St. Louis Blues Sign Grant Fuhr On This Day In History

On this date in history, the Blues signed veteran goaltender Grant Fuhr. It was one of the best signings they would make, or at least could have been.

On July 14, 1995, the St. Louis Blues added Grant Fuhr to their roster. 1995 was a strange and incredible time.

We were coming off the lockout of 1994. Mike Keenan was gearing up for his second season in charge of the Blues. It seemed like things were going well and then all hell broke loose.

The Blues traded away fan favorites Curtis Joseph and Brendan Shanahan. The Blues got draft picks that they would turn into good players years later, but amounted to little at the time, for Joseph. They at least got Chris Pronger for Shanahan, but at the time nobody knew Pronger or what he would become.

While the trade of Joseph actually happened after the signing of Fuhr, it still shocked many. Fuhr was coming off consecutive seasons where he did not even play half a year. He played 32 games in 1993-94 and then 17 games the next season.

Surely he was being brought in to be Cujo’s backup and give the Blues a solid tandem, which would make Jon Casey the expendable one, right? Wrong. Cujo went out the door as of Keenan’s blood letting process.

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Nobody was really questioning Fuhr’s talent, but more so his age and how much he had left in the tank. Was he going to be able to shoulder the load? Would he be Casey’s backup or would they be a tandem themselves? What exactly was the plan in net for the Blues going forward?

Well, we got our answer when the season started and went along and got it quickly. Fuhr went on to play 79 games. 79 games played at the age of 33.

So, at 33 yeard old, Fuhr set a career high for the number of games played. He also led the Blues to a record of 30-28-16.

He faced a career high in terms of shots faced and saves. On one hand that doesn’t say much for the Blues defense, which did feature Pronger and Al MacInnis, since it was much higher than any of the Edmonton teams that did not focus on defense. On the other hand, it proved that Fuhr could take all the work.

He set what was then a career record for goals against average and also set a career best for save percentage as well. Although the team’s regular season record was less than desirable, it seemed like they were on the path to do something pretty special.

Then, the fateful collision with Nick Kypreos happened. What looked like a championship season coming from the most important single position on the ice was suddenly spoiled by a Maple Leafs’ goon. For the rest of time, Blues fans are left to wonder. They wonder if Fuhr would have made the save with his glove hand that Casey missed with the blocker on Steve Yzerman‘s overtime shot in Game 7.

Fuhr would go on to play three more seasons in the bluenote. He played in 73 games the next year, but age and injury began to creep up on him and his number of games played went down each season. He never faltered when given the chance though.

His goals against went down each season. Plenty of that had to do with playing with a more seasonsed Pronger as well as MacInnis, but he played his part.

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Names like CuJo or Mike Liut may have a bit more clout in this town. Names like Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante have more history to them. However, Fuhr may have been one of the brightest spots – even if brief – in the Blues’ goaltending history.

Due to the injury, we’ll always be led to wonder what if. Still, we know that he played his guts out for the team and in this city, sometimes that’s enough to still have a legacy.

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