel Theatre - Majority Owner Former assets [ edit] Peoria Rivermen - (AHL) Shareholders [ edit] [3] Majority Owner [ edit] Thomas H. Stillman - Chairman of the Board & CEO, Summit Distributing. In 1980-81, with Berenson behind the bench, the Blues had a 107-point season and put hockey back on the St. Louis radar. In each of its first three seasons, the team advanced through the expansion side of the NHL playoff bracket to the Stanley Cup finals. The Blues missed the playoffs during the first four full seasons of new ownership. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. In 2001, the Blues advanced to the Western Conference Finals before bowing out in five games to the eventual champions, the Colorado Avalanche. [20] On November 19, 2018, the Blues fired head coach Mike Yeo after starting the season with a 793 record and replaced him with Craig Berube on an interim basis. During this period, the NHL rebuffed attempts at further expansion. Goaltending anchors Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante retired, Berenson was traded and "Sid III" began changing coaches and general managers like it was a court order. The Blues were one of the six teams added to the NHL in the 1967 expansion, along with the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and California Seals. [47], The team also has a long tradition of fan-produced programs, sold outside the arena and providing an often biting, sarcastic, humor-filled alternative to team- and League-produced periodicals. Dan Kelly continued to broadcast the games on radio but was diagnosed in the summer of 1988 with lung cancer and died on February 10, 1989. The team made headlines with free-agent signings and trades that landed stars like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Stevens, Grant Fuhr, Phil Housley and Al MacInnis. Things got worse after Keenan orchestrated a bold trade to acquire Wayne Gretzky late in the 1995-96 season. Bill Laurie, a former point guard at Memphis State University, had long desired to buy and move a National Basketball Association (NBA) team to St. Louis (coming close to achieving this in 1999, with an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the then-Vancouver Grizzlies), and it was thought that this desire caused him to neglect the Blues. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. Hull, nicknamed the "Golden Brett" (a reference to his father, NHL legend Bobby Hull, who was nicknamed the "Golden Jet"), became one of the League's top stars and a scoring sensation, netting 86 goals in 199091 en route to earning the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. However, injuries plagued the team all season, and the lack of a bona fide scorer hampered them as well. While the first Blues teams included fading veterans like Doug Harvey, Don McKenney and Dickie Moore, the goaltending tandem of veterans Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante proved more durable, winning a Vezina Trophy in 1969 behind a sterling defense that featured players like skilled defensive forward Jim Roberts, team captain Al Arbour and hardrock brothers Bob and Barclay Plager. St. Louis has embraced team's victory anthem", "The history behind the NHL's ubiquitous sound for scoring: the goal horn", "A Look at Five St. Louis Blues' Superfans", "Celebrate 20 years of fan-run papers on Friday", "How did 'Country Roads' become a Blues home-game staple? With Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guzar, Jerome Cowan. His successor, William Stiritz, wanted to refocus on the core pet food business, and his personal sporting interests were in horse racing and not hockey. Ten days before the deadline NHL President John Ziegler set for dissolving the franchise, Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Harry Ornest stepped up with the only formal bid. Doug Wickenheiser's overtime goal in Game 6 to cap a furious comeback remains one of the greatest moments in team history (known locally as the "Monday Night Miracle"), but the Blues lost Game 7, 21. Indeed, many of the Blues' players liked the fact that their families could hear the games on KMOX. He was replaced by assistant coach Scotty Bowman, who thereafter led the team to a winning record for the rest of the season. The Salomons might have been the most generous employers in sports history. "[42], Starting in 2014, the team introduced a win song in the form of Pitbull's "Don't Stop The Party",[43] but from 2016 to 2018, the win song was "Song 2" by Blur after public backlash against using a Pitbull song. Defenseman Chris Pronger (acquired from the Hartford Whalers in 1995 for Brendan Shanahan), Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis and goaltender Roman Turek kept the Blues a contender in the NHL. Amid several questionable personnel moves and an unstable ownership situation, the Blues finished the 200506 season with their worst record in 27 years. [1] The next few seasons became like a broken record. Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. Fan support was sluggish during the first half of the campaign, and the end of the calendar year was capped by an 11-game losing streak. He asked many players to defer contracts to help meet operating costs and through much of Ornest's tenure, the team operated with a small office staff. This marked the second-straight year the Blues lost in the first round of the playoffs to the reigning champions in six games after leading the series 20. However, had the league not found a new owner by August 6, it would dissolve the team and hold a dispersal draft for the players. The Enterprise Center was electric and buzzing with excitement with anticipation of the win. With silver-jacketed organist Norm Kramer pumping out "When the Blues Go Marching In," hockey became a happening in St. Louis. He was 78. Contact Information: print. On February 9, 2019, another tradition was born. The arena quickly became one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, a reputation it maintained throughout its tenure as the Blues' home. In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Vancouver Canucks, to whom they lost in six games. A look at the ownership lineage: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Ornest immediately reverted the name of the team's home venue to the St. Louis Arena. Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. Louie is the mascot of the St. Louis Blues. The following season, 201314, the team hit the 100-point mark for the sixth time in franchise history, and gained a franchise record of 52 wins. Bill Laurieis an American former basketball player and coach, and current business executive and philanthropist. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. The deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. Quenneville was fired during the 2003-04 season and like so many prominent Blues alumni before him Hull, Shanahan, Stevens, Pronger he went on to win a Cup elsewhere. After his duties as interim coach for the rest of the 200910 season, Davis Payne was named the 23rd head coach in the Blues' history on April 14. NHL president Clarence Campbell said during the 1967 expansion meetings, "We want a team in St. Louis because of the city's geographical location and the fact that it has an adequate building."[4]. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the six teams from the 1967 NHL expansion and is named after the W. C. Handy song "Saint Louis Blues". The sale price for the team and building lease was reported to be $100 million. In fact, several of the Blues' young stars, such as Rob Ramage, Joe Mullen and Gilmour, were main cogs in the Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup win. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey . 0. Inductees affiliated with the Blues include 24 former players (six of whom earned their credentials primarily with the Blues) and seven builders of the sport. John Davidson, received the award in 2009 for his contributions in television broadcasting. League president John Ziegler said they would try to keep the team in St. Louis. In 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference finals and produced one of its signature moments, a "Monday Night Miracle" comeback victory in Game 6. They fired their head coach, Davis Payne, and named Ken Hitchcock as his replacement on November 6, 2011. Jeremy Boyer, the Blues organist, plays a Glenn Miller arrangement of W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" in its entirety before games and a short version at the end of every period, followed by "When the Saints Go Marching In." They play their home games at the 19,150-seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, which has been their arena since moving from St. Louis Arena in 1994. They were again eliminated by Los Angeles, however, this time in six games in the first round of the playoffs, despite taking an initial 20 series lead. After a strong second-half run, the Blues made the 2009 playoffs on April 10, 2009, after defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets 31. The mainstream appeal moved a conglomerate of corporate leaders to buy out Shanahan and build the Kiel Center (now the Scottrade Center), opening the downtown doors in 1994. After missing the playoffs for the first time in 197374, the Blues ended up in the Smythe Division after a League realignment. The logo used on the Blues' jerseys from 1987 to 1998. Brandon Saad and Robert Thomas both recorded a goal and an assist, helping the Blues earn a 5-2 win over the Predators at home 04:56 January 19, 2023 ST. LOUIS -- Brandon Saad and Robert. Menu. After Dan Kelly's death, Ken Wilson became St. Louis Blues' lead television play-by-play announcer alongside former Blues' players Joe Micheletti and Bruce Affleck. After each goal, a bell is rung and each of the goals are counted by the crowd. This article is about the ice hockey team. St. Louis was the last of the six expansion teams to gain entry into the League; the market was chosen over Baltimore at the insistence of the Black Hawks owners, James D. Norris and Arthur Wirtz. Jeff Gordon writes: Controlling the Blues is a great honor for diehard fan Tom Stillman. [15] The team later traded veteran defenseman Bryce Salvador to the New Jersey Devils for enforcer, and St. Louis native, Cam Janssen. A Broadway musical comedy star tires of the same old grind and flees the city. This list may not reflect recent changes . This division was particularly weak, and in 197677, the Blues won it while finishing five games below .500, though this would be their last playoff appearance in the decade. In the offseason for the 201718 season, the Blues would lose David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights via an expansion draft. The Blues kept 26 players under contract, 23 of them in St. Louis. Here is a list of the team's owners since its inception: -Sidney Salomon Jr. -Ralph Sauer -Harry Ornest -Michael Shanahan -Dave Checketts -Tom Stillman. Additionally, fans complained they could not hear the station at night (it had to readjust its coverage due to a glut of clear channels on adjacent frequencies). They sought to unload what was then a decrepit facility which had not been well-maintained since the 