list of st louis blues owners

Following their playoff exit, Ralston authorized the deal to Hunter's renamed company Coliseum Holdings, Ltd. for $12 million on April 21. St. Louis Blues tends to be a variation on jump blues or piano blues, featuring solo singers or a pianist performing with small combos or large bands. [13] Despite operating on a shoestring, the Blues remained competitive even though they never finished more than six games over .500 in Ornest's three years as owner. Looking at losses of more than $10 million over six seasons, the pet food giant put the Blues up for sale and in January 1983, announced it had a buyer in Saskatoon-based Batoni-Hunter Enterprises, Ltd. Batoni's president, Bill Hunter, said his group was ready to break ground on a $43 million building, which could be ready for the Saskatoon Blues in time for the 1983-84 season. Louis Post-Dispatch, R. Hal Dean, chief executive officer and board chairman of the Ralston Purina Co., gestures as he delivers his state of the company addressSept. 30, 1971, at the annual checker day rally. In hopes of saving the franchise, Francis persuaded St. Louis-based pet food giant Ralston Purina to buy the team, arena, and the $8.8 million debt. MLS in July 2020 pushed the expansion schedule back by a year for both St. Louis and the Charlotte, North Carolina, team that began play last year, saying the Covid-19 pandemic had led to delays . On October 10, the Blues introduced a new mascot, Louie. [34] A corresponding vintage white version was unveiled for the 2022 NHL Winter Classic. The following season, 201314, the team hit the 100-point mark for the sixth time in franchise history, and gained a franchise record of 52 wins. In 1986, the team reached the Campbell Conference finals and produced one of its signature moments, a "Monday Night Miracle" comeback victory in Game 6. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ruth and Harry Ornest, holding court during their reign with the St. Louis Blues, on July 12, 1985. On December 27, 2005, it was announced that the Blues had signed a letter of intent to exclusively negotiate with General Sports and Entertainment, LLC. Despite years of mediocrity and the stigma of never being able to "take the next step," the Blues were a playoff presence every year from 1980 to 2004 the third-longest streak in North American professional sports history (all three of which being held by NHL teams). From 1967 until 1994, the team played in the St. Louis Arena (known as The Checkerdome from 1977 until 1983), where the old St. Louis Eagles played, and which the original owners had to buy as a condition of the 1967 NHL expansion. That was the highlight of the Ornest years; the bottom fell out soon after. The Berenson trade did bring then-Detroit Red Wings star center Garry Unger, who ultimately scored 30 goals in eight consecutive seasons while breaking the NHL's consecutive games played record. During this time, from 1989 to 2000, more games began to be aired on Prime Sports Midwest, the forerunner to today's Bally Sports Midwest. They would get rewarded as head coach Red Berenson won the Jack Adams Award, Mike Liut finished a close second to Wayne Gretzky in the Hart Trophy voting, and earned the top spot on the NHL All-Star team, Larry Patey finished third in the Frank J. Selke Trophy voting, and Blake Dunlop won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The moves kept. The Blues play in the 19,150 (not counting standing room) capacity Enterprise Center, where they have played since 1994. [4] Garagnani would never see the Blues franchise take the ice, as he died from a heart attack on June 19, 1967, less than three months before the Blues played their first preseason game. They would also pick up Brayden Schenn from the Philadelphia Flyers by giving away Jori Lehtera. Overview. On November 14, 2005, the Blues announced that SCP Worldwide had officially withdrawn from negotiations to buy the team. When Red Berenson scored six goals in a game on Nov. 7, 1968, ownership presented the outdoor enthusiast with a new station wagon, a canoe attached to the top and a Browning 20-gauge shotgun inside. This led to a Norris Division semi-finals exit against the Chicago Black Hawks. Ryan O'Reilly won the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. Boyer also plays the latter song on the organ after Blues goals, with fans replacing the word "Saints" with "Blues. [45], The Blues were one of the last teams to add a goal horn, doing so during the 199293 season at the St. Louis Arena. Veteran player Al Arbour hastily stepped in to coach the team. Under new management, the Blues promptly installed John Davidson as president of hockey operations, moving Pleau to a mostly advisory role. [14] Davidson also installed a strong development program under head scout Jarmo Kekalainen, using the team's raft of high draft picks in 2006 and 2007 to select highly touted prospects such as T. J. Oshie, Erik Johnson and David Perron. On December 11, 2006, the Blues fired head coach Mike Kitchen and