Chris Mason thought he’d be the St. Louis Blues’ starting netminder for another two to three years.
As it turns out, he’ll be a member of the NHL team for another week.
The Red Deer product was confident he’d resign with the Blues after two seasons with the club, and his agent, Tom Laidlaw, was closing in on a multiple-year contract agreement last week that would keep the 34-year-old free agent in St. Louis.
Suddenly, Blues management swung a deal with the Montreal Canadiens and landed playoff standout goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who is nine years younger than Mason. Mason’s time in St. Louis was effectively over and on July 1, when the veteran stopper is no longer bound to the Blues, Laidlaw will start seeking another fit for his client.
“Technically, I’m still property of the St. Louis Blues. In another week I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on,” Mason said Thursday from his Red Deer residence.
To suggest that the trade for Halak caught Mason off guard would be a major understatement.
“Basically we had a deal right there to be done, and I was planning on hearing last week that it was done,” he said. “Then I got the call last Thursday from (Blues vice-president of player personnel) Doug Armstrong and he just told me they had made a trade for Halak and had decided to go in a different direction. Then he thanked me for everything I had done for the organization.”
The news came as a shock to Mason, who was jubilant when he was traded to the Blues from the Nashville Predators in 2008 and thoroughly enjoyed playing in the Gateway City.
“I was disappointed. I felt loyal to St. Louis and I wanted to be back there. I was planning on being back there,” he said. “Just the way it went down was kind of the part that disappointed me the most.
“Everyone says that’s the business of it, which is a fact, but it still doesn’t stop you from being disappointed. But it’s been a week now since that happened and now I’m kind of getting to see the options out there and potentially the different teams that I could go to. It might be nice to go to a team that is maybe further along in the development stages (than St. Louis).”
Mason, who posted a 2.41 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in his first season with the Blues and recorded numbers of 2.53 and .913 in 2009-10, might draw interest from the Philadelphia Flyers and the San Jose Sharks, who just this week announced that they will part ways with Evgeni Nabokov.
“It’s all speculation at this point. About a week from now we should have a better idea,” said Mason.
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com