Blues place Porter on waivers

[stlbluesfan4ever]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/morning-skate/blues-place-porter-on-waivers/article_66c5d338-c791-5f75-acfa-0c1af9a4dfb0.html

 

The Blues made a move to get down to the NHL maximum 23 players Saturday, placing forward Chris Porter on waivers.

Teams now have 24 hours to put in a claim for Porter. If he's not picked up, the left winger will be assigned to the Chicago Wolves, the Blues' American Hockey League affiliate.

The move would make the Blues compliant with the league's roster limitations by Monday's deadline.

Porter, who has 10 goals and 24 points in 127 games with the Blues, was part of the productive "CPR" line last season. Prior to that, since his signing as a free agent in 2007, he's been a hard-working, dependable and versatile forward for the club. 

But the offseason signing of Maxim Lapierre and the recent addition of Brenden Morrow created a log-jam at forward, and with Morrow, particularly on left wing.

“From a players’ standpoint, it’s frustrating," Porter said this week. "It’s a little discouraging, but at the same time I understand that they’re veteran guys and they’ve played at the highest level. You understand what they’re doing, but at the same time, you feel like you’ve done enough to show that you belong here.”

The final cut needed to be a forward, as 15 remained on the roster and the Blues were set to carry 14. 

After adding Morrow, the club had 13 forwards with one-way contracts and two more — Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko — who have two-way contracts but are locks to make the opening-night roster.

Also, the Blues had as many as six players who play left wing: Alexander Steen, Brenden Morrow, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Sobotka, Magnus Paajarvi and Porter.

Porter and Adam Cracknell can play either side on wing and center. But based on Saturday's move, it's apparent that the club views Porter's best position is left wing and that Cracknell has the edge at center and right wing.

So with the team needing to clear one player from the roster, Porter became the odd-man out.

Any team in the Blues' position, after reaching its final decision, would have tried to make a trade, so it's assumed that general manager Doug Armstrong panned the league for a taker. Without one, the only option was to place Porter on waivers.

Waivers are nothing new to Porter. A nine-round pick by Chicago in 2003, he signed with the Blues as a free-agent in 2007. Over the last seven years, he has signed four two-way agreements with the Blues, meaning he was paid a minor-league salary when assigned to Peoria. In that span, he was sent to the minors 10 times.

But it appeared that Porter had finally caught on in the NHL, after inking his first-ever one-way, NHL contract last April — a two-year, $1.35 million deal. 

"It's rewarding for sure," Porter said at the time. "Nothing has ever come easy for a lot of guys. My situation, getting sent down, never looked at it as a bad thing. I went down, worked extremely hard to get back here, and to be rewarded with a contract, I'm extremely excited."

But six months later, the excitement has turned to disappointment.

 

[hf101]

The late signing of Morrow has to be disappointing to a player like Porter, he is a player the Blues surely could lose.

[hf101]

@stlbluesfan4ever

 

@Real_ESPNLeBrun 

Blues' Porter cleared waivers. Thought a team might like him. But he cleared.

[stlbluesfan4ever]

I'm glad Porter cleared, but I'm not as confident if he needs to clear waivers again, but, I doubt that we wouldn't bring him back at some point this season, so the chance probably will come up again. we really need to be careful not to lose a great depth player for nothing. like I said Like Morrow and all, but I'm not willing to start losing pieces for the future just to have a good players for a few seasons, or at least only one season unless we get him to resign, which I fear that players like Roy and Morrow might have big seasons here and raise their stock and then go somewhere else for the big bucks and we will be left with little or nothing because we screwed around with our younger players while trying to keep the new Vets in the lineup for this season.

[bunnyman]

I missed the Cracknell and Porter line last night. But Morrow was looking pretty darned good last night...

[jammer2]

@stlbluesfan4ever  At least he does not have to clear waivers to be brought up like it was in the past, that should be quite helpful.