The St. Louis Blues were in desperate need of an extra body at forward due to a series of injuries to top players piling up. They turned to some veterans to come in on try out agreements. Martin Havlat was the one that stuck, earning a one-year deal from the Blues on Nov. 6.
One week after signing that deal, Havlat is on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. According to the team, Havlat is leaving the Blues for personal reasons.
In his one week with the team, Havlat appeared in two games. He scored a goal in his first game with the club, one that proved to be the inner against the New Jersey Devils.
With Havlat leaving the Blues, one wonders if this is the end of the road in the NHL for the 34-year-old.
In 790 career games, Havlat posted 242 goals and 594 points. He had moderately successful runs with the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks, during which he topped 20 goals five times and notched one 30-plus goal season.
A brilliant sniper in his prime, Havlat’s career has been marred by continual injury problems. Since appearing in 78 games in 2010-11 with the Minnesota Wild, Havlat has not played in more than 48 games in a given season. The lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign was the only year over that span where he managed to play in the vast majority of his team’s games.
In addition to his stops in Ottawa, Chicago, Minnesota and New Jersey, Havlat also spent three seasons with the San Jose Sharks before being bought out at the end of the 2013-14 campaign.
