SalarySwishSalarySwish
Forums/Armchair-GM

If I was the Blues I would simply sign the best defenseman and center in FA

Created by: TheEarthmaster
Team: 2021-22 St. Louis Blues
Initial Creation Date: Jul. 1, 2021
Published: Jul. 1, 2021
Salary Cap Mode: Basic
Description
TL;DR: If I were the Blues I would simply sign the top free agent defenseman and center, why hasn't anyone else thought of this?

The novel if you are interested:

Expansion list
Forwards: Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Schenn, Thomas, Kyrou, Perron, Blais
Defense: Parayko, Krug, Dunn
Goalies: Binnington

But but but- what about Faulk? Look, Seattle probably won't even take him if he's exposed. If they do, it's fair to say that losing Faulk leaves a pretty decent sized hole in our roster. But it stands to reason that Faulk had a good year this year because of his regression to the mean after an abysmal year the previous year. Losing his contract would be painful if we aren't able to sign Hamilton or acquire a comparable defenseman to Faulk (Larsson, Miller, etc), but it will also be painful to have a bad contract on our books while trying to keep the window open, and that's a significant risk. There's a chance that Faulk has become a different player in a different system to Carolina, but even people who like Faulk have to admit that's an ungodly flimsy defense for that contract, considering the very few examples where defensemen exiting their prime suddenly become good/different players for a long period of time.

If Seattle doesn't take Faulk, I suppose there's no reason to sign Hamilton, or you can sign Hamilton and trade Parayko instead, though that will require some different moves to be made elsewhere. I would also be open to exposing Krug instead of Faulk, but (this year notwithstanding) Krug is the better player.

Signing Danault allows us to move Schenn to left wing full time where there's a need. We seem to think that Schenn is better suited as a center- I'm not so sure. He did not perform well this year at center and we've seen diminishing returns there since his first year. I'd like to see what he can do at wing and get an extremely good defensive center to center our second line, hopefully allowing the O'Reilly line to get more favorable matchups against lesser competition. Tatar is LW depth, he's really good folks! It's very dumb that he's scratched (unless he's injured). Looking for him to be our Craig Smith.

Let Thomas spend the whole year as the 3C. He's 22, so he's obviously not cooked, but we're really looking for this kid to put all the skills he obviously has together at some point. These sheltered minutes will hopefully let him do that and we can move him up if he starts outperforming Danault/O'Reilly. That's a good problem to have.

Re-sign Bozak for a year as he's been solid. Ryan is one of the best defensive forwards and PK'rs in the game for a long long time. Getting him for less than Sundqvist to do the exact same thing Sundqvist does is simply good cap allocation. Some moderate risk there with Ryan's age but I'm going with his proof of concept the last eight years, and it's not like there isn't risk with Sundqvist at this point considering his injury.

Sign Hamilton for obvious reasons if you can get him- he's elite, but he also slots Parayko into a more natural role on the second pair. Look to re-sign Parayko for about what Ryan Ellis is making now. This also allows Dunn to have a Pietrangelo-like partner with which to unlock his offensive game at even strength, at which he was mediocre this year.

Sign Craig Anderson as a third stringer to push Husso and a fallback plan if Husso is still bad. Get Logan Brown as a local boy reclamation project that can be buried in the minors if he doesn't work out.

This is a great team. It's ambitious but all of these players are being paid what the market would demand (per Evolving Hockey's contract predictor), all of the trades were made via rumors or (in Ottawa's case) direct statements from the team about what they're looking for, and there's no reason this team can't stack up against the best in the league (unless Binnington implodes which is always possible don't ever pay goalies for long term).
Free Agent Signings
RFAYEARSCAP HIT
2$3,000,000
2$2,000,000
3$2,750,000
UFAYEARSCAP HIT
7$8,750,000
3$4,500,000
7$6,500,000
2$1,750,000
1$1,250,000
1$750,000
Trades
1.
2.
TOR
  1. Bortuzzo, Robert
  2. 2022 3rd round pick (STL)
3.
STL
  1. Brown, Logan [RFA Rights]
  2. 2022 2nd round pick (TBL)
4.
STL
  1. 2021 4th round pick (LAK)
  2. 2022 7th round pick (NYR)
DraftRound 1Round 2Round 3Round 4Round 5Round 6Round 7
2021
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the LAK
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the DET
2022
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the TBL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the NYR
2023
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
Logo of the STL
ROSTER SIZESALARY CAPCAP HITOVERAGES TooltipBONUSESCAP SPACE
23$81,500,000$72,107,182$306,349$1,725,000$9,392,818

