Blues' Brad Boyes, seen here in a March 18, 2008, game against Jaroslav Halak and the Canadiens, likes the playoff experience and youth the newly acquired goalie will bring to St. Louis. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

It's one of those rare times when a National Hockey League player believes rumour has become reality, if only for a minute or two.

Informed of the St. Louis Blues' acquisition of Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak, right-winger Brad Boyes couldn't help but wonder if he was the newest Canadien.

"It definitely crossed my mind a little bit because I had heard those rumours, too," Boyes said from his native Mississauga, Ont. "I was sitting at my brother's place talking with him and my dad [Bob] and my brother [Jeff] got a text [message] from a buddy mentioning the trade. I didn't know who was going the other way, so they kind of looked at me and I said, 'I don't know either.'

"I've been in that situation before. If it happens, it happens, but I was hoping not [in this case]."

Boyes, 28, most recently has been linked to trade rumours involving Montreal, which settled for forward prospects Lars Eller and Ian Schultz for Halak. Prior to the March 3 trade deadline, St. Louis reportedly sent a memo to teams alerting them Boyes was available.

Last September, talk had the six-year NHLer bound for Pittsburgh in a deal for centre Jordan Staal.

Even if incoming Blues general manager Doug Armstrong — he officially assumes the role July 1 after his contract with Dallas expires — wants to trade Boyes, it could be very difficult considering the player has two years and $8 million US left on his contract.

Room to improve

After four years with the Blues, he had his least productive NHL season in 2009-10, scoring 14 goals — down from 33 the previous campaign — and 42 points in 82 games.

Boyes, at least publicly, has said he would like to remain in St. Louis.

Perhaps he's had enough of changing NHL addresses after beginning his pro career with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization in 2002, followed by stints with the San Jose Sharks (one game in 2003-04), Boston Bruins and now St. Louis.

Perhaps he would like some stability in his life — he's marrying a Mississauga woman at the end of July.

Or, perhaps he thinks better days lie ahead for the Blues, who missed a playoff berth by five points this season and posted a 23-15-4 record after Davis Payne took over from fired head coach Andy Murray in January. In April, St. Louis took the interim tag off Payne.

The hope is Payne can guide the Blues back to the level they reached in the second half of the 2008-09 season when they posted a league-best 25-9-7 mark to make the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Key to that post-season push was a group of young players, including first-round draft picks T.J. Oshie (2005), Patrik Berglund (2006) and David Perron (2007).

In 2009-10, Oshie was the only one of those players that built on his impressive finish of the previous season, increasing his point total from 39 to 48. Berglund, who had 21 goals and 47 points in 2008-09, dropped to 13 and 26, while his plus-minus rating plummeted 24 points (plus-19 to minus-5). Perron nearly matched his point total (down to 47 from 50) but he was a minus-10 after going plus-13 a year ago.

Primed for next step

"You go through a down year and the next year you come back and learn from it," Boyes said. "I think those guys are going to have good years next year. I personally think we're going to take that next step and it's going to be a fun year for us.

"I think we're [still] looking for who we are as a team and what we're going to bring every night. I think as a full-time head coach [Davis] is really going to step in and be the guy that is going to put his thumb on the team. As this [past] season went along we saw that more and more."

And they'll have a new goalie manning the net, one that carried Montreal to the conference finals.

Boyes believes that playoff experience, along with Halak's youth, could be a huge benefit to the Blues. The Slovakian netminder turned 25 in May while Mason, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent July 1, is 34.

Halak had a 2.40 goals-against average in 45 regular-season games this year and .924 save percentage, good for fourth in the NHL. Mason had slightly worse numbers (2.53, .913) in 61 appearances.

"I watched [Halak] a fair amount [in the playoffs] and I thought he played real well," said Boyes. "He was pretty calm and didn't get rattled. In Game 7 [of the Eastern Conference semifinals] he played pretty well [making 37 saves in a 5-2 win over Pittsburgh]."

Mason might be missed most in the dressing room.

"He was awesome in the room," Boyes said. "He was a great team guy, a good buddy, so from that aspect we'll miss him for sure. Hopefully Halak is similar."