Edited Mar. 30, 2020 at 12:27 a.m.
Quoting: aadoyle
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/contract-talks-picking-blues-captain-pietrangelo/
basically they wanted to pay pitrangelo what Oliver Ekman-Larsson is making but talks slowed down by oct, 30. pitrangelo isnt interested in that type of money hes waiting for the end of the season to get as much as he can. If karlsson and doughty can get that money why cant I. The predators got lucky because Josi signed on a discount as he could have commanded way more. We will see what happens in the summer but if pitrangelo wanted to stay a blue he would have signed already. He is probably going to explore the UFA market as there are probably a lot of teams interested in him and willing to spend.
That doesn't say anything about the "three times the Blues offered and he rejected all three offers" thing that you said. All it says is they want OEK money, and he wants more than that, which is non-news, like of course he wants more than they want to give him, that's why negotiations exist. Pietrangelo has never been held in the esteem that Doughty or Karlsson have, he's never won a Norris, he's never single-handedly dragged a team to the postseason like Karlsson did with Ottawa, and he's older than either of those guys were when they signed their contracts. There's very little precedent for him to receive a Doughty or Karlsson level contract even if he goes UFA. And also, those contracts are bad! If that's what he really wants than yeah totally let him walk. But, I think there'a actually very few teams that have the space to offer him that level of contract anyway. Everyone is going to be under the gun for the cap this year. The only teams that do have the space are teams that are bad- the Ducks, the Sens, the Devils. And the Predators did not get Josi on a discount, they just paid him for eight years instead of the seven he would have gotten on any other team. 9mil x 8 years = 10.3mil x 7 years on any other team. That's why those guys get more as UFAs, they don't really get more, it's just contract structure.
Pietrangelo not signing yet I don't think is indicative of much, Armstrong has a reputation for playing hardball (which is kinda weird, considering how many bleh contracts he's given out, but that's what the player agent poll said) and so does Newport Sports. They hold out as long as they can to see if the other will blink first, because we're talking about a ton of money here, the biggest contract on the Blues. But I think at the end of the day, what's the motivation for him to leave? You might say money, but it's the same thing with Josi, the Blues can offer him a lower cap hit but have an extra year, so they can offer him pretty much as much money in general (and allow him to play longer) as any other team unless someone offers him Doughty or Karlsson level money, which, is really only what, probably seven million more total, in the grand scheme of things? I mean, that's a lot of money, but not that much when we're talking about an 70 million contract. He's the captain on a team set to contend for the cup for a long time. He married a St. Louis girl. What can he really get somewhere else that he can't get here?