T.J. Oshie goal against the Vancouver Canucks

Former Fighting Sioux and current Saint Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie scores his fifth goal of the year against the Vancouver Canucks.

The box score should read T. OSHIE (5) WRIST - ASST: D. BACKES (9) AND D. PERRON (7)...

Blues sign T.J. Oshie to five year deal - avoids arbitration

St. Louis Blue fans can rest easy, now that the Blue have signed "one" of their leading scorers former Fighting Sioux forward T.J. Oshie to a new five year deal. Last season, Oshie tied for the team lead with 54 points.

With the signing, Oshie also avoids having to go to an arbitration hearing that was scheduled for Friday.  According to Andy Strickland, beat writer for the St Louis Blues, Oshie's salary is worth 4.175 a season for five years for 20.875 million dollars. That's a pretty healthy raise for Oshie who had signed a one year deal last summer that paid him $2,350,000.

T.J. Oshie going to arbitration

Former Fighting Sioux forward T.J. Oshie looks like he will be going to salary arbitration this Friday if he is unable to agree to a new contract with the St. Louis Blues. Oshie is coming off a career year (19g-35a-54pts) where he tied for the team lead in points with former Minnesota State University Mankato Maverick David Backes (24g-30a-54pts).

Jeremy Rutherford, stltoday.com --- In a sign that the Blues aren't expecting to reach a contract extension with forward T.J. Oshie before Friday's arbitration case, general manager Doug Armstrong is headed to Toronto on Tuesday three days in advance of the hearing.

"We're going to Toronto to work with our counsel on preparing for the case," Armstrong said Monday.

Oshie was one of 16 restricted free agents who filed for salary arbitration July 5, but since then seven players, including the Blues' David Perron, have re-signed extensions with their current club.

The Blues and Oshie's agent, Matt Oates, could still reach a resolution before Friday's hearing, but are now down to just three days of potential negotiations before an arbitrator hears the case.

In a text message to the Post-Dispatch on Monday, Oates indicated that he was gearing up for Friday's hearing but added that he was "open and looking to continue talking."

With the Wild picking up Ryan Suter and Zach Parise - some fans have suggest to me that the Minnesota Wild should go after T.J. Oshie and try to sign him to a contract.

While I do think that Oshie would look really good in a Wild uniform, I don't know if the Wild could afford to lose a bunch of draft picks if they signed Oshie to an offer sheet. It would be counter productive - based on how good the Wild have drafted lately. The Wild are also up against the cap with the signings of Parise and Suter. I also don't see the Blues wanting to lose Oshie, who is one of the faces of their organization.