Next year

We aren't interested in Palat and definitely not at that price. Look at your team, you are up against the ceiling and you were only able to sign one UFA for a mil while giving just about every RFA entry level salaries. There are plenty of players in the NHL at his caliber and not many teams want to take on that cap hit. If we wanted to we'd resign Hoffman

I actually like the idea of finding a middle six winger with 1 yr term. With Parayko and ROR deals coming to an end soon, I don't want to see them tie down any more cap space for an eternity on non-essential guys; already done too much of that tbh. And it would be hard to convince many FAs to take 1-2 years - I doubt Hoffman would do it again, for example. Maybe the Blues could get Palat for cheaper than the picks here due to his cap hit and his tendency to miss time to injury, but I don't think it would be a bad move to kick the tires on his trade value w/ TB.