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AC14

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Dec. 23, 2022
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St. Louis Blues
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Forum: Armchair-GM5 hours ago
Thread: More ReTool
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>A_K</b></div><div>To be honest there's so many different things going on with this team right now that I can't tell what direction is the right way to go. Hopefully Doug chooses one.

By my assessment though, rougher goaltending would've made this season the low-water mark. Now that might still happen this-coming year - with or without a Binner/Hofer combo (goaltending can be fickle). As exciting and promising as some of the younger guys are, they're not all here yet. And the veterans are just getting another year older, slower, etc. Wouldn't be the worst thing to be patient for another year and try to make some low-risk, high-reward moves to set up for the future.</div></div>

I’m more concerned about the Kyrou and Thomas iteration of the core. I’d consider those two and Parayko the core currently.

I think the most beneficial thing we could do would be to add a solid defenseman in the 24-27 age range. However in order to do that, we’re going to have to cut bait with either Krug or Faulk which I don’t think is a huge deal.

Ultimately I think the plan will be to middle out like this while contracts expire and then once they do make a large splash with a UFA defenseman if we can’t find one before. The issue with that is it’s rare those higher end caliber defenseman hit UFA status, because as we can all see, when you let one go you create a massive problem trying to stop gap or piece together the hole that’s left behind.

It’s definitely not a perfect plan, but there really is no perfect plan. I’d imagine we try and find a way to address a 2nd line center and move out a defenseman in hopes of adding another that can profile to be more of a two-way guy than we currently have.

I’d be shocked if our first pick in this draft was a forward, but there’s certainly an avenue where that could happen.

Truthfully I know it’s very unlikely, but I would move our 1st if we could get a guy like Harley out of Dallas.
Forum: Armchair-GM6 hours ago
Thread: More ReTool
If our direction is to be worse next season than this I don't dislike any of the moves aside from the Leddy to Pittsburgh move.

However, as exciting as it is picking 10th vs 16th, I don't think it makes all too much of a difference once you look 5 years down the road. Don't get me wrong I would love for the Blues to trade up, but I don't think we're at the point where we can trade Binnington and not crumble. We may not make playoffs again next year, but after this year you have to expect the expectation would be to do so from the front office and from the players alone. Culture and belief in being able to win isn't something that's really too popular on here because you can't quantify it and compare. But I'd venture to guess if we made 2 or 3 moves to sell off pieces and finished towards the bottom of the league next year it would be crippling to the young core that we're building right now.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 11 at 2:24 a.m.
Thread: Buch stays as 2c
You do realize that by buying out Krug you are tying a cap commitment for many more seasons and are essentially paying the same cap hit once you factor in the very odd signing of Vakimaki for next season right?

There are reasons to buy Krug out. But if your solution is re-signing Perunovich and signing Valimaki you are much better just keeping Krug and playing him as a 3rd pairing guy at even strength unless the situation calls for more offense.

He’s small yes, and it limits his defensive capabilities. But I see no reason to believe Valimaki is any better defensively, and he is much worse of a PPQB and offensive threat than Krug.

I don’t mind Hague, I think he could develop into a good 2nd pairing shutdown guy, he’s probably pretty close to there now. Roy is also a pretty good player. Maybe cap commitments to others could pry them away from Vegas, but I’d doubt it.

There are situations in which I’d be happy with the Blues giving up that haul to jump from 16 to 10 (as of now) but you better be 100% positive the guy you’re getting at that position will be a big piece of your future. I see no reason for NJD to do something like that though. I could however see them doing something similar if Binnington were a piece of the trade which I’m not sure we’ve reached that crossroads this offseason.

Signing Sam Reinhart to a massive contract on a career year is a very very risky gamble to take. Good chance in a. Different set of circumstances, you’ve just inked Huberdeau 2.0.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 10 at 12:04 p.m.
Thread: Blues next year opening day
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>TheEarthmaster</b></div><div>The other thing to be mindful of here is what is really the upside of going scorched earth on Krug. They need to be moving out the bad contracts and Krug certainly has one, but if you're adding around half of his cap hit as dead money (either in a retention trade or in a buyout) PLUS signing Hanifin to a big extension, you're tying up more money in your defense on veteran players than you are right now. Has that worked out well at all for the Blues over the last couple years? Signing a big UFA player into his thirties is a win-now move. You're banking on getting a few good years in which you can hopefully win a cup and then deal with the bad years later. That doesn't track with where the Blues are. They are not winning now.

I've said it a million times but it would be malpractice for the Blues to add any more veterans with significant term/money contracts until they get rid of their commitments they currently have. If you're retaining or buying out Krug, you're getting rid of some of the commitment but not all of it. To reinforce this roster with an additional pricey veteran? I just don't see the point.</div></div>

I would agree with almost everything here. I think we also often overstate the degree of detriment in which Krug is to the roster. Regardless of how frustrating it is watching him he is a very high end puck mover.

The other thing is, i'm not sure the organization is of the same mindset that we're that far off for some odd reason. I think if we could clear out Krug's cap hit, they would heavily pursue a guy like hanifin. If not I still see us as having a bit of a deficiency with production from the backend that the organization will probably try and remedy this offseason with a low cost signing or trade. I think that's kind of the directive they took with the Krug for Sanheim deal that had arose last offseason.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 10 at 11:31 a.m.
Thread: Blues next year opening day
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>letsgoblues1967</b></div><div>Why do people always re-sign Alexandrov in these projections? Hasn't he shown he is not an NHL caliber player?</div></div>

I think it's for the sake of simplicity. I'd imagine if he were re-signed it would be to a 2way, 1 year deal hoping that he takes an offseason regimen a bit more seriously this offseason. Was reported that he was a little out of shape coming in to this season.

Regardless, the name probably would be different in the scratched part, but it's really hard to tell who it would be. Army generally brings in 2 or 3 guys on PTOs it seems like that are experienced vets that are either on their last leg or tweeners that it could pretty easily be instead for around the same cap hit.
Forum: Armchair-GMApr. 3 at 5:55 p.m.
Thread: Buch
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Lsendel3</b></div><div>O come on now. It was and is a **** return. Spin it however you want, most likely they sold their last chance with Sid to win anything for more than likely 3rd line guys in 3 years. I remember the O’Reilly trade, Blues fans were thumping their chests pretty loudly and rightfully so. And for 4 years it looked like Buffalo would have had 1.5 seasons of Vlad to show for ROR. I know I’m jumping from trade to trade here, but I can tell you from talking with Pittsburgh fans, they’ve accepted they got basically nothing and like you said a hard to move 2nd/3rd liner.</div></div>

I mean you’re communicating with fans on a site where the premise is building salary cap darlings without getting actual on ice results.

You’re never going to be happy trading a guy like that while trying to be in a competitive window. But it’s far too early to tell if those players are as worthless as they probably beleive them to be right now.

Let’s look at a team like Boston. Who is the last truly exciting prospect they’ve had, top of the pool destined for greatness? Probably haven’t had one since McAvoy. But they still churn out guys like Poitras that come expectedly out of nowhere. Last year the echo was Boston doesn’t have good enough prospects aside from Lohrei to warrant a considerable trade. Poitras was in that pool. Guys rise and fall yearly. It’s a volatile game.