It's time for the Blues to rebuild. The current roster is mess of solid to elite players who do not compliment each other. Krug is an elite offensive defenseman on a team that desperately needs stalwart defense. Scandella and Leddy fill holes in the second and third pairings, but the team has a huge void at 1LHD.
Currently, Armstrong appears to be trying to build a team around Thomas and Kyrou. Building around single-dimensional skilled players is a flawed strategy (11 years of Brett Hull/Blues and zero trips to conference finals or McDavid/EDM, Matthews/Mariner/TOR are great examples). Building around an elite young defenseman makes far more sense, e.g. Makar, Petro, Hedman, McAvoy. Hence, I'd go all in on Luke Hughes.
With these moves, you have the cap space to be competitive while your young prospects - Thomas, Neighbors, Bolduc, Snuggerud, Knies, and Hughes mature and this year's draft will yield two more 1sts.
With that cap space, I'd sign Ryan Graves this off-season and then pursue two veteran forwards to bolster the line-up and provide maturity to the locker room. It may be unrealistic, but Okposo and Killorn come immediately to mind. I'd also consider Barbashev, Sundqvist, and ROR, if they are available.
The overall team confidence is at rock bottom. Adding the UFAs mentioned above and/or others like them could go a long way to changing the mindset on this team. Face it, Parayko is a rehab project. Nobody will take that contract right now. The Blues have to get him back on track, and I think they can, but he's trying to do too much, more than he's capable of, and he lacks the resilience to bounce back when he fails. Surround him with better (more responsible, predictable) teammates and he may turn things around.
Yeah, Leafs easily decline. ROR isn't getting you Knies. We will be ok parting ways with the 1st and a B/C level prospect, a rental doesn't get you Knies
Not saying they should trade Hughes...but landing a 24-year old, PPG winger, a couple of decent young roster players, and a 1st Round Pick has to give you a little bit of pause, no?
I love Hughes as a prospect, don't get me wrong, but that's a pretty hefty offer for a guy that's still just a prospect...albeit a very good one.
Lol was just gonna say that the idea he has is good but Luke and Jack will be the cornerstones in Smell Jersey for 15 years 😉 they actually should swing a deal for Quinn being that Vancouver needs to blow it up anyway. But devils could do that instead of Meier for instance
Not saying they should trade Hughes...but landing a 24-year old, PPG winger, a couple of decent young roster players, and a 1st Round Pick has to give you a little bit of pause, no?
I love Hughes as a prospect, don't get me wrong, but that's a pretty hefty offer for a guy that's still just a prospect...albeit a very good one.
If they didn’t already have Jack maybe they’d trade him. But you could probably offer the moon and stars to them and they ain’t trading Luke
canes pass. We dont need to trade Patches. just lower the price and lets call it good.
That's fine, then just place him on LTIR to make cap space. It just doesn't matter. He's a UFA at the end of the season and can go right back to the Canes if he wants to. I just want to first for Tarasenko and make the cap work for the Canes.
That's fine, then just place him on LTIR to make cap space. It just doesn't matter. He's a UFA at the end of the season and can go right back to the Canes if he wants to. I just want to first for Tarasenko and make the cap work for the Canes.
canes dont move 1sts for rentals. The timeline in which we move Patches to LTIR is irrelevant. It'll be done before we start making moves.
Not saying they should trade Hughes...but landing a 24-year old, PPG winger, a couple of decent young roster players, and a 1st Round Pick has to give you a little bit of pause, no?
I love Hughes as a prospect, don't get me wrong, but that's a pretty hefty offer for a guy that's still just a prospect...albeit a very good one.
It’s definitely a nice looking offer, the issue is a Hughes is going the other way, and I think the marketing department would burn down The Rock if this happened before Luke laced em up with Jack 😂
If they didn’t already have Jack maybe they’d trade him. But you could probably offer the moon and stars to them and they ain’t trading Luke
Quoting: Tbrew
It’s definitely a nice looking offer, the issue is a Hughes is going the other way, and I think the marketing department would burn down The Rock if this happened before Luke laced em up with Jack 😂
Oh for sure. From a Hughes perspective, you really can't trade either one of them. Quinn would go to New Jersey before either of the New Jersey Hughes went elsewhere. Just thought it looked like a rather large haul from a pure hockey perspective.
Oh for sure. From a Hughes perspective, you really can't trade either one of them. Quinn would go to New Jersey before either of the New Jersey Hughes went elsewhere. Just thought it looked like a rather large haul from a pure hockey perspective.
Oh for sure. From a Hughes perspective, you really can't trade either one of them. Quinn would go to New Jersey before either of the New Jersey Hughes went elsewhere. Just thought it looked like a rather large haul from a pure hockey perspective.
Yea that’s big hockey trade, they are awesome to digest when they happen.
There’s just no reason to try and trade for Hughes. Yes the Blues need someone like him. But they also need Kyrou equally as much. Kyrou has his flaws with effort on the backcheck at times, and turnovers are times. But those are all pretty typical of high end young offensive players. We had the same issue with Tarasenko early on. He will probably never be a shutdown player, and he will never be a Marner level of responsible forward. But what we have is a 24 year old going on his second year of a PPG player at a pretty reasonable cap hit all the while the cap will raise making that contract even better.
We don’t have anyone remotely close to be able to replace the production. We’re much better off living with Thomas Kyrou and another player as a full on offensive sheltered line until they get to a point where they round out there game.
Carolina trade is on par, but no reason for Pacioretty to be included when he’ll just be LTIRed. Would probably add a B/C level prospect for it to be on par. That’s not saying Carolina would do it.
ROR trade switch Knies with Minten and you’re close to what I’d expect.
Washington one is interesting. Not sure if interest level with Carlson on PP1 though.
Rangers one is mildly interesting, not sure of where Kravstovs value is at. But certainly interesting
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