While many in St. Louis look at the St. Louis goaltending situation and immediately wonder why backup Carter Hutton isn’t getting even more time in the net while starter Jake Allen is struggling, The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford (subscription required) writes that there is no reason to consider moving Allen or even suggesting that Hutton is the answer in net for St. Louis.
In a mailbag, Rutherford covers multiple topics, but is quick to point out that the team could consider moving Allen for a valuable winger to add to the team’s offense, but that would only create other problems next season. While there might be some merit to adding a top-six winger such as Ottawa’s Mike Hoffman for Allen, Hutton has not proven he can be a starting goaltender, nor has he proven he should be a tandem goaltender just yet. Sure, the 32-year-old Hutton is having a great season as he has a 1.84 GAA and an impressive .940 save percentage in 16 appearances, but can he continue to play at that level with an increased role? On top of that, Hutton will be an unrestricted free agent next season, meaning the Blues would either have to lock Hutton up the moment they trade Allen or they could spend less than half a season to observe Hutton, but take a chance they might get outbid for his services. And what if Hutton’s not the guy? The team would be out a netminder next season.
Rutherford also argues that the 27-year-old Allen has been quite successful in his career for St. Louis. While he currently has weak numbers this year with a 2.75 GAA and a .908 save percentage, he still boasts a career 108-60-14 career record. While his save percentage numbers have historically dropped as the season wears on, Allen has always been solid in the playoffs, boasting a .922 career save percentage and even had a .935 save percentage in the playoffs last year. Giving up on him is probably not the way to go.
- Among many topics he weighs in on, Rutherford also notes that it is highly unlikely that general manager Doug Armstrong promised prospect Klim Kostin an opportunity to get called up if he performed well at the World Junior Championships, like Kostin claims. He doubts Armstrong would make a promise like that to anyone and considering that Kostin has no points in his last three games since returning from the WJC and he has two points in his last 12 games with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL, it would seem even more unlikely that Kostin will get recalled soon. Kostin has even found himself on the Rampage’s fourth line lately, suggesting he’s still struggling to adjust to the North American game.
- While Rutherford admits that the team is looking for wing help, he writes that it’s unlikely the team would move one of their four top prospects, Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Tage Thompson or Kostin to make that happen. One reason would be that if the team wanted to make a pitch for Hoffman or Montreal’s Max Pacioretty, they would also have to unload salary to make the deal work. Moving a top prospect and salaried players such as defenseman Carl Gunnarsson, plus another player would be too much. However, the scribe notes that if the right deal came along, the team could move one of them as they’d still have three top prospects remaining in their system.
The Blues don’t necessarily need to include salary in any deadline trade. Cap Friendly has them listed as currently having $4.45 million in deadline space(though that changes once Schwartz gets back). That could easily fit in someone like Pacioretty, whose $4.5 million cap hit will be reduced by around 60-65% come the deadline. Going into next year, they have Stastny’s $7 million coming off the books(plus some other minor contracts) and don’t have any notable players to re-sign outside of Robby Fabbri, who won’t cost much with his injury history. Even if they want re-sign Stastny, I doubt he costs near his current salary.
The Blues shouldn’t move Jake Allen at this time. Ride the hot hand for now in Carter Hutton, but the exact situation above is why you don’t move Allen yet. If Hutton struggles, Allen is back to being the main goaltender. If Hutton continues to play well, you can make a decision in the offseason on whether or not to resign him. If they believe Hutton is for real, a team will part with decent assets for Allen as he’s still relatively young-ish and has shown that he can be franchise and/or workhorse goaltender. If they don’t think Hutton is the real deal and he plays well, I’m sure a team with a need at goaltender would be willing to give up something like a mid to late round pick or a low end prospect just for the negotiating rights. But trading Allen now, likely selling low, would leave them at a hole at goaltender. Hutton would have all the leverage at that point so the contract likely wouldn’t be team-friendly.
kostin has a few issues. this was reason he fell in draft. he is a guy can see going back to khl if he does not like what is happening. very talented though.
I prefer they go after Max, look at his stats, the guy is a 30+ goal a season and it that mark the last few years and 2013 was the last time he didn’t. Huffman is all over the place but mostly 20s. He can be a real difference maker for this team the rest of this year and next year even more. The thing about Allen is he needs to stop forgetting what made him good. This bye week I hope he figuring out what he doing wrong. Hell call Martin who fix it last year and made the adjustment. His problem is mental that he gets off track on what was working. Now the Defense needs to play more defense and now allowing so many shots. We known Allen has the talent and is able to be a top goalie, He needs to stop forgetting what got him there and that what he been doing.
more of the same frustration in net for st louis. we always think we have “the guy” and they always falter. no goalie is perfect. they all have bad stretches, but we haven’t had a guy in net that we could honestly say was a lock-down-number-one in years. every goalie in recent past has been, at best, a timeshare talent.
The issue in the goalie situation is that there isn’t that guy just out there. Teams that have a true number one goalie is going to keep him unless they hit free agent. We won’t get one at the trade deadline because if I team as a better goalie than what the Blues have, they are likely in the playoff hunt. What does bother me is how people talk about Brian Elliot like he was so much better. Last I remembered he was the same way. That they last year of Allen and Elliot the whole season went well because they kept going with the hot hand. Now it becoming the same with Hutton and Allen. The Blues really are not in a spot to sign for another top goalie because of the cap space unless you trade Allen some where. No way they will play two goalies top dollar when the cap space they gain next year is needed else where too.