Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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gaijin
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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theohall wrote:
gaijin wrote:Thorburn went unclaimed on waivers, so he remains the Blues' property.
Which allows the Blues to send him to the AHL. Can't believe they gave him a 2-year contract.
Can't you? :mrgreen:
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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Gordo: More Blues changes likely this summer

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 12e33.html
An interesting and active summer awaits the retooling Blues.

Frustrated general manager Doug Armstrong offered up several of his veterans before the NHL trade deadline but moved only center Paul Stastny, who is headed to unrestricted free agency.

After gaining a first-round pick in the Stastny trade, he tried to package that pick with players under multi-year contracts to get long-term help for his team.

Armstrong didn't find a trade fit, so he will try again around the NHL Draft when more teams will be looking to make changes. He sees an opportunity to load a maximum amount under the salary cap in years to come, thanks to a coming wave of talented prospects on entry-level contracts.

Also, he watched his team chemistry sour this season. Barring a late charge, Armstrong could be especially motivated to make changes.

Some overwrought fans view several veterans as just dead money on the payroll, but these guys are assets to be handled as such.

So let's look at potential trade chips:

Vladimir Sobotka: He should be one of the more attractive trade assets. He can play all three forward spots, kill penalties and chip in offense as a third- or fourth-line player. His salary cap hit of $3.5 million for the next two years is moderate. Like many of his teammates, he vanished this month (no points in 12 games). But he scored nine points in 13 games back in October when the Blues were at their best. If he scores another goal this season, he will set a new career high.

Jay Bouwmeester: He is soldiering through this season at less than 100 percent, as evidenced by all the practice time he has missed. He was typically solid Wednesday night, playing nearly 25 minutes against the Red Wings. With one more season left with a moderate $5.4 million cap hit, Bouwmeester could be attractive to a contender in "win now" mode. Reliable Top Four defensemen are hard to come by. But he has no-trade protections that complicate things. Also, he could return at full strength and remain valuable to a team still developing younger defensemen Colton Parayko, Joel Edmundson, Vince Dunn and Jordan Schmaltz. And if the Blues aren't a juggernaut next season, the well-respected Bouwmeester could be a most attractive rental property at the 2019 trade deadline.

Patrik Berglund: Many Blues fans rejoiced when coach Mike Yeo scratched him Wednesday night. Berglund has been a whipping boy for years, dating back to the "Boy Band" era of the Blues. His streaky production and loping style drives fans crazy. A buzzsaw he is not. But he offers size, sound positioning and 15- to 20-goal scoring ability. Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekalainen drafted Berglund and may be interested in a reunion. Berglund has four years left on his contract with a moderate $3.85 million cap hit, which compares favorably to veteran supporting cast forwards like Martin Hanzal ($4.75 million), Jori Lehtera ($4.7 million), Tyler Ennis ($4.6 million), Troy Brouwer ($4.5 million), Brandon Sutter ($4.35 million), Nick Bonino ($4.1 million) and Colin Wilson ($3.9 million) around the league.

Jake Allen: Efforts to reestablish him as the No. 1 goaltender have failed. Carter Hutton won again Wednesday night, so Yeo seems likely to ride this intrepid career back-up down the stretch. Allen ranks 19th in goaltender pay with a moderate $4.35 million cap hit, so it's possible another team could be willing to offer him a scenery change. The goaltending market is volatile, to say the least, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Blues could re-up Hutton for a couple of years, give highly regarded prospect Ville Husso a chance to back up and add a No. 3 or No. 4 goaltender with some NHL experience to be safe. Of this team could make a bold move a veteran goaltender and start over again at this position.

