As one of the original editions of “The Kerrzy Report” first told you sometime back in April, Mike Danton, formerly of the St. Louis Blues, formerly of a different last name, was involved in a bit of a legal dispute. It was nothing too big, just your standard little federal murder-for-hire plot. You see, the police seem to think that Danton had hired a hit man (who turned out to be Justin Jones, a police dispatcher from Columbia, Illinois) to kill his agent, Dave Frost. Although they have heaps of evidence against him including taped conversations etcetera, Danton originally assured them that it was all just a misunderstanding by pleading not guilty, although he has recently pulled a quick one on the U.S. court system by throwing down the reverse and dropping the G-bomb on them. Convinced that he wanted out, the St. Louis Blues released Danton on July 1st and he is now said to be dabbling in the free agent market.

The latest news off the wire suggests that Danton, the 5-foot-9, 191-pound center, is in the midst of talks with an undisclosed Canadian prison, and is said to be looking for a long-term deal in the range of 7-10 years with a signing bonus of up to $250,000 whether he likes it or not. Danton, formerly Mike Jefferson, has been looking desperately for a trade ever since the Blues were ousted from the playoffs by the San Jose Sharks this past season.

Players these days are continuing to play until they are quite old, and although this former New Jersey Devils’ player is nearing the fragile age of 24, he had a breakout season last year with the Blues setting career highs in:

Games played (68), goals (7), assists (5), points (12), penalty minutes (141), shots on goal (72), power play assists (2) and shorthanded goals (1)
All the while tying other career statistics such as:
Power play goals (0), shorthanded assists (0) and of course game-winning and game-tying goals (0).

This dramatically increased his career points, bringing his total points up by 12 to 14, although his career plus/minus stooped down from 0 to a –8. I do however, have this disturbing feeling that he’ll score a lot more often than his career highs have permitted in previous seasons where he is headed next year, and doing so may eventually land him in the positive (if you don’t get either of those jokes, just leave it).

After sitting out almost the entire 2001-2002 season with the Devils, it appeared that Danton had all the makings of an NHL superstar. Hey, it worked for Eric Lindros, why wouldn’t it work for Danton (back then he was known by his real name: Mike Jefferson). Today, both players’ futures are questionable, although for different reasons. Lindros has had more (more than he can now count up to) concussions along with other injuries, while Danton made the ever-risky career move of putting a $10,000 hit out on his agent, Dave Frost.

With the dark cloud of a lockout looming over the NHL, Danton currently appears to be one of the few lucky players that will receive a long-term deal starting in this upcoming season. Although he has been barred by a U.S. Federal judge from talking to his agent, I’m sure the deal will work itself out, and he will find himself a new home for the twilight of his career. Like they* say, “it’s better to burn out, than to get arrested a day after your team is knocked out of the playoffs, facing up to a decade in jail because you pled guilty to the charges against you alleging that you hired a hit man, who in a very unsurprising turn of events, turned out to be a police informant, to kill your agent.”

MORAL OF THE STORY: When you’re hiring a hit man, be sure to analyze the would-be killer’s resume thoroughly and also make sure that you call and check their references, including the dead ones…to make sure.

*I don’t think anyone actually said that before right now, so I guess I’m “they”.