If the first thing that came to mind when you heard Jay Bouwmeester will have season-ending hip surgery is that the Blues will buy the 34-year-old defenseman out of the final year of his contract, grab a copy of the NHL’s collective-bargaining agreement.



If you don’t have a copy of the CBA handy, keep reading and you will see how the timing of the injury will preclude that from happening.



First, the injury: Bouwmeester originally noticed pain in his left hip after the Blues played Buffalo Dec. 10, but he opted for an injection that would keep him on the ice and away from the operating table until the offseason. The pain, though, forced him out of Saturday’s game in Dallas, and now surgery is the only option.



Bouwmeester will travel to Colorado to see Dr. Marc Philippon in the next week or two to plan when he’ll have the surgery, and the rehabilitation is expected to last as long as six months, taking him up to the start of training...