AROUND THE RINKS: Uncertainty surrounding his future may finally be getting to New York Islanders center John Tavares. He has just two points and a minus-2 rating in his last eight games . . . Keep an eye on the San Jose Sharks this summer. They have lots of salary cap space. So much so, in fact, that they were willing to take Bobby Ryan's dead money (four more years at $7.25 million per season) in order to land star defenseman Erik Karlsson from Ottawa. Wow . . . Power forward Evander Kane is off and flying for the Sharks, who got him on a discount from Buffalo after none of the other 30 NHL teams made a serious offer for him. That the Sabres couldn't get a sure first-round pick for a Kane rental speaks to his reputation around the league . . . The Canadiens never came down from their high Max Pacioretty sale price, demanding a good young forward and a first-round pick in return. Look for GM Marc Bergevin to revisit that this summer with Montreal needing a complete overhaul.
The whole article has the feel of "You, Blues fan, are stupid for being upset with these guys. Look how reasonable their salaries are!"
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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And yet another Bouwmeester is all that comment while completely ignoring how slow he has become. Would one of these mediots please print the truth about Bouwmeester. The fact he has lost a step makes him a weakness against any team with reasonable speed and having to play him with Pietrangelo to cover for that weakness isn't an answer. He almost got burned several times vs Detroit, but Hutton kept bailing him out.

And that article just confirms Armstrong is over-valuing his players solely based on their contracts, to which he shouldn't have signed them.

On a positive note, were the Blues able to move Berglund, Sobotka, and Bouwmeester, they could afford to sign Tavares as a UFA, re-sign Edmundson (RFA), re-make the roster with the hot prospects, and see what happens.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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I've said basically the same regarding Tavares. This is assuming, of course, that he doesn't re-sign with the Islanders (big assumption) and that he does want to sign with the Blues (bigger assumption). But imagine this team, moving forward, if they could snag JT in the offseason. Not having to pay Stastny certainly frees up a lot of dough, and getting rid of some other high priced players in exchange for picks would help sweeten the pot for him. It's not like we don't have a half dozen guys who could possibly step in next year or the year after, and that's only considering the forwards. On D there's still Walman, MAYBE Schmaltz figures it out, David Noel in a few years, Niko Mikkola possibly, plus I'm supremely confidence that they'll pick a LHD with the pick they got from Winnipeg. Overspend a couple million on Tavares and let a bunch of the kids come up and play with him. He'll make them better, faster and we'll magically have, at a minimum, 3 effective offensive lines who, if budgeted for appropriately, could stick together for quite a while.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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There is a dearth of depth at both right and left D in terms of quality prospects. They need both, not just Left D.

DEFENSEMEN (I took Dunn and Schmaltz off this list)
Tommy Vannelli
Santeri Saari
Petteri Lindbohm
Jake Walman
Jani Hakanpaa
Dmitrii Sergeev
Niko Mikkola
Richard Nedomlel

Vanelli RD isn't cutting it, because he straight up cannot stay healthy. Saari LD isn't likely to leave Europe as a 3rd pairing somewhat offensive guy. Lindbohm LD has been here and looked good for a little bit, but nothing to write home about. Hakanpaa RD another stay-at-home, 3rd pairing type guy. Sergeev, LD, is a maybe. He had injuries which have slowed his development, so who really knows about him? Mikkola is a stay-at-home LD, so he's a 3rd pairing type dude. Nedomlel is a big, aggressive stay-at-home LD who is about to become a Free Agent, because the Blues haven't and likely won't offer him anything.

See - defensive prospects are pretty doggone threadbare on both sides after Schmaltz and Walman. And Schmaltz is already with the Blues, for now.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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Man, this thing has turned into a mess. Fabbri was supposed to be back healthy, Allen was supposed to settle in for real as a #1 goaltender... last year was supposed to be the transition and adjustment year and this year as the loaded up and going for it year.

Supposed to...

Jake Allen: We have enough information that the argument can now be made he's too volatile to be a consistent #1 NHL goalie. Last year when he took some time away and came back guns blazing, ok that was one time, maybe just a unique circumstance. Then this year happens and he's in a funk again and our supposed back up has to save this team's collective bacon.

Center: Ugh. I like the Stastny trade, I'm glad we made it and got SOMETHING for him before we cut ties this summer, but ugh. We desperately need a #1 center. We need to find a dance partner this summer at the draft or if, IF John Tavares becomes available then yea I agree with you guys we need to free up some cap space and go after him HARD.

Cap: According to capfriendly.com the Blues will have $14,138,333 entering this summer once the season is over.
UFA's: Carter Hutton, Scottie Upshall, Kyle Brodziak
RFA's: Edmundson, Fabbri, Schmaltz, Soshnikov, Sunqvist and Jaskin.
- Yea, we need to clear some more space.

