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Binningtons_Nose

Member Since
May 20, 2021
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St. Louis Blues
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Colorado Avalanche
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Forum: Armchair-GMJun. 16, 2021 at 11:35 a.m.
Thread: 2022 Cup Champions
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>Binningtons_Nose</b></div><div>Before the Covid suspension last year, the Blues were 2nd in the NHL in standings (also without Tarasenko). I don't think it's outlandish to consider the Blues a contender in the West. Are they behind Vegas and Colorado right now? Absolutely. But guess what? Colorado and Vegas are going to be up against that cap crunch and both have several players hitting FA (Landeskog, for one. Makar is a RFA, as well, so if the Blues or another Western team wanted to severely screw COL over, they could easily offer Makar an OS that would make life very difficult for Sakic and Co). With a flat cap, a lot of teams will be taking a step back in 2022. The Blues have the luxury of some big contracts coming off the books in Bozak, Schwartz, and Hoffman. If they can land a guy like Hamilton to replace what Pietrangelo was able to do here (as great as Pietro was for the Blues, that's not an unachievable task for someone like Dougie), they're going to be right back in that mix.

ROR, Perron, Schenn, Faulk, Krug, (healthy) Parayko, Thomas, Kyrou, Sundqvist and Barbashev are all very good players to build around. An infusion of youth and some of these prospects the Blues have been banking on for their future -- Kostin, Perunovich, Neighbors, Joshua, Blais -- will have the Blues right where they've been over the last decade. They're consistently contenders and as we've seen from the likes of Montreal and NYI (hell, even Carolina), a solid system with good goaltending can get you to the top, or very close.</div></div>

Very good point. Especially about COL and VGK going in their cap crunch. The Blues are also returning to the central next season which will be a walk in the park besides Minnesota and Colorado. I still don't think the depth is as good as it could potentially be, but with some of the younger guys stepping up they could definitely make a mark and get themselves a roster spot. Now that you go deep down in detail, I definitely see the logic in this even though there is still room for improvement. Cup champs is still a bit of an ask though, but who knows when the Blues come into the playoffs. They often win by determination and wanting it more than the other team. If they can grind out the whole regular season in the central and finish in a high seed, get an easy matchup in the 1st round, and battle from then on, this makes you look like a genius. Thank you for thoroughly explaining this to me too. Good job!