I agree with this breakdown. As much as I love Buchy (probably my favorite along with Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours) he probably needs to be traded for a return sooner than later. He has really high value at this upcoming deadline and the blues need to start figuring something out for the defense or its still gonna be a problem when our forwards develop.

I would be very particular in a return for Buchnevich and Parayko. I would be very open to moving almost anyone else outside of the core players group. Aside from possibly Sunny due to circumstances. Not sure you want to move a guy who bent over backwards to come back here because he wants to be here. Especially in a circumstance we’re in an out now where it could be ugly for a couple of seasons.

Sundqvist has been rock solid, especially for his salary. If he wants to stick around through a rebuild for a couple years I would be supportive. I was suspicious on bringing him back (just because that's always what teams with closed windows do with their old cup guys) but I think he'd be good for the room and to eat some minutes.

RE: Parayko, I'm still a believer in his abilities. Still think he's the best defenseman on the team. But I also think the Blues just cannot take the risk of going through a rebuild and then coming out of it with mid-thirties Parayko having 2-3 years left on his deal. The range of possibilities of where his play will be is so wide, if he'd move I'd love someone else to take the risk. You bring in someone worse to eat the minutes in the short term and fire up the tank, and save Stillman some money for when he's gotta dole out extensions to the hopefully many many good young players they draft.

With Buchnevich I still waffle back and forth. I'd really hate to lose him, but what he could fetch (especially for 2 playoff runs, potentially) could be too valuable. Wouldn't take much to talk me into an extension, if the money and term was right.

I share a lot of your sentiments. My issue is I firmly believe that if we’re trading Parayko we have to commit to a longer term rebuild. Which is fine honestly. My issue is if Parayko goes and we try to piece it together from there. We have enough pieces left still that we’re going to be up a creek without a paddle. There’s just nobody in the system I truly trust playing a competent large role defensively. Faulk is a point producer, that’s really it. I’m cannot expect anyone playing with him to be elevated by his play. I can’t expect good results if he’s placed in the defensive zone against tougher competition regardless of who he is paired with. He just makes mistakes pretty frequently and truly that’s not his strengths which is fine. But we will not find that guy especially with the other long term commitments we have on the open market. It’s going to have to come from one of the next couple of drafts