Basis of the trade is Yotes cutting cost. Freddy is owed $1m and they get a cheap defender that's an RFA. Saving them almost $7M in real dollars

What's the basis of the Blues trade though? I may have missed it, but I didn't realize that they were rebuilding?

Tarasenko goes to LTIR, which give the Blues the a little bit of room to re-sign Pietrangelo (If that's what he wants), before having to ultimately make the cap work down the road.

I mean, I heard he needs surgery but his career isn't done. What happens when his cap hit comes back in the middle of the season and you need to cut cost and everyone knows it.?

What does that have to do with trading Parayko for a stack of futures?

Because you will absolutely have to move salary to get Tarensenko in the line and by mid season few teams will have space and they will hold a gun to your head to help you remove salary.

So, if they need to shed salary, why are they taking $3 mil Johnsson?

Also, nobody said "wait til mid season". If they choose, they've got the opportunity to re-sign him (or not), and have 5+ months to deal with shedding whatever salary they need to. No need to wait until the last minute. They've also got plenty of mid-range assets that can help them dump a contract or two.

Riiight, okaaay. So why does that mean Parayko has to be the one dealt?

It doesn't have to be Parayko, but moving guys like Steen or Bozak in the middle of the season will be very hard.

Maybe so, maybe not, depends on what injuries befall teams and things like that. But who says we need to wait until then to move a guy like Bozak?