I have those fond memories of when Sobotka came in in the spring and had himself quite the run there, which carried over to the beginning of the season. The guy is skilled, no question. I would sooner dump Berglund than Sobotka but yea maybe both will have to go.

I'm very interested to see what Armstrong does this summer. Especially if this team misses the playoffs, that'll give him the proverbial green light to make some serious and significant changes, as well he should. Frankly even if this team makes it they're not going far.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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WaukeeBlues wrote:I'm very interested to see what Armstrong does this summer. Especially if this team misses the playoffs, that'll give him the proverbial green light to make some serious and significant changes, as well he should. Frankly even if this team makes it they're not going far.
Making serious and significant changes would be tacitly admitting management made poor decisions leading to the current situation. That, more than any other factor, is why I suspect any changes in the offseason will be less serious or significant than any of us are hoping.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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gaijin wrote:
WaukeeBlues wrote:I'm very interested to see what Armstrong does this summer. Especially if this team misses the playoffs, that'll give him the proverbial green light to make some serious and significant changes, as well he should. Frankly even if this team makes it they're not going far.
Making serious and significant changes would be tacitly admitting management made poor decisions leading to the current situation. That, more than any other factor, is why I suspect any changes in the offseason will be less serious or significant than any of us are hoping.
Well first off, no NHL GM should be that narcissistically blind and secondly any time that he's made some terrible moves (e.g. Ryan Miller) he also tacitly "admits" to the failure by not stubbornly standing by the bad move and making it worse (e.g. letting him go vs doubling down). He's also shown learning on the job (not letting Shatty or Stastny walk for nothing at the deadline). Army has made some crappy contract extension offers to guys but he's also made some really smart moves too.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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WaukeeBlues wrote:Jake Allen: We have enough information that the argument can now be made he's too volatile to be a consistent #1 NHL goalie. Last year when he took some time away and came back guns blazing, ok that was one time, maybe just a unique circumstance. Then this year happens and he's in a funk again and our supposed back up has to save this team's collective bacon.
Not even the backup can save this team's collective bacon from it's atrocious offense. Yes, Allen hasn't been as good from December 10th onwards. At the same time, that's when the Blues offense started going south and has kept going south. Hasn't mattered whose in net. The Blues offense is atrocious and until it changes goaltending play is irrelevant. Were the Blues scoring at least the league average in goals and losing, yes, I'd be all over whether or not goaltending was the problem. Yes, Allen appears to be too volatile. But so does the Blues inability to sustain offense for an entire season. These two things go hand-in-hand. When the Blues play strong offensively in front of their goaltender, their goaltenders tend to win more games. What happens to Allen when the Blues offense goes away, he tends to over-commit trying to make the big save and winds up off his angles. Gives up one bad goal, then gets conservative and doesn't challenge like he should resulting in more bad goals, due to not being aggressive enough. There's a big Catch-22 in here. We want Allen to make the big save, but you don't want him being over-aggressive or too conservative. When goalies doubt the team in front of them, and given the Blues inability to score for quite awhile now, goalies tend to struggle. I know, Hutton isn't having the same struggles, but he didn't stop the breakaway the other night either. Folks were banging on Allen for failing to make that kind of big save that Hutton didn't make, either. I know, Hutton had a bunch of really good stops in that game, too. Still wasn't enough, because of the worst offense in the league playing in front of him.
WaukeeBlues wrote:Center: Ugh. I like the Stastny trade, I'm glad we made it and got SOMETHING for him before we cut ties this summer, but ugh. We desperately need a #1 center. We need to find a dance partner this summer at the draft or if, IF John Tavares becomes available then yea I agree with you guys we need to free up some cap space and go after him HARD.
Agreed.
WaukeeBlues wrote: Cap: According to capfriendly.com the Blues will have $14,138,333 entering this summer once the season is over.
UFA's: Carter Hutton, Scottie Upshall, Kyle Brodziak
RFA's: Edmundson, Fabbri, Schmaltz, Soshnikov, Sunqvist and Jaskin.
- Yea, we need to clear some more space.
Upshall and Brodziak walk. If they re-sign Hutton and Allen isn't moved, Husso isn't getting a shot. If they don't re-sign Hutton and Allen continues to be a head case, is Husso actually ready? We don't know. Edmundson and Fabbri get re-signed. The other 4 I wouldn't even bother with. Schmaltz is still not cutting. He can't win one-on-one battles in his own end. 6'2, 194 and he gets pushed off the puck by smaller forwards seemingly with ease. Soshnikov is a 3rd/4th line guy still. That's where he's projected and while he's shown flashes going to the net for the Blues, it's not turning into goals. Sundqvist is awful. Jaskin lacks hockey sense. Hard to count the number of times the past few games he completely misses reads on plays that would set up very high quality scoring chances, but winds up dumping the puck in the zone or shooting it into the goalies chest.
WaukeeBlues wrote:I have those fond memories of when Sobotka came in in the spring and had himself quite the run there, which carried over to the beginning of the season. The guy is skilled, no question. I would sooner dump Berglund than Sobotka but yea maybe both will have to go.
Trade Sobotka. If he can't compete for a whole season, what's to say he won't quit competing in a playoff situation. He's part of the problem with the current roster, along with Berglund. They both need to go.
WaukeeBlues wrote:I'm very interested to see what Armstrong does this summer. Especially if this team misses the playoffs, that'll give him the proverbial green light to make some serious and significant changes, as well he should. Frankly even if this team makes it they're not going far.
If Berglund and Sobotka can be moved, it adds 7.3 million to the Cap which would put them at 21 million of free space. This is before whatever cap increase happens and it's expected to increase more this summer than it did the past two off-seasons. Move Bouwmeester, also, if at all possible which would free up another 5.4M making 26.4M in free space. Bring up the players on ELCs - Kostin, Kyrou, Thomas, Walman, sign Nolan Stevens.

