Blues’ Center Danton Arrested

St. Louis Blues center Mike Danton was arrested Friday in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme, the FBI said.

Danton, 23, was arrested at the airport in San Jose after the Blues were eliminated from the NHL playoffs by the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Illinois, Danton told a female friend that a hitman from Canada was coming to kill him and asked the woman if she knew someone who would kill the person for $10,000.

The woman, identified as Katie Wolfmeyer, 19, passed his call to another man, described in the complaint as a “cooperating witness.”

The FBI witness and Danton spoke again on Thursday, and Danton allegedly hatched a plot where the witness could kill the “hitman” at Danton’s apartment and make it appear that two burglars had broken in, one being killed and the other making off with $3,000 Danton had in a safe.

The complaint alleges that Danton actually was trying to kill a male acquaintance after an argument Tuesday in which the two fought over Danton’s “promiscuity and use of alcohol.”

The complaint said Danton feared the acquaintance, who is not named, would talk to St. Louis Blues management. In a telephone call recorded by authorities, the acquaintance asked why Danton wanted to kill him. According to the complaint, Danton sobbed and explained that he ordered the killing because he “felt the acquaintance was going to leave him.”