canes dont need to do that move especially as structured

Don’t think leaf’s would cough up both 1st & Minten; 1st + lesser prospect or 2nd/3rd + Minten. He’s highly thought of by Leafs brass

ROR is damaged goods. He will be another Foligno on the Leafs.

If the Leafs are going to trade a 1st and a good prospect it will be for a younger player with term, not an aging veteran on his last legs.

always start with the D

Those were good trades until I saw the NYR & ARI ones

I think K'Andre Miller is a very very good defensemen and I would love to have him on the Blues.

The Blues are not giving up Kyrou for him. That's absolutely ridiculous. It's more ridiculous to retain one million on him for the next eight years. Kyrou is here for the long run.

The defense is somewhat better but we're so weak up front now that it doesn't matter at all. All of this is just not worth it. The Blues need to find undervalued defensemen to roll the dice on, not pay up big for the hot name

I like the frame of mind you entered into this with, but certainly not all the execution. And how are we still having people trying to trade Kyrou? I'm utterly baffled. Also, you can only retain on three contracts.

Canes pass. Not moving Gardiner and Patches out, when their LTIR relief can be used much better.

both teams say no and don't call anymore

STL jump on the ARI trade tho, not even close

That's fine, maybe a lesser prospect, but I think the Blues need a 1st coming back.

Sorry that you disapprove, but I feel strongly that the Blues defense is a horrible mess and until it's addressed they won't be competitive. Ref. the NYR trade - I want K'Andre Miller. What's it take both in terms of assets and then making it cap compliant for the Rangers? The AZ trade - what don't you like?

Sorry, but I disagree. The Blues' defense is poorly contrived on a number of levels. Leddy and Krug make sense on competitive teams as complimentary pieces to an already solid D-corp. That's not the Blues. Kyrou is a great pond hockey player and, much like Brett Hull, is a single-dimensional forward with highly coveted skills that, again, only win on an already competitive roster. On a fragile roster such as the Blues, he's a detriment. His massive contract for his unproven and still immature game doesn't fit here, but could work great elsewhere.

The Rangers trade is unrealistic
They don't have the money and they are good with Miller on the 2nd pairing

ARI are getting fleeced ARI 2023 2nd round pick will be super early like 35th OA while one of CAR or TOR 1st could be 28-32nd OA
So it's basically Jakob Chychrun vs a late 1st round pick, drop a couple spots (5-10ish) and a meh player
The asking price is a TOP PROSPECT + 1st round pick + something decent
You got the 1st, maybe send Bolduc and Neighbours and you might get Chychrun

Yes it's a lot but ARI aren't budging, it's that or nothing

That’s fair. O’Reilly not having a great year, but I still think he & Tarasenko (both retained) will get 1sts + back . That’s if they are moved; read O’Reilly said he wants to stay? Not sure if that is just PR (he can’t come out and say he wants to be traded)

Yeah the Blues' defense is bad. That's obvious. No argument here.

Kyrou's been one of our best forwards all year. I have no problem with his contract or his play. I do not understand where this criticism is coming from. If you want to build a competitive roster, don't you want a guy whose highly skilled that works well on a competitive roster? Don't you want that guy cost controlled for the next 8 years? Who wouldn't want prime Brett Hull on their contending team? "He's like Brett Hull and that's bad", what an insane thing to say.

Even if you're right about Kyrou, retaining money on him from the next eight years is an extremely shortsighted thing to do. What you've done- retaining money on four contracts- is actually illegal to do under the CBA. There's a limit of 3. You don't want that one spot wasted for the next 8 years.

I just don't understand your plan. The reason to go get Chychrun is to get a cost controlled very good defensemen for a team that's competitive now but mostly capped out. You go get Chychrun, but the team is not competitive. Jake Neighbours is your 2LW. Noel Accari is your 2RW. You've got cap space, but you don't have any extra picks coming up the way and you have like 8 players playing above where their talent level is.

Like I said, the defense is better, but you've weakened the forward group so much in pursuit of a better defense that the team is still bad. It's just worse in a different way. The Blues have an okay forward group, a bad defense and a bad goalie. Now they have an okay defense group, a bad forward group and a bad goalie. Nothing has fundamentally changed with all this trading.