Roster

Left WingCentreRight Wing
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$6,500,000$6,500,000
C, LW
NTC
UFA - 7
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$1,875,000$1,875,000
C
UFA - 2
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$4,000,000$4,000,000
RW, LW
M-NTC
UFA - 1
$4,500,000$4,500,000
LW, RW
UFA - 2
$6,500,000$6,500,000
C
UFA - 6
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$3,750,000$3,750,000
RW
NTC
UFA - 2
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$1,500,000$1,500,000
LW, RW
UFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$2,000,000$2,000,000
C, RW
UFA - 2
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$2,750,000$2,750,000
RW
UFA - 2
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$863,333$863,333 (Performance Bonus$425,000$425K)
LW, RW
RFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$1,250,000$1,250,000
C, RW
UFA - 1
$1,750,000$1,750,000
C, RW
UFA - 2
Left DefenseRight DefenseGoaltender
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$3,000,000$3,000,000
LD/RD
UFA - 2
$8,750,000$8,750,000
RD
UFA - 7
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$6,000,000$6,000,000
G
NTC
UFA - 6
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$6,500,000$6,500,000
LD
NTC
UFA - 6
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$5,500,000$5,500,000
RD
UFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$750,000$750,000
G
UFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$787,500$787,500
LD
UFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$925,000$925,000 (Performance Bonus$1,300,000$1M)
LD
RFA - 1
ScratchesInjured Reserve (IR)Long Term IR (LTIR)
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$725,000$725,000
LD
UFA - 1
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$900,000$900,000
LW, RW
UFA - 1
Logo of the Toronto Maple Leafs
$725,000$725,000
C
UFA - 1
Taxi Squad
Logo of the St. Louis Blues
$1,000,000$1,000,000 ($0$0$0$0)
LW
UFA - 1
$750,000$750,000 ($0$0$0$0)
G
UFA - 1

Embed Code

  • To display this team on another website or blog, add this iFrame to the appropriate page
  • Customize the height attribute in the iFrame code below to fit your website appropriately. Minimum recommended: 400px.

Text-Embed

Click to Highlight
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:25 p.m.
#1
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jul. 2018
Posts: 2,267
Likes: 699
I think Leafs decline as Brooks is a serviceable 4th line center who makes under league min. which the leafs could use
TheEarthmaster liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:27 p.m.
#2
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jan. 2020
Posts: 8,370
Likes: 2,275
Faulk has a full NTC you don't have a choice if you want to protect him or not.

Edit: nvm I was wrong. Why would you protect him?
TheEarthmaster liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:35 p.m.
#3
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jan. 2017
Posts: 6,470
Likes: 1,982
You're going to pay Danault over 6 mil? He's 4-4.5 mil tops! He's really good defensively,but his offense leaves much to be desired. Not worth that kind of money.
mokumboi liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:44 p.m.
#4
Avatar of the user
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 2,490
Likes: 882
The Blues wouldn't give Petro $8.75M so don't see them giving that to Hamilton. Also don't like that Sundqvist trade. He does too much for Blues.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:45 p.m.
#5
STL
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jul. 2019
Posts: 3,604
Likes: 1,633
Actually pretty good. I think you could drop a mil or so off Danault though, and I wouldn’t expect that return in the OTT trade. It’s a lot of moves, so not sure how realistic all of it would be, but I wouldn’t be upset with this turnout.

What do you think we do next summer assuming Tarasenko has a decent bounce-back? We would have to re-sign Parayko and Perron.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:53 p.m.
#6
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: Chopper02
You're going to pay Danault over 6 mil? He's 4-4.5 mil tops! He's really good defensively,but his offense leaves much to be desired. Not worth that kind of money.


Just because someone doesn't physically score the points doesn't mean that they don't drive offense extremely well. Danault is a possession machine (which is why he's also so good on defense) on a team that has historically had horrible special teams (where a lot of these guys actually rack up their points) while he's been there. An expected goals for pecentage of over 55% is the hallmark of a very good offensive driver, even if he doesn't have a lot of shooting talent himself.

