You've got the right guys going out the door but you're way too ambitious with those returns IMO. If we got absolutely nothing for them, it would be more realistic than this.

Whats the plan for next offseason? Let Schwartz walk in UFA?

Meh, maybe. Maybe not. None of the players moved are worthless. Allen had 2 inconsistent seasons, & Blues fans think he's untradeable. Bozak & Gunarsson are good role players, & Reinke would be in the NHL if not for being blocked.

Maybe the 1st is ambitious, but a 2nd 2yrs away & a 2nd next yr aren't outrageous.

Ottawa is not giving a 1st and 2nd for that. Maybe the 2nd... maaaaybe. And Bozak won't fetch a 2nd. A 3rd tops, and he might have more value to a contender.

No. Next offseason is next offseason. With this roster, they Blues have over 18 mil in cap space next year. Schwartz, Thomas, & Kyrou will eat most of that, but if you have to move a Sanford or Barbashev to keep Schwartz, you do it

I'd trade Schenn before I let that happen. Maybe that's just me.

Allen has been absolute money the last 18 months. And only the dedicated Snake-haters think that he's untradeable.

Marco Scandella went for a 2nd & a conditional 4th. Bozak can get a 2nd 2 years away

Ottawa has 3 1sts this yr. They're looking to improve, not keep picking top 5. They own NYI pick, which is likely #20 or later. It's a fair deal for a starting goalie & 2 top 9 D men for a team that needs a bunch of help.

Fredrik Anderson alone, without a full starting season, got a 1st & a 2nd the following year.

Not sure who takes Schenn on an 8 year deal though

You might have to, with the cap only going up 1 mil, the only notable cap relief you get would be from Schwartz. Or trading a big cap player. Thomas and Binnington all likely get decent raises, and Kyrou and Blais or Sanford all probably get small ones. The question becomes would you rather lose a forward next offseason or is your defense+binnington good enough that you can let Petro walk?

Realistically its not actually 18 mil in cap space. Half of that comes from Schwartz and Binnington, both of whom probably get raises if you re-sign him. Thomas is gonna get a nice little raise himself, Blais and Sanford get ballpark 2 mil each, so losing one of them to make room for a league minimum player isnt going to save you enough money

Hey man, maybe you should be the one to ring up Ottawa.

Yes, they're looking to improve. You still haven't done any of that in your trade.

They're not looking to improve by bringing in old and overpaid players, they're doing it by waiting for their prospects to develop. In fact, they DO want to keep picking top 5 for at least another season. They're not going to trade any high pick for Allen, who's a year removed from being bad and St. Louis fans' favourite player to dump on other teams, or for a 33 year old bottom pairing D. And Reinke isn't good enough to incentivize anything here. Allen at his absolute best is worth a 2nd, Reinke a 3rd, and Gunnarsson a 4th. That is at their absolute tip top shape so far, and they're not always at that. And yet somehow that equals up to a 1st and a 2nd? Not a chance.

"Starting" goalie, and two top 9 D? The comedy writes itself.

If the Blues re-sign Petro you swing a deal to get Seattle to bite and take Faulk. That would be potentially quite expensive. But I don't know what other options you'd have. You're not going to pay a 3rd pairing Right D man $6.5 per. If Petro walks then the salary cap problem solves itself.



This. Both of those squads are in the business of ACQUIRING future assets, not trading them away. If Minnesota isn't on Bozak's 10 team NTC (issue #1) and Minnesota somehow has a way to fit the entire $5 million cap hit in without Blues retaining a sizeable portion of it (issue #2) I think the Blues may have to pay Minny to take him. Again, it'd be the opposite way they're heading.

In playing around with these armchair GM things, trading Gunnarsson keeps making sense. We got Mikkola, Walman and Perunovich coming up and teams are nearly always in need of depth D. We could get a team to take his whole cap I would think and we wouldn't be atrociously weaker because of it. I would miss him on an emotional level but that's beside the point haha.