Former Blues President John Davidson has “agreed to an undisclosed buyout” from Owner Tom Stillman to leave the organization, according to Jeremy Rutherford of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Davidson said, "Tom has stuck his neck out to purchase this team with a lot of the local ownership folks. He's looking at the bottom line and I understand that. With that being said, the two of us decided it would be better to help the franchise financially and for myself to be put in a situation where I can take the buyout and just move on. There's no animosity, really. It's business. It's just what it is -- business.” Davidson had three years remaining on an $8M contract, and Stillman said that Davidson's departure was “necessary for a new ownership group attempting to trim costs.” He added Davidson has “done a great job here, so it’s certainly nothing about his work." But Stillman noted team execs are "working to get our business, our financial house in order." Stillman: "We feel the organization was bloated and our expenses were way out of line. And we have to marshal our resources so that we can focus on continuing to put a winning, contending team on the ice” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/6). Davidson said, “Whenever there's new ownership, you always know there's the possibility of change and I knew right away, I could tell. It's hard to explain, but you just know” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 10/6).