He's worth the money, but like, I'm down for him to sign for less of course. Even if he isn't worth the money, I feel like he's gonna get paid after the Habs run by somebody.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 2:57 p.m.
#7
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: Chooch
The Blues wouldn't give Petro $8.75M so don't see them giving that to Hamilton. Also don't like that Sundqvist trade. He does too much for Blues.


I'd like to hope they realize that not giving that money to Pietrangelo was dumb and not make that mistake twice if they have a chance to acquire a younger, arguably better RHD for about the same price.

Derek Ryan can do everything Sundqvist can do and he can do it better. Sundqvist has the higher upside and maybe a bit more of a scoring touch, but who knows what he is after this ACL injury.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:00 p.m.
#8
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jan. 2017
Posts: 6,470
Likes: 1,982
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
Just because someone doesn't physically score the points doesn't mean that they don't drive offense extremely well. Danault is a possession machine (which is why he's also so good on defense) on a team that has historically had horrible special teams (where a lot of these guys actually rack up their points) while he's been there. An expected goals for pecentage of over 55% is the hallmark of a very good offensive driver, even if he doesn't have a lot of shooting talent himself.

He's worth the money, but like, I'm down for him to sign for less of course. Even if he isn't worth the money, I feel like he's gonna get paid after the Habs run by somebody.


He's definitely not worth 6.5 mil. Not to mention he's also 28. So his performance will be going down pretty quickly here in a couple years. Again I like him and he fits the Blues mold, but for 6.5? Let him go.
Also worth mentioning that while it's great to have a high expected goals for, it doesn't mean much if you or linemates don't put the puck in the net.
While there are other things here I disagree with, it's pretty tame to the Danult. I'm thinking 4 × 4.5? So 18 mil over 4 years.
mokumboi liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:01 p.m.
#9
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jan. 2017
Posts: 6,470
Likes: 1,982
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
I'd like to hope they realize that not giving that money to Pietrangelo was dumb and not make that mistake twice if they have a chance to acquire a younger, arguably better RHD for about the same price.

Derek Ryan can do everything Sundqvist can do and he can do it better. Sundqvist has the higher upside and maybe a bit more of a scoring touch, but who knows what he is after this ACL injury.


They wouldn't give Petro a NMC which was the hold up. Giant mistake though when you consider they're paying Faulk and Krug 13mil for Petro can do by himself for $8
TheEarthmaster and mokumboi liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:01 p.m.
#10
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: jwg314
Actually pretty good. I think you could drop a mil or so off Danault though, and I wouldn’t expect that return in the OTT trade. It’s a lot of moves, so not sure how realistic all of it would be, but I wouldn’t be upset with this turnout.

What do you think we do next summer assuming Tarasenko has a decent bounce-back? We would have to re-sign Parayko and Perron.


I'd like to see Parayko sign an extension for about Ryan Ellis money, move on from Blais and promote Neighbors, and then hopefully talk Perron into taking about what he's making now on a three year deal. He's earned more, but he will be 34 so taking him to 37 I feel like is more than fair for four million in a flat cap environment and that lets him retire as Blue. May also have to finally move Dunn that offseason if the cap space is needed, hopefully Perunovich is ready for a bigger role by that point.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:05 p.m.
#11
STL
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jul. 2019
Posts: 3,604
Likes: 1,633
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
I'd like to see Parayko sign an extension for about Ryan Ellis money, move on from Blais and promote Neighbors, and then hopefully talk Perron into taking about what he's making now on a three year deal. He's earned more, but he will be 34 so taking him to 37 I feel like is more than fair for four million in a flat cap environment and that lets him retire as Blue. May also have to finally move Dunn that offseason if the cap space is needed, hopefully Perunovich is ready for a bigger role by that point.


I was actually wondering if Tarasenko has a bounce-back year, do we trade him for a nice haul for the final year of his contract or do we try to keep him?
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:08 p.m.
#12
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: Chopper02
He's definitely not worth 6.5 mil. Not to mention he's also 28. So his performance will be going down pretty quickly here in a couple years. Again I like him and he fits the Blues mold, but for 6.5? Let him go.
Also worth mentioning that while it's great to have a high expected goals for, it doesn't mean much if you or linemates don't put the puck in the net.
While there are other things here I disagree with, it's pretty tame to the Danult. I'm thinking 4 × 4.5? So 18 mil over 4 years.