1940s, and thus pressed the NHL to give the franchise to St. Louis, which had not submitted a formal expansion bid. [26] Shortly after the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, Karla May of the Missouri Senate introduced a bill which would officially designate several items as state symbols of Missouri; including the Blues being as the state's official hockey team. The team made headlines with free-agent signings and trades that landed stars like Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Stevens, Grant Fuhr, Phil Housley and Al MacInnis. The Berenson trade did bring then-Detroit Red Wings star center Garry Unger, who ultimately scored 30 goals in eight consecutive seasons while breaking the NHL's consecutive games played record. Reluctant to give up on the St. Louis market, the NHL blocked the sale. Mike Keenan was hired as both general manager and coach before the abbreviated 199495 season, with the hope that he could end the postseason turmoil that Blues fans had endured for years. ST. LOUIS (AP) Mike Shanahan, who owned the St. Louis Blues from 1986-91 and oversaw the acquisition of Hall of Famer Brett Hull, has died. These distractions would greatly affect their performance as they squeezed into the playoffs with a 254015 record in the 1983 season, good enough for 65 points. tickets - by owner. He gave his players cars, signed them to deferred contracts and treated them to vacations in Florida. st louis blues - $75 (Saint Louis) wednesday 2023-03-01. number available: 4 venue: enterprise center. Hull, who had a lengthy feud with Keenan, left for the Dallas Stars in 1998. He scored 16 points in 13 games after his arrival, but the season ended in frustration as the Blues lost Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals to Detroit. After his death, Ron Jacober (who had left Channel 5 to be KXOK's sports director in 1985 then left for KMOX in 1987) was hired as the radio play-by-play announcer for the remainder of the season, and John Kelly succeeded in that position. During the offseason, forward T. J. Oshie was traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Troy Brouwer. [55] The seven individuals recognized as builders by the Hall of Fame includes former Blues executives, general managers, head coaches, and owners. The moves kept sportswriters busy and fans captivated, and often infuriated opposing executives. There is a lot of money riding on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals for St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman. St. Louis Blues. A new company who had purchased KXOK won the bid for a three-year contract and Kelly moved over from KMOX to do the games on KXOK. Although they had finished in third place, St. Louis was regarded as fairly evenly matched with the other three Western qualifiers since only four points separated first and fourth place. The Blues got off to a slow start in their initial season. Despite posting the second-best regular-season record in the entire league in 199091, the Blues were upset in the second round of the playoffs to the Minnesota North Stars, a defeat that was symbolic of St. Louis' playoff struggles. Hull's 86 goals set the record for most goals in a single season by a right-winger (and the third-most overall at the time). St Louis Blues Players. Under new management, the Blues promptly installed John Davidson as president of hockey operations, moving Pleau to a mostly advisory role. But the memorable season came to an abrupt end at the hands of the surging Los Angles Kings. In the hiatus preceding the NHL's Return to Play, several Blues players contracted COVID-19, which was cited by the coaching staff as one of the reasons why their play faltered in the playoffs. They would finish second in the Western Conference, behind the Vancouver Canucks. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. * current Blues player [24] Up until that point, the Blues were the oldest franchise to never win the Stanley Cup; they were also the last of the five surviving 1967 expansion teams to win the Cup for the first time. He has covered the team since the 2005-06 season, including a dozen years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A few weeks later, SCP withdrew and a month later, the Blues announced they had signed an exclusive letter of intent to negotiate with General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. The Blues simplified their design, with only the blue note logo on the front; there were no third jerseys for the season. Members of the Blues' all-local ownership group include Tom Stillman, Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Andrew Taylor, David Steward, Jim. For the first time in five years (that is, since the lockout), the Blues were in the playoffs. Only Wayne Gretzky found the net more than Hull during any given three-year period. [41] However, during the 2019 playoffs, Laura Branigan's "Gloria" was played first before The Urge song. The Blues, who have never won the Cup, are marginally profitable during the. List of former Blues players set to return to St. Louis before the end of the season . But with former Blues goaltender and nationally renowned broadcaster John Davidson at the point, they turned the worm. (Jeremy Rutherford photo / Post-Dispatch) Jeremy P. Rutherford , Tom . It was loud enough, TV cameras picked up the song loud and clear. