Tuesday, Jul. 07, 2009

Blues ink Crombeen to pact; goalie Toivonen re-signs with club

One signing was expected Monday, but another may have caught a few St. Louis Blues fans by surprise.

Restricted free agent winger B.J. Crombeen signed a two-year contract extension worth $1.745 million, while the team also re-signed goalie Hannu Toivonen.

The 25-year-old son of former Blues forward Mike Crombeen was picked up on waivers from Dallas and became a regular on the team's checking line.

He had 11 goals and 17 points in 66 games with the Blues, along with 122 penalty minutes.

Crombeen's offense came in bunches. He had eight of his 11 goals last season during his first 16 games in St. Louis, then netted only three more in the second half of the season.

He became the first Blues rookie to net game-winning goals in back-to-back games Dec. 6-8, also netting his first NHL hat trick Dec. 8 against Nashville.

"I think he's got hockey sense and he's got a good shot, so that certainly helps," Blues President John Davidson said of Crombeen, who will make $860,000 in 2009-10 and $885,000 the following season. "He's played hard for us. It gives him a little security and a good chance to show us that he can do it consistently. We think he can."

Davidson said he likes Crombeen's size (6-2, 212 pounds) and ability to play with an edge to his game.

"He's got to be part of our belligerent attitude on the ice, which is important," Davidson said.

Crombeen displayed that attitude in his Blues debut Nov. 21, dropping the gloves to fight Anaheim's Travis Moen just three seconds into the game.

"He was just trying to prove a point that he was here as a Blue and wanted to play so hard," Davidson said.

Toivonen, 25, was the 29th overall pick in the 2002 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins. His first season with the Blues (2007-08) started well before things imploded down the stretch. He was 6-10-5 for the Blues with an .878 save percentage and 3.44 goals-against average.

Toivonen was 19-23-9 last season for Tampere, a pro team in Finland, with three shutouts, a 2.68 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.

His two-way contract includes $600,000 at the NHL level and $105,000 in the minors. Toivonen will start the season in Peoria, sharing time with Ben Bishop.

Chris Holt, who spent most of last season in Peoria, remains in the mix as well with Chris Mason and newcomer Ty Conklin the top two in St. Louis.

"He called us and wants to come back and give it a shot," Davidson said of Toivonen. "He had a good year last year in Europe and it's a positive. He's gotten a little more mature; he's married now and he knows he's going to have to go to Peoria.

"He's got a lot of upside, so we'll see what he does."

Toivonen's departure from St. Louis wasn't pretty. While he won his final start on April 6 against Colorado, it was his first win in 14 appearances since a previous victory on Dec. 7.

Toivonen won five of his first eight decisions that year, but never recovered from an eight-goal explosion by Colorado on Dec. 9. He allowed eight goals on 25 shots, then allowed less than three goals only twice more the rest of the way.

"At one time he was a pretty good goalkeeper," Davidson said. "He lost some confidence, but I think he's ready to take that next step."

While Davidson had nothing new to report on negotiations with restricted free agent defenseman Roman Polak, he sees no immediate problems on the horizon.

"We've had some positive discussion, it's just going to take time to find out what the right answer is," Davidson said. We're confident it will get done. This isn't something that has to be done by a certain date around the corner."

Blues regulars Erik Johnson and T.J. Oshie are among 41 players scheduled to attend the team's pro orientation camp that begins Wednesday at St. Louis Mills.

Recent draft picks Brett Ponich, Tyler Shattock and Max Tardy are also expected to participate along with Alex Pietrangelo, Brett Sonne and Ian Cole.

Contact reporter Norm Sanders at nsanders@bnd.com or 239-2454.