Brendan Gallagher, Danault's most common line mate, is 5th in 5v5 goals since 17-18, behind Ovechkin, Pastrnak, Kucherov, McDavid. Seems like someone is putting pucks in the net on Danault's line with his high xGF%. Imagine what he could do with someone like Tarasenko.

You make a good point about Danault's age but the way this team is built we've got a ton of guys already in that position. Krug, Faulk, Binnington, Schenn are all Danault's age or older and signed to long term deals, all will be 33 or older when their contracts are done. O'Reilly and Tarasenko are in that same range and at least one of them will presumably be re-signed. So from my view, who cares what Danault is when he's 31 or 32? Get the talent now and deal with the consequences when the cup window is closed. It's not like 6.5 is an unmovable contract later if the guy only has a few years left and some playoff success to his name.

Of course, if we can get Danault for like 4.5 million I would again of course do that in a heartbeat. Don't need to twist my arm to save money, but I legitimately think someone will pay him that and I would do it if I was the Blues (wouldn't go any higher though).

Also happy to field any of the other things you dislike! Always like talking the Blues with the homies on Capfriendly.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:11 p.m.
#13
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: jwg314
I was actually wondering if Tarasenko has a bounce-back year, do we trade him for a nice haul for the final year of his contract or do we try to keep him?


Really depends on what the bounce back looks like. If he's a twenty goal guy, which I think is the most likely "bounce back" type we see, and you can get a different twenty goal guy that someone else is undervaluing (like a Victor Arvidsson type, maybe a bit better) then yeah I might trade him in the last year. But if he's back to high twenties low thirties I think based on the lack of elite scoring talent throughout the rest of the team you probably want to roll the dice and maybe even re-sign him at that point. But I could see it going either way, especially if cap space is an issue.
jwg314 liked this.
Jul. 1, 2021 at 3:37 p.m.
#14
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jan. 2017
Posts: 6,470
Likes: 1,982
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
Brendan Gallagher, Danault's most common line mate, is 5th in 5v5 goals since 17-18, behind Ovechkin, Pastrnak, Kucherov, McDavid. Seems like someone is putting pucks in the net on Danault's line with his high xGF%. Imagine what he could do with someone like Tarasenko.

You make a good point about Danault's age but the way this team is built we've got a ton of guys already in that position. Krug, Faulk, Binnington, Schenn are all Danault's age or older and signed to long term deals, all will be 33 or older when their contracts are done. O'Reilly and Tarasenko are in that same range and at least one of them will presumably be re-signed. So from my view, who cares what Danault is when he's 31 or 32? Get the talent now and deal with the consequences when the cup window is closed. It's not like 6.5 is an unmovable contract later if the guy only has a few years left and some playoff success to his name.

Of course, if we can get Danault for like 4.5 million I would again of course do that in a heartbeat. Don't need to twist my arm to save money, but I legitimately think someone will pay him that and I would do it if I was the Blues (wouldn't go any higher though).

Also happy to field any of the other things you dislike! Always like talking the Blues with the homies on Capfriendly.


Honestly didn't know Gallagher has put up that many goals recently so thank you for that. I knew he had 30 a couple seasons ago, but didn't think Danault was the reason. Thought that had more to do with playing with Patches and Tatar.
But still wouldn't pay him 6.5. The fact that the Blues do have so many players in that age range bothers me too because they will all come crashing at once. If the Blues can get away from one or three of those 30+yo contracts, I'd be happy.

I think Tatar and Hamilton will clash with Berube's style of play. I'd still rather have Sundqvist than Ryan given age. So just minor stuff like that.
TheEarthmaster liked this.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 12:10 a.m.
#15
mokumboi
Avatar of the user
Joined: Apr. 2019
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 11,075
Protecting Blais (who you then say you want to move on from) and giving away Sunny for peanut shells? Bruh.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 10:09 a.m.
#16
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: mokumboi
Protecting Blais (who you then say you want to move on from) and giving away Sunny for peanut shells? Bruh.


I'm fine with protecting Sundqvist instead of Blais but I made the trade under the assumption that it would happen pre-expansion draft. Also, unless you've got a pretty significant trade in the works at the time of the expansion draft (ala Reaves for a 1st and Sundqvist) it doesn't make a lot of sense to protect a player that you plan to trade, and I wanted to trade Sundqvist so the list is what it is.

