Saturday, July 11, 2009
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Jay McKee didn't get angry or disillusioned when the St. Louis Blues decided last month to buy out the final year of his contract. He put his energy into homework.
"When free agency was starting, I went over pretty much every team," McKee said yesterday.
Dave Sandford/Getty Images
The Penguins signed former Blues defenseman Jay McKee to a one-year deal worth $800,000 yesterday.
He saw that Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill -- defensive defensemen, like him -- became free agents and then left the Penguins to sign elsewhere.
"I watched how that developed. Pittsburgh was at the top of my list," McKee said.
Penguins general manager Ray Shero had a list of his own, and signing McKee yesterday to a one-year, $800,000 contract allowed him to finish checking off just about all his items.
"We'll always keep our ears open, but the first 10 days of July we were able to do most of what we wanted to do," Shero said of retaining 12 forwards from the Stanley Cup championship roster by getting wingers Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko to re-sign for below market value, signing forwards Mike Rupp and Chris Conner and adding McKee.
With Alex Goligoski expected to step into a regular role on defense to help offset the loss of the two free-agent defensemen, securing a backup goaltender -- possibly restricted free agent John Curry -- would complete the roster.
Shero said McKee, 31, brings "character, experience, physical play. He went to the [Stanley Cup] final with Buffalo in '95."
"With Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill leaving, we were looking for a certain role to fill," Shero added. "I think getting back in the East will be good for him. I think his best years were in Buffalo."
McKee, 6 feet 4 and 203 pounds, was a first-round draft pick by the Sabres in 1995. In 740 NHL games, he has 20 goals, 115 points, 568 penalty minutes and a plus-minus rating of plus-49. He was seventh in the NHL last season with 185 blocked shots.
"Probably my best attribute would be my positional play," he said.
He signed a four-year, $16 million free-agent contract with the Blues in 2006, only to go through a series of injuries his first season. A knee injury, a broken hand, a lower-body problem and a hip injury limited him to 23 games.
"That season was a tough year, a total write-off," McKee said, but he discounts the notion that he is injury-prone. He missed a combined 21 games over the past two seasons, much to injuries related to blocking shots.
Shero isn't worried.
"It was when he first got there that it really hit," Shero said. "We're comfortable with him."
This summer, the Blues found themselves with a glut of defensemen, including former first-overall draft pick Erik Johnson, who missed last season after knee surgery, and Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis' first-round selection last year.
By buying out the final year of McKee's contract, St. Louis has to pay about $2.67 million, two-thirds of that year's salary, which will be split over the next two years for salary cap purposes.
"They were very professional from day one," McKee said of general manager Larry Pleau and team president John Davidson. "They let me know it was nothing more than a financial decision and about player development."
Shero said with limited space under the salary cap, it worked in the Penguins' favor that McKee was able to accept a contract for less money than he might have if he weren't getting buyout payments.
"You try to take advantage of that," Shero said.
McKee knows a couple of Penguins employees. He and assistant coach Mike Yeo were teammates two years with Sudbury in junior hockey. He and Guerin signed with the Blues the same day three years ago.
Even though Guerin moved on late that season, he left an impression on McKee, just as he did with the Penguins after joining them at the March trade deadline.
"He's an absolute treat," McKee said.
Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.
First published on July 11, 2009 at 12:00 am
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