Blues Penalized For Tampering

The NHL will penalize the St. Louis Blues for talking to New Jersey's Scott Stevens before he became a restricted free agent in 1994.

The Devils will get the Blues' first-round pick in the 1999 entry draft, and also can choose to swap first-round picks in the 2000 draft.

The team also will get some money, possibly millions of dollars, in an announcement expected to come within the week, The Daily News reported in Sunday's editions.

The NHL's announcement comes as a close to a four-year investigation. In the summer of 1994, Devils President Lou Lamoriello said then-Blues President Jack Quinn had laid the groundwork for an offer to Stevens before the beginning of the annual free agency period.

Stevens had been traded to the Devils from the Blues in September 1991. The Blues offered him a four-year contract worth $17.5 million in 1994, but the Devils matched the offer and retained him.

The Daily News reported that the talks between the Blues management team and representatives for Stevens happened sometime between Sept. 3, 1991 and July 4, 1994.

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