The St. Louis Blues and their leading goal and point scorer, Alex Steen, have agreed on a 3-year contract extension worth $17.4 million. The cap hit on the deal will be $5.8 million per year. Steen’s current contract has a cap hit of $3.362 million. Elliot Friedman of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada (@FriedgeHNIC) is reporting that the deal includes a no-trade clause.
The 29-year old Steen is in the midst of a career season, and was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in July. In 33 games he has 22 goals, 14 assists, and 36 points for the Blues. Since being placed on a line with David Backes and T.J. Oshie, his offence has exploded. Only Alex Ovechkin (28) has scored more goals than Steen this season.
Bringing more than just offence though, Steen is a reliable defensive winger as well. It is this strong two-way game that has always made Steen a valuable contributor in St. Louis as he has never scored at the rate he is now. Steen only has two other 20 goal seasons in his career and his career high of 24 goals was achieved in the 2009-10 season.
Originally drafted in the first round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft (24th Overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Steen was acquired by the Blues in a deal that also sent Carlo Coliacovo to St. Louis, while Lee Stempniak went to Toronto.
Steen is the son of former Winnipeg Jet Thomas Steen. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba but represents Sweden internationally and is likely to be a member of the Swedish Olympic Team in Sochi 2014.
In his 9-year NHL career Steen has 145 goals, 194 assists, and 339 points in 570 career games.
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