Blues Goaltending Situation

Going into the rest of the season and into the future afterward, the Blues have some decisions to make regarding their goal-tending situation.

Currently, they have Chris Mason as starter and Ty Conklin as backup.

So far this season, Mason has been average up until this point, compared to his amazing performance last season, ultimately helping the Blues make the playoffs.

Conklin has performed exactly how we thought with a .500 record and has turned out to be a good acquisition for the Blues Organization.

With Chris Mason's contract expiring, the Blues are going to be forced to either resign him to possibly more money or let him walk when free agency hits.

Rumors say that he could receive a 4 year 20 million dollar deal from the Blues if they opt to resign him.

In my opinion, it is too big of a risk resigning a goaltender that is 33 for 4 more years and banking on his success during that time frame.

There are several up and coming younger goalies around the league (Josh Harding, Peka Rinne, Jaroslav Halak) that are becoming restricted free agents and or unrestricted free agents. The Blues could look into signing one of these guys rather than sign an older goalie.

They could also opt to bring up either Jake Allen (who made a great appearance as Team Canada's starting goalie in the World Junior Tournament) or Ben Bishop (who saw some play for the Blues last season).

There are many options for the Blues to consider and ponder as the days pass.

I think they should evaluate Mason's play at the end of the season. If he posts another quality record like he did last season, then they should try and resign him for 1-2 years at no more than $4 mil. per year. They should be cost conscious going forward.

Now, if Mason is requesting more than $4mil. per year, then we should consider going the free agent route or trade route because they need to conserve money for other areas going forward and round out their goaltending with a younger guy for a number of years.

Let's Go Blues!