Team: 2024-25 St. Louis Blues

Initial Creation Date: Mar. 27, 2024

Published: Mar. 27, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I think fans will be pretty upset if Army brings back exactly the same team as this year. This team just isn't good enough to win anything in the playoffs and isn't bad enough to get a top pick to be excited about. A direction needs to be picked. My goal for next year is simple, develop the prospects. Snuggerud needs to be signed by the end of this year. Sure burning a year on his ELC sucks but it's better than him not signing. Snuggerud should play in the top 6 next year, no excuses. The talk is the Blues want a top 6 center and top 9 winger and they would be stupid to go out and add a veteran to fill that spot (I mean look how that worked out with Hayes). The key is patience. If you sign a vet, make it a 1 or 2 year deal MAX and let prospects like Dvorsky, Stenberg, Dean, and others start to filter into the forward core. Other prospect notes include Bolduc getting a top 9 role full time next year, and Alexandrov either getting a full time roll or getting traded for another struggling prospect.

Players the Blues should attempt to trade this offseason in order of value:
Buchnevich: Great player, doesn't fit the Blues window to win. No point in signing him to a long term contract when the Blues have so many forward prospects coming. I would bet that Buch is extended rather than traded. I think Army would rather trade Kyrou which would be a massive mistake.
Leddy: Leddy has actually been solid this year on the top pair. He only makes 4 million and would be really solid on the 2nd pair. I don't think Army will even attempt to move him, which again, is a mistake. Leddy isn't a part of the long term plan here and if he can be moved for future assets he should be.
Faulk: Faulk is a steady top 4 defender. I think a lot of teams would have interest in him especially if the Blues retained. I think it's actually pretty likely that Faulk gets moved in the offseason. The emergence of the Krug-Kessel pair will have solidify that move.
Hayes: Hayes has been very disappointing this year but at the same time he's been asked to play more of a defensive role as opposed to the offensive role he's used to. I think he could be traded at next years deadline or in the summer after that.
Other mentions:
Krug: almost impossible to move. He's actually played good recently so that's nice but until his full NTC turns into a partial NTC he is likely stuck here.
Saad: Saad does his role in getting 20-25 goals a year as a middle 6 winger. Some teams should have interest but I doubt he's truly shopped.

Below are some new trade proposals or just players I would be interested in. Also, the signings are meant to be short term overpays that could be moved at the deadline and let Dvorsky step in to the lineup if needed.

Also, at the draft the Blues need to target a dman in the first round. If they want one of Dickinson, Silayev, or Buium they'll have to trade up. Yakemchuk is also likely gone by the time the Blues pick leaving the Blues with Jiricek (who I'm not a fan of). The one dman I would target around 15 is Matvei Shuravin, he has top pair potential in my eyes.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.