replaced him with former Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray. The team's first owners were insurance tycoon Sid Salomon Jr., his son, Sid Salomon III, and Robert L. Wolfson, who were granted the franchise in 1966. After losing Vladimir Tarasenko to injury during the game, the Blues lost to the Avalanche 52 as they missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years. [5] Upon acquiring the franchise in 1966, Salomon then spent several million dollars on extensive renovations for the 38-year-old arena, expanding it from 12,000 seats to 15,000. Other players like Patrik Berglund, and Alex Steen did not return in time for the season. Before the season began, the Blues were hit hard with injuries as they lost Robby Fabbri before the season began. They play their home games at the 19,150-seat Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis, which has been their arena since moving from St. Louis Arena in 1994. C Dave Checketts D John Danforth L Bill Laurie O Harry Ornest S SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC The Blues are currently the only team in the four major North American sports (ice hockey, basketball, baseball, and American football) to be owned by a private equity firm. However, he resigned as head coach in late November after recording a 4132 record. Jeremy P. Rutherford Sep 29, 2013 Sep 29, 2013; 0; Facebook . Since the 201920 preseason, WXOS (101 ESPN) has been the flagship radio station for the Blues. Caron was reinstated as interim general manager for the rest of the season, and general manager Larry Pleau was hired on June 9, 1997. The Stanley Cup playoff format changed in such a way that a Western team was no longer guaranteed a Finals berth, and also the Chicago Black Hawks were moved into the Western Division following the 1970 expansion. Defenseman Chris Pronger (acquired from the Hartford Whalers in 1995 for Brendan Shanahan), Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, Al MacInnis and goaltender Roman Turek kept the Blues a contender in the NHL. March 3, 2023 by Marcus Ashpaugh. Still desperate for a championship, the Blues made another controversial move in 1995, hiring Mike Keenan right off the staff directory of the Stanley Cup winning New York Rangers. More often than not, several of the Blues' emerging stars ended up as Calgary Flames, and the sight of Flames executive Al MacNeil was always greeted with dread. The St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history later that season. He scored 16 points in 13 games after his arrival, but the season ended in frustration as the Blues lost Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals to Detroit. Although perennial postseason contenders for most of their history, the franchise frequently struggled in the playoffs, including consecutive Stanley Cup Finals defeats at the end of their first three seasons. With the Blues' victory in their fourth Stanley Cup Finals, 49 years after their last appearance and in their 52nd year of existence, they became the final active team from the 1967 expansion to win their first Stanley Cup. In each instance, the Blues were swept in four games, twice by the Montreal Canadiens and lastly by the Boston Bruins. Minority Owners [ edit] Just before the 2007 NHL trade deadline, the Blues traded several key players, including Bill Guerin, Keith Tkachuk and Dennis Wideman, in exchange for draft picks, though they re-signed Tkachuk after the season ended. None of the previous owners has brought a Stanley Cup championship to St. Louis. The Keenan coup wound up being a catastrophe. An NHL lockout canceled the 2004-05 season and the Lauries put the team up for sale in June 2005, citing losses of more than $60 million over the previous two years. The St. Louis Blues presently acknowledge an affiliation with a number of inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame. ST. LOUIS (KTVI) - There's been talk that the Rams move is great news for the St. Louis Blues: freeing up more money for St. Louis sports fans to spend on hockey. It operated for over 10 years, from 1994 to 2005, when its owner decided not to resume the magazine after the 200405 NHL lockout (one final oversized "goodbye" issue was distributed the first two home games of the 200506 season). From 1967 to 1984, the Blues jerseys featured a lighter shade of blue along with contrasting shoulder yoke and stripes. [11] The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. The Blues then fired 60 percent of their employees. During this time, Doug Gilmour, drafted by St. Louis in 1982, emerged as a star. The team did not even participate in the 1983 NHL draft, forfeiting all of its picks. Center David Backes has been named a finalist for the Frank Selke Trophy as the league's top two-way player. The day after the draft, the NHL filed a $78 million counter-suit against Ralston, accusing Ralston of "damaging the league by willfully, wantonly and maliciously collapsing its St. Louis Blues hockey operation." DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- St. Louis