Ralston then filed a $60 million anti-trust lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming that the NHL broke federal antitrust laws and breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing by voting to reject the sale and transfer of the Blues to Hunter's group. 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. 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. Most NHL teams during the mid-1980s had over 60 players under contract. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . Angry at having to play "second fiddle", the Blues elected to leave for KTRS in 2000. 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. 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. Following the disappointing 200506 season, which saw the Blues with the worst record in the NHL, the new management focused on rebuilding the franchise. 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. The arrangement made the Blues the only major sports team in North America to be owned by a private equity firm. Off the ice, the cash-poor Checketts operated with an Ornest-like budget; on the ice the team continued to stockpile picks and promise. The team finished last in the division and disbanded after one season. [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. In 57.4% of St. Louis' previous games this season (35/61), the teams combined to score over Saturday's over/under of 6.5 goals. C Dave Checketts D John Danforth L Bill Laurie O Harry Ornest S SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC On June 17, 2005, the Lauries announced that they would sell the team. [Brian O'Reilly (Ryan's dad)] I want to thank all of St Louis especially Doug Armstrong. Jeremy Rutherford is the lead Blues beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Coming off their defeat of the Presidents' Trophy winning Canucks, the Kings ousted the Blues in four games. While the Blues remained competitive, they were unable to keep many of their young players. 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. On February 9, 2019, another tradition was born. Finally, in March 2006, the Lauries completed the sale of the team and the Savvis Center lease to SCP and a private equity firm, TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P. 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. 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. [5] Upon acquiring the franchise in 1966, Salomon then spent several million dollars on extensive renovations for the 38-year-old arena, expanding it from 12,000 seats to 15,000. Payne was previously the head coach of the Blues top minor league affiliate, the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League (AHL).[16]. Looking at losses of more than $10 million over six seasons, the pet food giant put the Blues up for sale and in January 1983, announced it had a buyer in Saskatoon-based Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd. Batoni's president, Bill Hunter, said his group was ready to break ground on a $43 million building, which could be ready for the Saskatoon Blues in time for the 1983-84 season. The remaining staff included the accounting department, scouting staff, and coach Barclay Plager. Despite defeating the Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Winter Classic by the score of 41, the Blues fired Hitchcock and promoted Yeo to head coach on February 1, 2017. New Blues ownership group Tom Stillman, chairman and CEO of Summit Distributing Donn Lux, Luxco chairman and CEO Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation Steve. Early in the morning of trade deadline day, the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings agreed to a deal. The slump haunted them, as they blew a 20 series lead to the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, losing the first-round series in six games. That included Federko, Gassoff, Hull, MacInnis, Bob and Barclay Plager, Pronger and Sutter, along with Kelly, the Blues' legendary broadcaster. Seriously underwater., Arch Madness: 2023 MVC Basketball Tournament bracket, schedule, game times, TV info, Centene expects to lose millions of Medicaid customers beginning in April, St. Louis man charged in quadruple fatal crash; police say he ran off with his license plate, Neman: Missouri womans saga of trying to find common sense at Walmart, I can still hear the roaring of the engine, says father of teen maimed in downtown St. Louis. St. Louis Blues. They also had strong goaltending led by Mike Liut. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game. 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. After each Home win, the entire St Louis Blues team skates to center ice and in unison, raise their sticks and clap while the goal horn blares, to thank the Blues fans in attendance and watching on TV. Things got worse after Keenan orchestrated a bold trade to acquire Wayne Gretzky late in the 1995-96 season. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. "We've given them the extreme honor, so it's. St. Louis Blues: Directed by Raoul Walsh. The long-term partnership between KMOX and the Blues had its problems, however, namely during spring when the ever-popular St. Louis Cardinals began their season. 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. And within two years, Hull also was gone, left unsigned to continue a Hall of Fame career with Stanley Cup championships in Dallas and Detroit. A third-round loss to Colorado in 2000-01 was especially deflating. He had 70 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, including 1990-91 when he scored 86 and the team finished with 105 points. [12] To date, this is the closest that an NHL team has come to folding since the Cleveland Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars after the 197778 season. [1] Other players like Patrik Berglund, and Alex Steen did not return in time for the season. [13] After that season, Ornest sold the team to a group led by St. Louis businessman Michael Shanahan. They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. 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. [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. This list may not reflect recent changes . The Blues lost more players as Jay Bouwmeester suffered a season-ending injury, and Jaden Schwartz missed a large portion of the season. In hopes of saving the franchise, Francis persuaded St. Louis-based pet food giant Ralston Purina to buy the team, arena, and the $8.8 million debt. 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. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Buck elected to leave the booth after one season, though, and was replaced by another famed announcer in Dan Kelly. The team did not even participate in the 1983 NHL draft, forfeiting all of its picks. 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 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. After an ice plant was installed, the minor league St. Louis Flyers began play there in 1929. 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. Since 1990, Ron Baechle, also known as the "Towel Man" or "Towel Guy," has celebrated each goal by counting with the bell and throwing a towel into the crowd from section 314. At the beginning of the 200607 season, the Blues looked to be competitive in the Central Division. [7] Emile Francis would call it quits on May 2, leaving for the Hartford Whalers to become president and general manager. QR Code Link to This Post. He made his debut two days later, wearing number 55 against the Phoenix Coyotes. [41], At the end of the national anthem before every home game, the words "the home of the brave" are drowned out by fans with "the home of the Blues. Checketts and his group had some serious damage control to perform. