Jay Bouwmeester, whose time with the Blues, and maybe in the NHL, seemed headed to an unceremonious end at one point this season, completed his turnaround by signing a one-year, $3.25 million extension with the team on Monday.
"I'm happy," Bouwmeester said. "I like it here. I've never shied away from that. It's a good place for your family, we've got a good team. I'm lucky and I'm happy, I guess."
Bouwmeester was to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and his play in the second half of the season, where he has teamed with Colton Parayko on the team's shutdown defensive pairing, was likely to bring him offers from other teams.
It was a tough start to the season for Bouwmeester, who had offseason hip surgery and was slow in getting back to speed. On Oct. 20 in Toronto, he was a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career, and he was scratched three more times in early November. But when his hip got back to normal, the quick-skating Bouwmeester was back to his old self.
"There was a point ... coming into this year, I didn't know how it was going to go or how I was going to feel," Bouwmeester said. "So I just approached this year like I'll probably approach next year, if it goes well, I'd like to keep playing and play as long as you can. The situation hasn't changed but I know with my age and the way things are now that's how it goes and if you can still play, you try to play."
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said talks with Bouwmeester said that one Bouwmeester confirmed that he wanted to play next season, talks began, with Armstrong setting a deadline of before the start of the playoffs for getting them done. He said the agreement was reached on Sunday morning.
"He was a player that we believed could help us next season," Armstrong said. "We do have younger players that we want to get into our lineup. If he left as an unrestricted free agent, we'd have to find an unrestricted free agent to replace him, and so we just felt he's been a good player for us, we've had success with him, not the ultimate success which we are chasing, but a player that we just believed in."
Bouwmeester could have waited to see what he could get on the free agent market, but he decided to stay with a known in St. Louis. Bouwmeester turns 36 in September and thought there may not be much demand.
"Not for a 36-year-old defenseman," he said. "I'm happy here, you're familiar with everything, there's always a risk if you go somewhere else, you don't know, well, you don't know anything. Beyond the hockey this place has been really good for family and I've got three kids now. I'm settled and don't really want to disrupt that.
"I've played in different markets. I started in Florida, where interest is what it is. Played in Canada where it's kind of over the top and I've play here and I really enjoy it here because it's a good sports town and you have passionate fans and people support the team but you can live your life outside the rink and it's a nice place to live. On top of all that, you look around at teams and hypotheticals and I think we have a pretty strong team and we should have a very similar group next year. There's a lot of good young players with another year under their belt. We obviously have a lot ahead of us right now but just looking to the future, it's pretty bright here."
The signing means that the Blues have six defensemen under their control for next season, with Carl Gunnarsson, who has missed much of this season to injuries, and trade deadline acquisition Michael Del Zotto both to become unrestricted free agents. Joel Edmundson is a restricted free agent who the Blues are expected to sign to a multi-year contract after the season.
Armstrong said there would be no more contract signings before the season ends. In addition to Gunnarsson and Del Zotto, Pat Maroon will be an unrestricted free agent.
Bouwmeester signed a five-year, $27 million contract with the Blues in August of 2013 and his cap hit of $5.4 million made him this season the third-highest paid defenseman on the team, behind Alex Pietrangelo and Parayko.
Bouwmeester had three goals and 14 assists this season and was a minus-3. He was as low as a minus-16 on Dec. 11 before his and the team's turnaround began.
