The Blues and Senators are discussing trade scenarios involving winger Mike Hoffman and center Derick Brassard, Blues beat writer Lou Korac reports on his personal blog. He adds that the talks would see St. Louis acquire one or the other and not both players.
Among the players that Ottawa is believed to be interested in is winger Robby Fabbri, who has yet to play this season due to his second torn ACL. Korac notes that the Sens have asked for permission to view Fabbri’s medical records. The 22-year-old will become a restricted free agent for the first time this summer but will not have arbitration eligibility.
A pair of St. Louis centers are also on Ottawa’s radar as well as the scribe links Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund as part of the trade discussions. Sobotka has two years left on his contract after this one with a $3.5MM cap hit although his deal was slightly front-loaded in terms of salary. Berglund, meanwhile, has four years remaining at a $3.85MM cap charge; his contract is also front-loaded salary wise. The 29-year-old Swede also has a full no-move clause in 2017-18.
Both Brassard and Hoffman would have the potential to be impact players with the Blues. Brassard would give them another top-six option down the middle and give them a boost on the second line. He would also serve as insurance if Paul Stastny, a pending unrestricted free agent, leaves the team in the summer. He has one year left on his contract after this one with a $5MM cap hit but just a $3.5MM salary.
Hoffman has been linked to St. Louis in recent weeks and he would certainly give their attack a boost. His 16 goals this season would rank fourth on the Blues in scoring while his 39 points would slot in fifth. The 28-year-old has two years remaining on his deal with a cap hit just shy of $5.2MM and has a ten-team no-trade clause in his contract.
The salary cap will undoubtedly be a factor in any talks between the two teams as St. Louis has very limited space to work with this season. They have the ability to add another $1.8MM in a full-season cap hit per CapFriendly but that includes Fabbri’s LTIR provision. As a result, the finances will need to be pretty close for a trade to work here.
They would be crazy to trade hoffman now that is clicks with Duchene, plus they have him at another year over what bassard has left.The first line has been the only thing that the sens have going for them this year. Seems like they want to mess this team up for good.Hard to replace a true onetime guy like Hoff.
Hoffman would be the nicer pickup for the Blues. More years being we be giving up one or two multi year deals. Berglund gone would make a lot of fans happy. Some reasons he can’t do no right. But he just signed that 4 year deal. They likely trade both to get one of them more so if Doug wants to keep the prospects.