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. October 1, 2019. This led to a Norris Division semi-finals exit against the Chicago Black Hawks. Ralston Purina lost an estimated $1.8 million a year during its six-year ownership of the Blues. However, they never made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. Two-year process yields the most desirable outcome in terms of the city's best interest. Sid Salomon III convinced his initially wary father to make a bid for the team. While the disappointment of that series loss is still fresh, hope springs eternal with the announcement that a new ownership group is in place. St Louis Blues Players. An NHL lockout canceled the 2004-05 season and the Lauries put the team up for sale in June 2005, citing losses of more than $60 million over the previous two 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. However, injuries plagued the team all season, and the lack of a bona fide scorer hampered them as well. 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. On September 29, 2005, it was announced that the Lauries had signed an agreement to sell the Blues to SCP Worldwide, a consulting and investment group headed by former Madison Square Garden president Dave Checketts. Following the 198081 season, the television broadcasts moved from KDNL to NBC affiliate KSD-TV for the 198182 season, produced by Sports Network Incorporated (SNI), owned and operated by Greg Maracek who did the broadcasts with Channel 5 sportscaster Ron Jacober. 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. A look at the ownership lineage: Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. The Blues play in the 19,150 (not counting standing room) capacity Enterprise Center, where they have played since 1994. He intended to build a $43 million 18,000-seat arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in time for the 1983-84 season. However, the NHL Board of Governors rejected the deal by a 153 vote on May 18, feeling that Saskatoon was not big enough or financially stable enough to support an NHL team.[8][9]. There is a lot of money riding on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals for St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman. During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. It has been called the "Fan Salute" by some. You have permission to edit this article. Center David Backes has been named a finalist for the Frank Selke Trophy as the league's top two-way player. On September 2, 2020, the Blues traded goaltender Jake Allen, who had spent ten years in the Blues organization, to the Montreal Canadiens.[29]. St. Louis has a record of 2-3 in games when bookmakers list them +180 or longer on the moneyline. In response, the Blues moved back to KMOX starting in the 200607 season. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. The Blues averaged more than 41 wins but could not get though the conference playoffs. [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. After being one of the worst teams a couple of years before, they were one of the best in 1981, as they finished with a then-franchise-best record of 451817 record which translated to 107 points and the second-best record in the league. On May 29, the Blues won a Stanley Cup Finals series game for the first time in franchise history after getting swept in three previous series (19681970), when they defeated the Boston Bruins 32 in overtime. The Stanley Cup playoff format changed in such a way that a Western team was no longer guaranteed a Finals berth, and also the Chicago Black Hawks were moved into the Western Division following the 1970 expansion. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. The 2016 offseason saw big changes for the Blues, as team captain David Backes left the team to sign with the Boston Bruins, and goaltender Brian Elliott was traded to the Calgary Flames, while veteran forward Troy Brouwer also signed with Calgary as a free agent. On December 11, 2006, the Blues fired head coach Mike Kitchen and replaced him with former Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray. [45], The Blues were one of the last teams to add a goal horn, doing so during the 199293 season at the St. Louis Arena. Defensively, however, the Blues were less than stellar and saw Chicago and the Philadelphia Flyers overtake the Division. Ten players reached at least 20 goals, including Wayne Babych, future Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, and team captain Brian Sutter. Hull, who had a lengthy feud with Keenan, left for the Dallas Stars in 1998. [30] In 201011, the team sold out every home game. He returned to California with $3.4 million in profit on the sale of the Blues and $8.2 million in profit on the sale of the Arena. 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. During the offseason, forward T. J. Oshie was traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Troy Brouwer. The season of 200809 saw the Blues play their last game on KPLR, which had the rights since the 198687 season (except for the 199697 season on CBS affiliate KMOV), electing to move all their games to FS Midwest, starting with the 200910 season. 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. The next few seasons became like a broken record. However, St. Louis was swept in their first Finals appearance by the heavily favored Montreal Canadiens. The son of legendary Bobby Hull, the "Golden Brett" became the face of the franchise, with his magical name and sublime scoring touch. 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. But things began to turn around as Francis drafted players like Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter, Wayne Babych and Perry Turnbull. Sutter and Federko were the only untouchables on the Blues during that era. Last chance! The Blues took on the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in the first-round series. Soon after, Ornest sold the Blues to a group led by Michael Shanahan, head of Engineered Support Systems Inc. Dean was the key figure in Ralston Purina's takeover of the St. Louis Blues after the 1976-77 season. Former St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial and Musial's business partner Julius "Biggie" Garagnani were also members of the 16-man investment group that made the initial formal application for the franchise. 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. 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". st louis blues traditions. I really respect the fact that he puts the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few. Especially galling were the frequent blown leads after two periods, and with the worst home record (6133) posted in the entire NHL. 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]. The elder Salomon was not enthralled with the idea of owning a hockey team initially, but his son persuaded him to take the plunge. 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. In each of its first three seasons, the team advanced through the expansion side of the NHL playoff bracket to the Stanley Cup finals. Louie is the mascot of the St. Louis Blues. Overview. When the period of exclusivity expired without a deal, SCP jumped back into the picture. Under new management, the Blues promptly installed John Davidson as president of hockey operations, moving Pleau to a mostly advisory role. [48] The longest-running fan publication, Game Night Revue, was created by a group of fans in the mold of the Chicago Blackhawks' Blue Line Magazine. She runs into the skipper of a showboat who befriends her, and they make plans to put together a musical revue. After losing Vladimir Tarasenko to injury during the game, the Blues lost to the Avalanche 52 as they missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years. The Blues joined the league in 1967, one of six expansion teams that doubled the size of the NHL from six to 12. The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. 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.