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game. However, St. Louis was swept in their first Finals appearance by the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens. On May 21, the Blues advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1970, defeating the San Jose Sharks in a six-game Western Conference Finals series. The broadcasts failed to produce a profit and then returned to KPLR for the 1982 NHL playoffs and the 198283 season before returning to KDNL (currently St. Louis' ABC affiliate) for the 198384 season, the first under the ownership of Harry Ornest. Chris Kerber and Joe Vitale are the current radio broadcast team. October 1, 2019. Coming off their defeat of the Presidents' Trophy winning Canucks, the Kings ousted the Blues in four games. Initially, the front of the jersey featured the team name above the crest logo, but was removed in 1987. Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. These are the top-ten-point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise playoff history. On April 12, the Blues clinched the sixth seed in the West with a 10 win against the Colorado Avalanche. Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. #19 St Louis Blues Team Value 1 $880M Calculated December 2022 Owner (s) Tom Stillman Championships 1 Year Purchased 2012 Price Paid $180M Revenue 2 $180M Operating Income 3 $56M Debt/Value 4. Local ownership group aims to 'put the Blues on solid financial footing.'. From 1967 until 1994, the team played in the St. Louis Arena (known as The Checkerdome from 1977 until 1983), where the old St. Louis Eagles played, and which the original owners had to buy as a condition of the 1967 NHL expansion. "[40] On October 1, 2018, it was reported that, for the upcoming season, a new goal song recorded by St. Louis-based band The Urge, "The Blues Have The Urge," would be played after Blues goals, immediately following the traditional organ music. All that hardware notwithstanding, hopes for a Stanley Cup run turned to stunning disappointment. In 1985, Ornest, wanting more broadcast revenue, put the radio rights up for bid. After hockey resumed in 2005, a few months after GNR's final issue, a new publication, St. Louis Game Time, was formed by several former GNR staffers.[49]. In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse. The St. Louis Blues medical team is a group of Washington University in St. Louis orthopedic specialists from Barnes-Jewish Hospital led by Washington University in St. Louis' Chief of Sports Medicine Matthew Matava.[39]. The Blues announced plans for a navy third jersey featuring a new logo, with the Gateway Arch with the Blue Note superimposed over it inside a circle with the words "St. Louis" above and "Blues" below. The NHL also said that Ralston broke a league rule that an owner had to give two years' notice before dissolving a franchise. Behind the solid goaltending of Brian Elliott and scoring heroics of Andy McDonald, the Blues defeated the Sharks in five games, advancing to the conference semifinals. Team owner puts St. Louis Blues up for sale 5 is #1 Show Me 5 Sally Sally Jessy Raphael at KSDK Today In St. Louis Be the first to know Making a Difference Mike Bush Fantasy Baseball. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- St. Louis Blues minority owner David L. Steward was celebrating on the TD Garden ice with his son after the Blues defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of . During this time, from 1989 to 2000, more games began to be aired on Prime Sports Midwest, the forerunner to today's Bally Sports Midwest. According to Sutter, they wanted to stay in St. Louis because it reminded them of the rural Canadian towns where many of them grew up. The Blues ended the 1990s as the only NHL team to make the playoffs for the entire decade, although a Stanley Cup title still eluded the franchise. Ornest ran the Blues very cheaply, though the players did not mind. On January 4, 2007, the Blues had a record of 613 in their previous ten games, which was the best in the NHL during that stretch. Buck elected to leave the booth after one season, though, and was replaced by another famed announcer in Dan Kelly. [Brian O'Reilly (Ryan's dad)] I want to thank all of St Louis especially Doug Armstrong. David Backes was also announced as the new team captain. The jersey brought back the contrasting shoulder yoke and returned to the lighter blue of previous eras. On June 17, 2005, the Lauries announced that they would sell the team. During the late 1990s, the Blues nurtured a new identity. From 1979 to 1981, the radio and television broadcasts were separated for the first time since the inaugural season, with Kelly doing the radio broadcasts and Eli Gold hired to do the television. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, 4 killed, 4 critically injured in crash at South Grand Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue, Parents push back on allegations against St. Louis transgender center. In 1978-79, the Blues won 18 of 80 games, or just one more than the NFL's 1972 Miami Dophins. Hi I have 4 tickets to the blues game tonight vs the San Jose sharks. Management vowed to build through the draft and implored fans to bank on the future of prospects like T.J. Oshie, David Perron and Patrik Berglund. While there were a number of interested parties, none had enough cash to meet Ralston's asking price. They also requested that the court allow them to give up the team and bar the NHL from interfering with the sale of the team. More often than not, several of the Blues' emerging stars ended up as Calgary Flames, and the sight of Flames executive Al MacNeil was always greeted with dread. The team slipped under .500 the following season and managed just 65 points in 1982-83. In the 1999-2000 season, Quenneville's club won 51 games and collected 114 points, capturing the