1. We are not bringing back Gambrell.

2. DeBrincat and Pinto both get more.

3. Colton Parayko declines.

Yeah I don't see the blues moving Parayko as it would destroy our defense and we have no D prospects that project to be top 4. I think they only way we trade Parayko is in a package that has a good defensive prospect that can play in the top 4 in the future

I think we Anaheim fans have agreed to accept the Washington second for Zaitsev; if you need someone to fill his place for the balance of this season, we'll give you Kevin Shattenkirk for that fourth. No need for friends to overpay.

I feel like Parayko is the only D on the Blues worth keeping (besides Calle Rosen weirdly.)

Parayko is Canadian but probably a pipe dream. We'll have Monday next year pinto Gambrell could help develop young players in the AHL

Brannstrom or Thomson could or the first rounder assuming you tear it down keeping a core of binnington Kyrou and Thomas

That's why I Want him maybe leddy with 50% but I doubt the blues would do that

I thought it wasn't enough from others teams but that's fine with me.

I have no idea what the Blues will do with this defense. There’s no easy way out.

There's some guys in free agency like Dumba or Severson.

I can’t see that happening. They need to tear this down and start fresh.

Brannstrom already has played 150 games and has not shown top four potential. He's probably a bottom pairing defensemen in the long run. Thompson is the same as he is more of a bottom pairing Defensemen than a true top 4 defensemen. These aren't good enough to trade Parayko for as they don't have the potential or have shown the potential to replace his impact on our team.

Ehh nope. And can we stop pretending Brannstrom has a lot of value?

And what is your Leddy trade then? Talk to me.

Faulk is worth keeping. Issue is aside from Rosen, not sure any LD is. And that’s mainly because Rosen is so cheap

Faulk is so so so porous defensively

Over his length with the Blues, he’s been pretty reliable defensively. I know he’s not getting the majority of the shutdown minutes like Parayko, but he’s been a very good player for us and I certainly don’t see him as a guy who needs replaced. I think both him and Parayko could really benefit from having a better partner. But another issue is they’re stuck in a 1A/1B situation since Pietrangelo left

I just think having Faulk and Parayko as the top 2 D is not good enough. One of them is going to have to go to really build a championship quality group.

He's good as a PP QB but doesn't have that opportunity in Ottawa. His advanced stats are good but he's not producing

He has been good with Zub so I could see him doing well playing top-4 minutes with him instead of Holden (who has "aged" now)

Thomson is not 100% ready but his offensive game is already quite good, still very unclear if he could be a 2nd pairing D-man or not

But agreed with your point, where is the motivation for the Blues to do that? It would be a rebuild move.



Who pretended that?

Brannstrom has continued to progress well, his advanced stats are good but the points are not coming

He's the 3rd/4th most valuable piece here. The value is mostly in the 1st and Thomson

Certainly fair. I think having both of them could certainly work with better quality partners. But having a power play specialist eating up the cap and Leddy who is probably a tier or two below also eating cap it’s certainly a tough situation to find the right compliments. I don’t think your idea is necessarily bad either with where we’re at. We just have no one to replace either now or in the near future

You're focused on the wrong side. Parayko and Faulk are just fine. The problems are Leddy and Krug.

Brannstrom fills a roster spot and can play both sides

They’re all mediocre at best

Yeah, I don't come close to agreeing with that. The sheer volume of things that Colt and Pornstache do stop is massive. They've obviously made too many dumb mistakes this season (though Colt's have thankfully kinda dried up in recent weeks), but it cannot compare to the carnage caused by Leddy and Krug this season. You can call Parayko and Faulk whatever you want, but let's not act like those LDs are anywhere close to the defensive level of those RDs. That's just silly. Those RDs do so much and then eventually screw up. Those LDs are a carnival of wacky screwups - lots of which get covered by those RDs.

Yes the left d are seriously bad, but I don’t think either of the other guys deserve much credit either. Faulk sure had a fun run of insane PDO for 100 games, but that’s over. I still have faith in Parayko to be a borderline top-pair guy (still does so many damn good things defensively) but the puck play and upsetting mistakes is hard to watch.