Stewart to the Blues: Blockbuster Trade #1

Early this morning, The St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche worked out a deal that surely goes down as the biggest trade to date this year.  Heres how it broke down:

Colorado Receives:
- (F) Jay McClement
- (D) Erik Johnson
- A 2011 or 2012 First round pick

St. Louis Receives:
- (F) Chris Stewart
- (D) Kevin Shattenkirk
- A 2011 or 2012 Second round pick

That's a lot to handle.  Let's take a look into things a little bit further...

Colorado will get either a 2011 or 2012 first round draft pick in addition to their new players.  This portion of the deal swings in Colorado's favor because they only gave St. Louis a 2011 or 2012 second round pick.

The first player that Colorado gets in the deal is forward Jay McClement.

McClement has 6 goals and 10 assists in 56 games.  Not known for scoring, McClement will bring a veteran presence to the team and his power forward play style will surely help the Avs. He will most likely play on their third line.

The second and more prominent player the the Avalanche received was star defenseman Erik Johnson.

Drafted 1st overall in the 2006 draft ahead of Jordan Staal and Jonathan Toews, Johnson has 5 goals and 14 assists in 55 games.  He will bring shutdown defense to Colorado's first line d-pairing.

In exchange for a 1st round pick, McClement and Johnson, the St. Louis Blues will receive a 2nd round pick, defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, and forward Chris Stewart.

Shattenkirk, still considered to be a prospect, has 7 goals and 19 assists in 46 games.  At only 22 years old, he will bring a young offensive presence on the blue line for St. Louis.  Although he's no Erik Johnson, expect him to impress quickly thus gaining the fans respect.

The final player in the 4 player deal is forward Chris Stewart.

Stewart, debatably the best player involved in the trade, has 13 goals and 17 assists in 36 games.  Stewart just recently returned from an injury he sustained on November 27th when he broke his hand in a fight.  Prior to his injury, Stewart had 25 points in 23 games and led his team in goals.  

Overall, this is a fairly even trade that should work out well for both teams.  Statistically, Colorado is the best offensive team in the league so they had offense to give and St. Louis needed offense and had defense to give.  Only time will tell which team was the true winner of this deal, but I for one applaud GM's Greg Sherman and Doug Armstrong for pulling the trigger on this one.

Click here to check out all of the trades to go down.