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Blues have ‘no answer’ about re-signing Jackman

Barret Jackman

Barret Jackman wants to keep playing hockey, and wants to do it in St. Louis.

That much is known.

What isn’t known, though, is if the Blues want to bring back their current longest-tenured player, who sits No. 2 among the franchise leaders in games played.

“We’ve got to look at the cap and we’ve got to look at the role that he wants on the team,” Blues GM Doug Armstrong said of Jackman, per the Post-Dispatch. “Then I’ve got to find out the role the team has for him.

“So there’s no answer to that right now.”

Jackman, 34, is in the last of a three-year, $9.5 million deal with St. Louis, where he has has spent his entire 14-year career. Though he’s never blossomed into the star many projected upon winning the Calder in 2003, Jackman’s had a very solid run as a durable, physical and shutdown defenseman that blocks plenty of shots (finishing second on the team this year.)

He also knows he wants to keep playing not just next year, but beyond.

“I have lots left in me,” he said. “I don’t know, four-five years, year-to-year. The body’s the best it’s felt in years. I’ll continue to keep playing.”

The issue, of course, is that the Blues have big money already tied up in their defense with the Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk contracts. There are cheaper options for bottom-pairing guys, and the club will need to free up some money this summer to ink Vladimir Tarasenko to an extension.

Jackman knows all this, and the reality of his situation.

“I don’t think my play’s dropped off year after year,” he explained. |I still feel like I help the team. With the cap issues and things like that.

“It’s going to be up to (Blues general manager Doug Armstrong) and coaches to see if I fit in.”