The only reason I move on from Blais in the future is because we would have cheaper, potentially better options to slot in on 3LW the following year, depending on how Neighbors or Kostin do. I'd rather have Blais there this year, when he's making 1.5, then next year when he could be making in the twos. Sometimes a player makes sense one year and not the next. That's smart cap management, which is the exact same reason I'm moving on from Sundqvist (whom I know you think is really important for reasons that I don't fully understand) this year for "peanut shells"- he's an oft injured player who is fine but not particularly good at any one thing, makes a good chunk of money, and is the kind of player that stupid teams will think is good because he plays with heart or something.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 10:23 a.m.
#17
mokumboi
Avatar of the user
Joined: Apr. 2019
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 11,075
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
I'm fine with protecting Sundqvist instead of Blais but I made the trade under the assumption that it would happen pre-expansion draft. Also, unless you've got a pretty significant trade in the works at the time of the expansion draft (ala Reaves for a 1st and Sundqvist) it doesn't make a lot of sense to protect a player that you plan to trade, and I wanted to trade Sundqvist so the list is what it is.

The only reason I move on from Blais in the future is because we would have cheaper, potentially better options to slot in on 3LW the following year, depending on how Neighbors or Kostin do. I'd rather have Blais there this year, when he's making 1.5, then next year when he could be making in the twos. Sometimes a player makes sense one year and not the next. That's smart cap management, which is the exact same reason I'm moving on from Sundqvist (whom I know you think is really important for reasons that I don't fully understand) this year for "peanut shells"- he's an oft injured player who is fine but not particularly good at any one thing, makes a good chunk of money, and is the kind of player that stupid teams will think is good because he plays with heart or something.


1- Fair enough, but that's a terrible return. He could fetch more than that easy.

2- It's certainly not just me who thinks he's important, and all of us have laid out the reasons for this view ad nauseum. And 2.75M is a good chunk of money? That's more than 1M less than the team's average salary.

As for his injuries, the ACL was pure bad luck, could have happened to anyone. I'd also find it very harsh to count incidents where he is cheap-shotted by a lunatic in calling him "injury-prone".

But hey, you obviously don't like him, and that's your right. It's also my right to find that dislike silly.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 11:10 a.m.
#18
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: mokumboi
1- Fair enough, but that's a terrible return. He could fetch more than that easy.

2- It's certainly not just me who thinks he's important, and all of us have laid out the reasons for this view ad nauseum. And 2.75M is a good chunk of money? That's more than 1M less than the team's average salary.

As for his injuries, the ACL was pure bad luck, could have happened to anyone. I'd also find it very harsh to count incidents where he is cheap-shotted by a lunatic in calling him "injury-prone".

But hey, you obviously don't like him, and that's your right. It's also my right to find that dislike silly.


For the record I don't "dislike" him or any player on the Blues, even the ones I rail on. Sundqvist is a solid low event fourth line player, I just think he makes too much money as a fourth line player (average salary is a bit misleading too considering that you would expect the high end players to make a lot more money). I might be being unfair with the injury thing, it just seems like he plays a pretty reckless style and spends a lot of time on the shelf, random ACL injury and Wilson-ness aside.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 11:54 a.m.
#19
mokumboi
Avatar of the user
Joined: Apr. 2019
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 11,075
Quoting: TheEarthmaster
For the record I don't "dislike" him or any player on the Blues, even the ones I rail on. Sundqvist is a solid low event fourth line player, I just think he makes too much money as a fourth line player (average salary is a bit misleading too considering that you would expect the high end players to make a lot more money). I might be being unfair with the injury thing, it just seems like he plays a pretty reckless style and spends a lot of time on the shelf, random ACL injury and Wilson-ness aside.



I meant dislike as a player, not a human.
Jul. 2, 2021 at 3:18 p.m.
#20
Thread Starter
Good Opinion Haver
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 1,823
Likes: 926
Quoting: mokumboi
I meant dislike as a player, not a human.


No I know, but like I don't even think he's a bad player persay, just think he makes too much money for what he provides (plus the ACL thing, which is not his fault, but who knows what he is now).
 
Reply
To create a post please Login or Register
Question:
Options:
Add Option
Submit Poll