Blues minority owner David L. Steward was celebrating on the TD Garden ice with his son after the Blues defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of . Seriously underwater., Arch Madness: 2023 MVC Basketball Tournament bracket, schedule, game times, TV info, Centene expects to lose millions of Medicaid customers beginning in April, St. Louis man charged in quadruple fatal crash; police say he ran off with his license plate, Neman: Missouri womans saga of trying to find common sense at Walmart, I can still hear the roaring of the engine, says father of teen maimed in downtown St. Louis. tickets - by owner. The initial results were not good. "[50][51] And it did take them to the Stanley Cup. After an early-season coaching change brought Ken Hitchcock aboard, the Blues broke through this season with 109 points, two points removed from the best record in the NHL. St. Louis Blues (1958) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Blues owners. Im baffled., Suspect charged in fatal shooting in downtown St. Louis, Former Sweetie Pies TV star Tim Norman gets two life sentences in nephews death, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol slams ump C.B. Albums. [36] A second "Reverse Retro" uniform was released in the 202223 season, this time based on the prototype uniforms the team first leaked in 1966 before eventually releasing the more iconic "blue note" uniforms. On February 9, 2019, another tradition was born. He went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Stars the next year, scoring a controversial goal on the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek to clinch the Cup for Dallas. This third jersey was unveiled on September 21, 2008, and debuted during a Blues' home game against the Anaheim Ducks on November 21, 2008. Rivers also fills in on color commentary whenever Pang is on a national TV assignment for the NHL on TNT. Follow Jeremy P. Rutherford The Checkerboard Square chief even re-painted the fading Arena and re-dubbed it the Checkerdome. Louie is the mascot of the St. Louis Blues. Ralston Purina lost an estimated $1.8 million a year during its six-year ownership of the Blues. New Blues ownership group Tom Stillman, chairman and CEO of Summit Distributing Donn Lux, Luxco chairman and CEO Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation Steve. They would finish second in the Western Conference, behind the Vancouver Canucks. The elder Salomon was not enthralled with the idea of owning a hockey team initially, but his son persuaded him to take the plunge. [46] All of these traditions carried over to the Kiel Center (now known as Enterprise Center) in 1994. The move proved both ill-conceived and ill-timed, as the renamed St. Louis Eagles continued to lose money. In fact, several of the Blues' young stars, such as Rob Ramage, Joe Mullen and Gilmour, were main cogs in the Flames' 1989 Stanley Cup win. Under the expansion playoff format, Bowman's leadership was enough as the Blues qualified for the playoffs in their inaugural season. Over the next few years, the franchise became one of the most colorful and controversial in the NHL. A corresponding blue jersey was introduced the following season, thus retiring the previous set. Moreover, for the first time in club history, the normally excellent support seen by St. Louisans began decrease, with crowds normally numbering around 12,000, notably less than the team's normal high (about 18,000 in a 19,500-seat arena). The team slipped under .500 the following season and managed just 65 points in 1982-83. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. During the 3rd Period, The Blues were winning by a large margin against the visiting Nashville Predators. However, they were swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Montreal Canadiens in 1969 and then by the Boston Bruins in 1970. However, despite the music stopping, the loyal Blues fans in attendance continued to sing loudly. post; account; . They also provided the capital to build the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center), which opened in 1994. Prior to that, he worked at the New York . St. Louis Blues owner Tom Stillman is a former lawyer who worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce where he was Chief Counsel for Export Administration. Ultimately, Keenan's playoff resume with St. Louis included a first-round exit in 1995 and a second-round exit in 1996, and he was fired on December 19, 1996. It was loud enough, TV cameras picked up the song loud and clear. Jeremy Boyer, the Blues organist, plays a Glenn Miller arrangement of W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" in its entirety before games and a short version at the end of every period, followed by "When the Saints Go Marching In." Arbour, who officially retired as a player after the 197071 season, would remain behind the Blues' bench for the next two seasons. It has an urban feeling, with little of the rural atmosphere that distinguishes country-blues. As the team lingered on the shelf, management further demoralized the fan base by streamlining the books and trading its high-salaried players. "[42], Starting in 2014, the team introduced a win song in the form of Pitbull's "Don't Stop The Party",[43] but from 2016 to 2018, the win song was "Song 2" by Blur after public backlash against using a Pitbull song. In between seasons and during trade deadlines, the Blues became a must-see attraction. 