After being left for dead by fans in the early part of the season, Jay Bouwmeester has experienced a career revival in the second half and will be a key part of the St. Louis Blues playoff hopes. Today he was rewarded for that rebound season with a one-year extension worth $3.25MM taking him through the 2019-20 season.
Bouwmeester was set to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent this summer, but will now be back in St. Louis under an age-35+ contract. The left-handed defenseman will turn 36 in September, but was still able to suit up for 78 games this season and record 17 points. Once a premier minute-munching two-way defenseman, Bouwmeester has watched his ice time decline in recent seasons. Still, he finished the year averaging nearly 21 a night on a blue line that is relatively right-heavy. Colton Parayko and Alex Pietrangelo were the only two who logged more minutes at even strength.
He’ll be asked to do much of the same in the playoffs, where he actually doesn’t have a ton of experience. Though Bouwmeester has suited up 1,184 times in the regular season, he has just 49 playoff games under his belt, all of them coming since joining St. Louis in 2013. He has never scored a playoff goal and has just six point in those 49 postseason contests, a number that he’ll try to increase this time around.
The Blues have two other veteran defensemen coming off the books this season as Michael Del Zotto and Carl Gunnarsson approach free agency, meaning they’ll still have room for some younger players to take bigger roles. Bouwmeester is taking quite a pay cut to stay with the team—he carried a $5.4MM cap hit this season—meaning he very well could be fine with a reduced role as well. All of that will be decided in a few weeks though, as all the focus is now on the Winnipeg Jets and the first round of the postseason.
What a weird time to sign an extension. See how he does in the playoffs first!
OOOPS!!! Too late! Gotta pay him now! This was *only* his second-worst plus/minus year of his career, so he “deserves” a little somethin’-somethin’… More incentive to be a plus 3 or 4 next year…
That’s an alright deal to keep a leader on the team but I think this makes the Chara extension look a little nicer.
Plus minus is a garbage stat
@pawtucket, on the off chance that he performs really well in the playoffs his price might jump even higher so its not a bad move to do it now since there was obviously mutual interest in staying in St. Louis.
On a one year deal this isn’t bad for St. Louis. If Bouwmeester is injured or doesn’t play well next season, there’s no future obligations to him. With two other dmen set to hit free agency, this at least addresses that potential hole even if its only temporary. Its unlikely that the Blues would’ve been able to find a significantly better option in free agency at a lower cap hit. And as of right now, he has the trust of the coaching staff which makes him a more viable option than say a cheap depth dman.
^ Good point JT19 – maybe you are right. I doubt they would go much higher with a good playoff – but he may have decided to test free-agency if they waited till the off season. One year isn’t bad I suppose – even if he gets 17min a night on the bottom pair it’s decent.