first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history. Albums. The jersey introduced the short-lived trumpet logo on the shoulders and featured thin diagonal stripes on the tail and sleeves. Especially galling were the frequent blown leads after two periods, and with the worst home record (6133) posted in the entire NHL. For the full season-by-season history, see List of St. Louis Blues seasons, Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against. These are the top-ten point-scorers, goal scorers, and assist leaders in franchise regular-season history. He went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Stars the next year, scoring a controversial goal on the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek to clinch the Cup for Dallas. Incensed, Ralston Purina sued the NHL, padlocked the Checkerdome and abandoned the franchise, leaving a mess for the league to sort out. In 201415, the Blues won their second Central Division championship in four years and faced the Minnesota Wild in round one of the 2015 playoffs. On March 17, 2011, it was announced that the St. Louis Blues were for sale. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. Keenan instituted major changes, including trades that sent away fan favorites Brendan Shanahan and Curtis Joseph, as well as the acquisition of the legendary-but-aging Wayne Gretzky and goaltender Grant Fuhr, both from the declining Los Angeles Kings. The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr., his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. It operated for over 10 years, from 1994 to 2005, when its owner decided not to resume the magazine after the 200405 NHL lockout (one final oversized "goodbye" issue was distributed the first two home games of the 200506 season). In 201213, the Blues completed the lockout-shortened season in fourth place in the Western Conference. However, longtime Ralston Purina chairman R. Hal Dean said that he only intended to keep the Blues as a Ralston subsidiary only temporarily until a more stable owner could be found who would keep the team in St. Louis. John Kelly (son of Dan) and Darren Pang are the current team for television coverage, while Scott Warmann, Alexa Datt, Bernie Federko, and Jamie Rivers present the pre-game and post-game shows. For instance, Ornest asked many players to defer their salaries to help meet operating costs, but the players always got paid in the end. The Blues were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings, in the following round. They captured the Jennings Trophy once more for allowing the fewest goals in the league (165). This ended up being the Blues' last game in the regular season, as the season would be cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic shortly afterwards. When the period of exclusivity expired without a deal, SCP jumped back into the picture. It also replaced red with navy blue as an accent color. Blues Chairman Tom Stillman confirmed . The Blues remain 0-12 in Stanley Cup finals play. Like the other five expansion teams, the Blues' roster consisted primarily of castoffs from the Original Six and players who had previously never managed to break out of the minor leagues. The St. Louis Blues are one of the more successful NHL teams in terms of attendance. Former Blues forward David Perron was brought back on a free agent deal, while defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was named team captain. Nonetheless, their on-ice success was enough for a consortium of 19 companies to buy the team. Their chance of winning the Central Division title, the top seed in the West, and the Presidents' Trophy would all evaporate, after they lost their final six games and wound up in second place in the Division, this time to the Colorado Avalanche. St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman is a former lawyer who worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce where he was Chief Counsel for Export Administration. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. However, they would continue their strong play even despite being plagued with various other injuries, consistently remaining at or near the top of the Western Conference. Country Roads has been played during every Home game since, at approximately the 15:00 minute mark of the 3rd Period, regardless of the current score. Dean retired and his successor, William Stiritz, had no interest in continuing the involvement in hockey. No sooner had the season ended than Demers departed for Detroit. The Blues had remained in strong form throughout the season, finishing first in the Western Conference and second in the NHL. On September 2, 2020, the Blues traded goaltender Jake Allen, who had spent ten years in the Blues organization, to the Montreal Canadiens.[29]. But with Ron Caron as the general manager and Jacques Demers as the coach, with Federko and Sutter as the foundation, the Blues were competitive. Phil Goyette won the Lady Byng Trophy for the Blues in 1970 and New York Rangers castoff Red Berenson became the expansion team's first major star at center. The standard for other teams was 60 players. However, St. Louis ended their first-round losing streak by beating Chicago 32 in game 7 of the series. He purchased the team and its player contracts for $3 million in cash and $9 million in two notes. General manager Ron Caron made astute moves, landing forwards Brett Hull, Adam Oates and Brendan Shanahan, defenseman Al MacInnis and goaltender Curtis Joseph, among others. Checks were back in the Checkerdome. The group becomes the eighth to hold the keys to the franchise since its inception.