20 Years Ago, Blur's 'Song 2' Became an Unlikely Sports Anthem", "PLAY GLORIA! Aside from Stillman, the ownership group includes Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Andrew Taylor, David Steward, Jim Kavanaugh, John Danforth,. During the offseason, forward T. J. Oshie was traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Troy Brouwer. While there were a number of interested parties, none had enough cash to meet Ralston's asking price. The cash-poor Ornest then ran the franchise on a skeletal budget. Dean told employes that the St. Louis-based firm had completed its second best fiscal year. Checketts and his group had some serious damage control to perform. The latest STL Blues hockey news, NHL headlines, scores, standings and rosters. Off the ice, the cash-poor Checketts operated with an Ornest-like budget; on the ice the team continued to stockpile picks and promise. The moneyline in this contest implies a 35.7% chance for the Blues to win. St Louis Blues Players. In 19992000, the team notched a franchise-record 114 points during the regular season, earning the Presidents' Trophy for the League's best record. Before the 199798 season, the Blues introduced a new alternate white jersey. After his death, Ron Jacober (who had left Channel 5 to be KXOK's sports director in 1985 then left for KMOX in 1987) was hired as the radio play-by-play announcer for the remainder of the season, and John Kelly succeeded in that position. This division was particularly weak, and in 197677, the Blues won it while finishing five games below .500, though this would be their last playoff appearance in the decade. Starting after a couple of players heard "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, after their win in Philadelphia on January 3, 2019, the team started to use the song after every home win, and lasted all the way up to their Stanley Cup win. They faced the third-seeded Vancouver Canucks in the first round, but despite the team's tremendous run to end the season, the Blues would ultimately lose the series in a quick four-game sweep. With Dorothy Lamour, Lloyd Nolan, Tito Guzar, Jerome Cowan. [25] This all but assured that Berube would have the "interim" tag removed from his title, which occurred two weeks after their Cup victory. You have permission to edit this article. Despite defeating the Blackhawks in the 2017 NHL Winter Classic by the score of 41, the Blues fired Hitchcock and promoted Yeo to head coach on February 1, 2017. They treated the players to all-expenses-paid Florida vacations when seasons ended and bought them gold wristwatches for scoring hat tricks, etc. [21] On March 29, 2019, the Blues became the seventh team in NHL since the 196768 season to qualify for the playoffs after being placed last after January 1. List Of St Louis Blues Owners. Hull, nicknamed the "Golden Brett" (a reference to his father, NHL legend Bobby Hull, who was nicknamed the "Golden Jet"), became one of the League's top stars and a scoring sensation, netting 86 goals in 199091 en route to earning the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. Blues Front Office Ownership Tom Stillman, Jerald Kent, Donn Lux, James Cooper, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, Steve Maritz, Edward Potter, Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Taylor, David Steward, James Kavanaugh, John. The Black Hawks owners felt they could establish a "lovable loser" (much like the Cubs) with the St. Louis hockey team. The St. Louis Blues medical team is a group of Washington University in St. Louis orthopedic specialists from Barnes-Jewish Hospital led by Washington University in St. Louis' Chief of Sports Medicine Matthew Matava.[39]. [38] Louie is a blue polar bear and wears a Blues jersey with his name on the back, and the numbers "00". On May 29, the Blues won a Stanley Cup Finals series game for the first time in franchise history after getting swept in three previous series (19681970), when they defeated the Boston Bruins 32 in overtime. While the first Blues teams included fading veterans like Doug Harvey, Don McKenney and Dickie Moore, the goaltending tandem of veterans Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante proved more durable, winning a Vezina Trophy in 1969 behind a sterling defense that featured players like skilled defensive forward Jim Roberts, team captain Al Arbour and hardrock brothers Bob and Barclay Plager. And within two years, Hull also was gone, left unsigned to continue a Hall of Fame career with Stanley Cup championships in Dallas and Detroit.

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