St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock was on Toronto’s Sportsnet 590 on Thursday afternoon.

On the notion that the St. Louis Blues forced him to take a one-year deal during the last off-season:

“No they didn’t. No they didn’t.

“… I scare myself. As you get older, I scare myself because I think if I take a long-term deal – and I know it’s a strange way to think, but…

“I scare myself, because I’m going to get sloppy. All the little things I do to stay in touch with these millennials, which to me is a full-time job just staying in touch with them, I think I’d just get sloppy and not do it.

On if he’d turn down a five-year contract if they offered it to him:

“One and one and one and one. I want to stay on one-year deals. I talked to Tony La Russa a lot about it. Right now I coach because I love it, and I don’t need to coach. I don’t need to work because I’ve been so lucky to be in this business. I coach because I love it and the minute I do – I don’t want to be sitting and ripping off a team, taking money when I’m not doing anything.

“I just feel comfortable taking one-year deals, to be honest with you.”

Source: Sportsnet 590/ Transcript: Nichols