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Sunday, June 24, 2001
Brathwaite to compete for Blues' No. 1 job
Associated Press
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ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues traded goalie Roman Turek
and a fourth-round draft pick to the Calgary Flames on Saturday for
goalie Fred Brathwaite, center Daniel Tkaczuk, left wing prospect
Sergei Varlamov and a ninth-round pick.
Turek struggled against Colorado in the Western Conference
finals, and also was blamed for the Blues' first-round elimination
in 2000 when they had the league's top record.
General manager Larry Pleau said Brathwaite will compete for the
No. 1 job with rookie Brent Johnson. Johnson started in Game 5 of
the Western Conference finals after Turek gave up seven
first-period goals in the first four games of the series.
"We believe (Johnson) has a chance to be a No. 1 goalie in the
future, but that has yet to be proven," Pleau said.
The Blues are believed to be in the hunt for Buffalo goalie
Dominik Hasek, but Pleau had little to say about it.
"We're always looking to improve our team," Pleau said.
"That's my job. We talk to a lot of teams, we try to anyway."
Turek can be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Blues had
weighed picking up his option on his contract for another season.
"Roman was here for two years, and he was good for us," Pleau
said. "We wouldn't have accomplished what we did without him and I
wish him well, but we had to make a decision."
Turek finished 24-18-10 with a 2.28 goals-against average and a
.919 save percentage in 54 regular-season games last season.
"We feel it's a significant upgrade to our goaltending,"
Flames general manager Craig Button said. "We felt if we continue
to improve in that area, that we're going to move ahead."
Brathwaite played in 49 games and was 15-17-10 with five
shutouts and a 2.32 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.
Tkaczuk has four goals and seven assists in 19 games for the
Flames last season, and Varlamov had three assists in seven games.
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