Both deals seemed a bit extravagant in terms of the dollars, although the Huet deal raised the most eyebrows because Chicago is still on the hook for nearly $7 million this season to goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. But Khabibulin is on the last year of his contract, so he'll be motivated and pushing Huet, while probably making himself a valuable trade commodity around the deadline. Grade: A
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Columbus Blue Jackets
The Jackets are the only one of the NHL's 30 teams to never make the playoffs, and second-year GM Scott Howson has moved aggressively this summer in an attempt to get rid of that dubious distinction. He started at the draft when used the sixth overall pick on a talented young Russian named Nikita Filatov, a player many teams were thought to be shying away from because there is no transfer agreement between his national federation and the NHL.
Columbus signed him though, and then continued the roster makeover with a series of free agents signings and trades. The upshot is that the Blue Jackets are a deeper and more balanced them, one that has strengthened its blue line by adding Mike Commodore, Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman, added scoring power and skill with Kristian Huselius and R.J. Umberger and toughened up front with heavy hitting Raffi Torres. And as a final touch, Columbus extended the contract of coach Ken Hitchcock for three years. Grade: B+
St. Louis Blues
The most interesting thing about the Blues this summer has been the tit-for-tat wars they've been engaged in with the Vancouver Canucks. It began when the Canucks made an offer sheet to restricted free agent David Backes that the Blues immediately matched, and continued when St. Louis returned the favor by trying the same method to poach Steve Bernier. That didn't work either.
Otherwise the Blues have flown so far under the radar, you might think the organization has taken a few months off. They did trade for goalie Chris Mason, who will likely play a backup role, and they drafted highly-rated defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who could actually crack the lineup this season. But for the most part, the St. Louis brain trust has been preaching patience, which is a good thing because fans will need a lot of it this season watching this team play. Grade: D
