By Sam Dykstra/DFP Staff
Former Boston University standout defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk has been traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the St. Louis Blues as part of a deal that sent former No. 1 overall pick Erik Johnson over to Denver. The deal was confirmed by both teams at 1 a.m. Saturday morning.
Shattenkirk, who left school a year early to play for the Avs, played in 46 games for the team before being sent to the Gateway to the West. He had amassed a line of 7-19–26 over that time, good enough to be second in the league among rookie blue-liners. From Nov. 17 to Dec. 4, he went on a nine-game points streak. He has cooled down immensely since that time and had not registered a single point with a plus-minus rating of minus-5 in the previous eight games leading up to the Blues-Avs swap.
The trade officially sent Johnson, center Jay McClement and a conditional first-round draft choice in 2011 or 2012 to Colorado for Shattenkirk, right-winger Chris Stewart and a conditional second-round pick in 2011 or 2012.
“We’re very excited to acquire a young emerging power forward in Chris Stewart and a top young NHL defenseman in Kevin Shattenkirk,” said Blues executive vice president and general manager Doug Armstrong in a statement on the team’s website. “These are two solid young players which will help us now and continue to grow and improve our team.”
The trade marks the second time this season that a rookie defenseman from BU has been traded from the Colorado Avalanche. Shattenkirk’s former linemate Colby Cohen had also been traded earlier in the season to the Boston Bruins organization as part of a deal that sent defenseman Matt Hunwick out west. Cohen plays for the team’s AHL affiliate in Providence, where he has a line of 1-6–7 in 22 games.
Colorado, a place once deemed “BU West” for its wealth of Terrier talent both on the ice and on the bench – both NHL coach Joe Sacco and Lake Erie (AHL) coach David Quinn are BU alums – still has Brandon Yip (2009 BU alum) on its NHL roster as well as Zach Cohen (2010) and David Van der Gulik (2006) at the AHL level with Quinn. The Avs also hold the draft rights to BU junior netminder Kieran Millan.
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