I am not a Kyrou fan. I lived through 11 years of Brett Hull’s single-dimensional glory days (how do you rack up nearly 1400 pts. and end up only +23?!?!) and never even sniffed the conference finals. Kyrou is great for a shift or two each game, but the rest of the time he is killing you. Give me a solid defense corps and goaltending and forwards that work their asses off and you will go deep into the playoffs every year. Having All-Stars for the sake of random highlights is pointless.

Pointing at +/- in the year 2023. Couldn't be me.

"Give me a solid defense group and goaltending and forwards that work their asses off and you will go deep every year" you're describing the New York Islanders of the last four-ish years, who haven't won a damn thing the whole time they've been "competitive" despite going deep, if they make the playoffs at all. Ditto the teams that do actually make the cup final (Dallas in 2020, Montreal in 2021). They get creamed by the teams stacked with all-stars every time. The NHL has changed. You need high end talent at all positions to win, along with luck.

1 - I get that.

2 - Setting aside the whole benefits of having a Hull vs. lack of playoff success as a team thing, Kyrou is not even remotely one-dimensional or Hull-like, for that matter.

3 - Yeah, that's just not right. He's been our leading scorer by eight, leading rush threat, leading transition guy (also part of playing defense, mind you), leading zone entry guy, leading shot driver, our top PP weapon (sorely needed with Frenchy gone) and is second on the team in primary assists. And I'm kinda surprised you haven't noticed the sharp uptick in defensive effort he's made over the last 20-30 games. He's working now. And he still has more ceiling to grow.

Then there's the bargain his deal will be in a couple years. It's not happening, man. Maybe just try to appreciate him.

Sorry, the scars are deep. You say he’s not like Brett Hull. I agree, he is not on Hull’s level, but the earmarks are so similar.

What is especially disquieting about Kyrou’s situation is that he has been playing under the tutelage of Berube and Ott for over four years, along side the likes of ROR, Steen, Schenn, and Perron, and yet the maturation of his game has been slow and minuscule. His comfort zone seems to be playing high end pond hockey, anything beyond that is a stretch. You say he’s made progress. I continue to see the horrendous turnovers, the soft forecheck, the failure to engage along the boards, and, most maddening given his speed, his unwillingness to back check. Now that Armstrong has guaranteed him $65M+, I cannot believe that he feels an real inclination to change his game.

You say I should just appreciate him. I don’t think so. I’m more of a team first guy. Teams win championships. Individuals win Wimbledon. And I have no use for tennis.

Yikes! And You forgot the 2019 Blues. No All-Stars, only three 20-goal scorers. Huge D who could skate. Heavy forecheck. Best friggin’ parade ever!

If you like watching Kyrou do his thing, good for you, I’m happy for you. I prefer watching competitive hockey in pursuit of a Cup. Hey, Brett Hull was an amazing shooter, but the Blues never came close to winning in his years here. I will admit that he was the central focus of the fan base, he sold a lot of tickets, every STL kid emulated him, and EC probably doesn’t get built without him. But, again, those teams never came close to a championship.

Now, DA has given Kyrou and Thomas the keys to the car while casting aside players that would have kept you competitive. Combine that with the gross mismanagement of the defense and you have the recipe for years of mediocrity. But, at least you’ll have some Kyrou highlights to watch instead of playoffs!

BTW - you only retain salary on his current contract which expires at the end of this year, not eight.

They still had elite talent at every position for that run. After Berube left, Pietrangelo and Tarasenko went on career high offensive sprees, with Pietrangelo having 9 goals in 45 games, Tarasenko with 22 goals in 39 games. Parayko was an elite shutdown D. O'Reilly was an elite shutdown defenseman. And Binnington came out of nowhere.

But also... the Blues sucked for a lot of that season! It took an ECHL goalie coming out of nowhere to get that team over the hump. That's not a sustainable pathway for success. I won't deny that the Blues won a lot more based on depth than maybe other contenders did, but that's not a playoff run you can replicate. And it still relied on high end talent scoring a lot to get them into that position.

Sorry, but where did Berube go?