Joined: May 2017
Posts: 28
Likes: 2
The blues trade makes sense value wise, but I don't think the blues could stomach it. Schwartz is a 55-60 points winger before we acquired Schenn and is looking like a 65-70 point player with him compared to ROR 60-65 center. Schwartz has an injury history that is a little worrisome (seems to always have a freak accident), he is one of the very few "drivers" we have on our team. Obviously ROR plays the harder position, but with the chemistry Schwartz & Schenn had, they were both 70+ players, and Schenn didn't look nearly as good when Schwartz went down. While the blues are deep at LW now, it's because we have Schwartz anchoring the top slot. Without Schwartz, we have a declining Steen, who while still is a solid top-6 LW, is trending down; and we have a huge question mark in Fabbri coming off 2 ACL surgeries.
We have a bunch of LHS LWers in the system, but none project as sure fire top6 players, and none nearly at Schwartzy's level. Kostin could be a top6 option in the future and is LHS, but he is a still a question mark and plays more on RW.
While having ROR-Schenn down the middle would be a solid 1-2, I don't think significant drop in our LW depth would be worth it. If schenn turns into a 50-55 point center without schwartz instead of 70+ with, then it is going to look really bad, not to mention if Fabbri doesn't return as a top6 player or Steen's declines even faster.
Looking at things more deeply, I don't think there is a way the blues can trade for ROR without opening a huge hole somewhere else. It is likely going to take a deal like the above Schwartz+small add, Parayko, or Dunn ++, all of which either open a huge hole that we are not ready to fill (Schwartz/Parayko) or open a hole and deplete other important aspects (Dunn++). While he may never reach the level of ROR, we also have a promising Center prospect in Thomas who projects as a top6 center. The blues would probably be better off looking at a lesser 2C and see what they have in Thomas, instead of opening a huge hole for a 1C like ROR to play him at 2C.