The St. Louis Blues were heavily involved in trade talks leading up to the deadline. Will that continue this offseason?
Daily Faceoff: David Pagnotta, on the St. Louis Blues are looking at a retool and not a rebuild. Who could the re-open trade talks with?
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
Irfaan Gaffar: “Finally, the St Louis Blues. Doug Armstrong out, Alex Steen in. What, like the St Louis Blues are interesting because everyone was on the trade block, and then nobody really got traded. And now everyone is going to continue to be on a trade block, and are they going to trade themselves into going through a rebuild?”
Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, that’s the interesting thing. It doesn’t sound like it’s full on rebuild. It just like this, it sounds like it’s retool. And still sounds like it’s retooling.
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Like the only main guy that they moved out, like they tried obviously to trade (Colton) Parayko, and it looks like they’ll continue exploring that this offseason. But what came out of that was that he wants to stay West. Western Conference, and if he gets moved, he wants to be more west.
So, and that’s fine. Like other guys we’ve talked about this before. Vinnie Trocheck in New York, he wanted to stay East if he gets traded. He doesn’t have the full protection that Parayko has, but his preference is to stay East versus going West. Parayko’s the opposite.
I’ve spoken a lot about Jordan Kyrou over this last year, going back to the summer. The Blues have an appetite to make that happen. Offensively, there’s obvious regression, but defensively, he had a really good season, if you look at his defensive number. And put him into an environment to succeed, offensively, a change of scenery, I think he’s still open to that, and I think the Blues will continue to explore that this summer.
Robert Thomas, the price was way high. Unless the team is willing, and all the teams kind of know what that price is. So if they change their minds and say, ‘Yeah, I can pull this off,’ then they’ll explore that this summer as well. Remember, yes they are, you said it, they’re transitioning from Armstrong to Steen. That technically doesn’t happen until July 1. Doug Armstrong is still running things overall, and of course, Steen’s part of that. Clearly, they’re not, not keeping him on the outs. But this is kind of a joint task force here in terms of that transition happening.
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Jordan Binnington could be on the move
The other guy that looks more likely than ever that will be moved this offseason. Again, more likely they’ll guarantee but it’s looking like that is Jordan Binnington. They really like (Joel) Hofer. Binners got another year in his contract. Final year of his contract.
There are going to be teams looking at goaltending this summer. They will be talking to St Louis about Jordan Binnington.
And it could be, you know, could be Florida. What happens with Bobrovsky, as he still wants a longer-term deal there? He’s willing to take less money, but he wants longer term. What happens in Carolina? Doing well against Ottawa right now. Freddy Andersen is a UFA. You sign (Brandon) Bussi, to a three-year extension. You have (Pyotr) Kochetkov coming back. Is that target for Carolina?
You know, and so on and so on, like Edmonton. What happens with the Oilers? What happens with Pittsburgh and so on?
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So it looks like it’s more likely than ever that the Blues are going that direction in terms of trading, you know, Jordan Binnington this summer. But it’s two to tango, so we’ll see kind of where that goes. But the Blues, it’s clear that they’re going to continue to be aggressive and active. We’ll just see what can get to the finish line between now and, you know, the summer and the summer and next season.”
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