Blues Sign Nikita Nikitin To One Year Deal

Oh, good. Another season of making pointless "Little Nicky" jokes.

Ok, I know that I said that re-signing Matt D'Agostini should probably be the next RFA signing that the Blues cover, but this one's pretty ok too. Nikita Nikitin was one of the many (many) emergency defensive call-ups that the Blues had to rely on last season as their defensive corps were dropping like flies. Most got sent back to Peoria, but Nikitin hung around. He looked like a shaky AHL call-up initially, and then he got stronger. And stronger. And then finished out the season with the team on the third defensive pairing with either Roman Polak or Carlo Colaiacovo.

He only played 41 games (I say only - heck, that's half of the season!) with the team, netting a goal and eight assists. The Blues want to see him grow while at the same time voicing some confidence in him, so they announced today that they were re-signing him for one season in a one-way deal that'll see him get $600,000 (CapGeek says $800,000 - trying to figure out what's right).

The Blues've got themselves a solid defensive corps for next year. If they can all stay concussion/injury free. Is that so much to ask?