So the roster looks something like this before signing any help - which they definitely need to do:
C - Schenn, Thomas, Barbashev, Fabbri (yes, move Fabbri to Center)
LW - Kyrou, Schwartz, Blais, Steen (Sanford maybe)
RW - Tarasenko, Thompson, Kostin, Stevens (Soshnikov maybe)

LD - Edmundson, Dunn, Walman
RD - Pietrangelo, Parayko, Bortuzzo (sign some veteran RD as 7th to fill in)

Without signing anyone other than 2, maybe 3, current Blues RFAs, that's a full roster with 2 possible depth guys. They definitely need to sign a C, though. Not convinced Barbashev is an answer at that position. Fabbri at C gets him off the wing giving him more space in the middle and not as much contact on the walls. It's where he should have been playing from the outset, but Hitchock, Yeo, Army and company think he's too small to be a Center. I just want to point out how small Brayden Point is for the Lightning. He is 1" taller and 40 pounds lighter than Fabbri and is excelling as a Center in the NHL today.

If the Blues were to go with the player's listed above - there is plenty of cap space to sign both Edmundson and Fabbri (maybe Soshnikov) while attempting to acquire at least 2 quality UFAs or trade for quality RFAs. It will gut the San Antonio roster of prospects, so there won't be any depth. But at some point, this team has to start doing what the rest of the league is doing to compete - and that's injecting skill, not veteran 3rd and 4th line grinders, into the roster, regardless of their age and size.
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Re: Lead-up to the trade deadline thread

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Line combos given the above:

Line combos
1st - Schwartz/Schenn/Kostin
2nd - Kyrou/Fabbri/Tarasenko
3rd - Blais/Thomas/Thompson
4th - Steen/Barbashev/Stevens

1st D - Dunn/Pietrangelo
2nd D - Edmundson/Parayko
3rd D - Walman/Bortuzzo (or some other veteran RD)

If Dunn and Pietrangelo can be put together late in games when the Blues are trailing to create offense, then do it all the time to create offense all the time.

It should be noted both Thompson and Thomas, in spite of their offensive skills, were assigned checking roles on their respective World Jr teams. They understand the two-way game.

My one fear if they keep Steen around is Yeo keeping that awful all lefty 1st power play unit together.
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