The moral of the story for Alex Steen: if you score, you'll get paid. Steen, whose 22 goals in 33 games for the St. Louis Blues is two off his career high, signed a three-year, $17.4 million extension with the team, according to multiple reports. At first blush, it seems like a lot of money for a 29-year-old player in the midst of a career year, and that may well be the case. Now, if Steen settles back into the 20-goal scorer he's been heretofore in his career, paying him a $5.8 million cap hit won't be ideal, but he's a solid po se sion player and good defensively. It's also important to remember that the salary cap will Zach Mckinstry Jersey jump about $8 million next season (to about $71 million), and projects to rise even farther. That fact, combined with the relatively short term, makes the deal a relatively fair one. Steen, who wound up in St. Louis as half of the trade that netted the Toronto Maple Leafs Lee Stempniak, is 29 years old and would've become a free agent after the season. He could've gotten more, especially if he kept up something approaching his current pace, but that's not all that important most of the time, anyway. The Blues are 22-7-4 with 48 points. They've now got Steen, winger T.J. Oshie and, most importantly, defensemaen Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jay Bouwmeester three seasons. Captain David Backes has two years left on his current deal. Norm Cash Jersey