The Blues have obviously given up hope in signing the top defenseman UFA this summer, Ryan Suter. Why do I say that? First the tire kicking of Jason Garrison, now the possibility of a trade for Calgary defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Calgary fans would be fine with ditching their much maligned and extremely well-paid (he has two years left for $6.6 million a year) defenseman. St. Louis has been very forward with saying that they would like to add a top four guy, and JayBo can score. He had five goals and 24 assists last season, but his +/- was a God awful -21. As a matter of fact, he's a career -54.

If the Blues will be letting Carlo Colaiacovo walk, and why else would they need a top-four guy unless that's happening, they might want to replace him with someone who has a +/- that's not worse than -50. He was a +23 with the Panthers in 2006-2007, but that seems to be a little bit of an outlier.

To give perspective on available defenseman who will be UFA as of this Sunday, CapGeek.com has a good list. There seem to be quite a few more capable ones than Bouwmeester.