Blues Player Tiers According To Me ie the right ones

Team: 2023-24 St. Louis Blues

Initial Creation Date: Apr. 19, 2023

Published: Apr. 19, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

This is how I see the roster. I see the Blues at best being 2-3 years away from being a Day 1 playoff contender again, barring some pretty radical moves over the next season. So this isn't a fully "I want to trade this player because he's bad" than a "I want to trade this player because he doesn't fit what we're trying to do here anymore".

Although some players I want to trade because they're bad.

Untouchable tier- self explanatory. Buchnevich is an edge case for me, given his age and when the team will be good again, but he's just so good man, I can't put him anywhere else. Blue for life.

Not Likely tier- Most of these guys are like fine players at worst, some are still very good, but none figure to be core pieces when the team is competitive, given their ages, and most are overpayed. That said, most of them play significant roles and have trade protection. If the trade is right, I wouldn't be opposed to moving some of them to get the contracts off the books for the dicey years. And when I say right, I mean not just value but in such a way that the Blues can replace the minutes. A player like Faulk could return quite a bit after a career year, and I don't care that it would be an overall step back to sell your "best" defenseman on an already bad team. But probably I'd hang on to them.

More valuable here- your odds and ends. Maybe one gets packaged as a "roster player" part of a trade but otherwise they all figure to be around next year.

Propects- again, self explanatory. I'm not attached to any of these guys too much that they would be untouchable in a trade but it would have to be a significant young piece.

Time to go, if there's a sucker - never say never, but I don't see how they can move on from these guys, which makes me more resigned to put players I like like Faulk and Parayko in the "Not likely but I'll listen" tier. They just have to change the backend mix somehow, even if it means taking a step back. But moving any of these three guys would be a step forward. Not sure I would pay to move anyone other than Krug.

The Jordan Binnington Tier- This guy sucks. Every none Blues fan will tell you this guy sucks. Here's a Blues fan telling you too. I don't like the way he plays goalie, and I don't like the other stuff either. But I do legitimately think the team gets something productive out of the other stuff, and likes playing in front of him, and I'm trying to be bad anyway and don't want to overexpose Hofer. And also who would want him anyway. So, he'll hang around.