Offseason Keys: St. Louis Blues

With just two teams still playing, the rest have already started their offseason planning.  What storylines lie ahead around the league?  Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the St. Louis Blues.

2017-18 was full of highs and lows for the Blues.  Carter Hutton emerged as a top goaltender while offseason Brayden Schenn vastly exceeded expectations.  On the flip side, Jake Allen struggled between the pipes and they had more than their fair share of injuries.  In the end, it added up to missing the playoffs on the last day of the regular season, sending them back to the drawing board this summer.  What will they be looking to do this offseason?

Decide Hutton’s Fate

After being a decent backup for the last few years, Hutton took his play up quite a few notches this past season.  He started to steal starts away from Allen and wound up posting the best save percentage (.931) and goals-against average (2.09).  That’s quite a performance heading into unrestricted free agency.

Given the season that Allen had (2.75 GAA, .906 SV%), the Blues would undoubtedly like to have some form of insurance behind him and Hutton is the logical choice to try to keep around.  The question is, can they afford to?

Hutton will certainly be seeking a raise on the $1.125MM cap hit he played under in his two seasons in St. Louis.  With top backups reaching (and in some cases, surpassing) $2.5MM in recent free agent markets, it’s reasonable to assume that this will be the minimum benchmark he’s looking to get.

Is that too rich for the Blues?  They have some money to play with this summer but have a couple of key restricted free agents to re-sign (more on one of those shortly) and they will be on the lookout for another top-six forward, an area they were looking for help in throughout this past season and that was before they dealt Paul Stastny to Winnipeg.  If they can’t afford to bring him back, then they will need to decide whether or not to go with one of their prospects in Jordan Binnington or Ville Husso or if they’d be better served going after one of the other veterans on the open market.

Short-Term Or Long-Term For Fabbri

Two years ago, winger Robby Fabbri looked like he was on his way to becoming a key player rather quickly.  He put up 37 points in 72 games as a rookie and followed that up with a comparable sophomore campaign with 29 points in 51 contests, giving him a slightly higher point-per-game average.

However, that’s when the injuries started.  Fabbri tore his ACL in February of 2017, ending his second full NHL year prematurely.  He was expected to be ready for training camp and was going to be counted on to provide St. Louis with some secondary scoring.  Unfortunately, he wound up re-tearing the same ACL which ended his 2017-18 season before it even started.

A year and a half ago, he looked like a prime candidate for a long-term deal once his entry-level contract expired but that’s not the case now as he hits restricted free agency this summer for the first time.  Given how much time he has missed, a short-term bridge deal seems like the logical outcome.  However, this could be an intriguing buy-low opportunity for St. Louis.  Given the uncertainty that follows when a player misses a year and a half with multiple knee surgeries, there’s a chance that Fabbri may be willing to take a bit of a lesser salary to get some long-term security.  If they can find the right dollar amount on that deal, this could be an opportunity to get a top-six talent signed for a below-market value although there obviously would be some risk.  The bridge contract is still the likelier outcome but it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Doug Armstrong investigate a long-term pact as well.

Add Top Six Help

Throughout 2017-18, the Blues were looking for a top-six winger thanks to Fabbri’s injury.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the cap space to make that type of in-season addition.  Stastny’s departure opens up another vacancy in there that needs to be filled, even with Fabbri returning.

During the season, the team tried centers Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka in that role but both are better suited for a third line position.  With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Armstrong look to deal one of those two players; Sobotka would be the easier to flip with him not having any no-trade protection and two years left on his contract.

With the salary cap expected to be increased for next season, St. Louis should have enough space to make a splash in free agency.  While they were looking for help on the wing during the season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them look at the centers either considering that Stastny needs to be replaced.  The way things look now, there is likely to be at least one notable newcomer in their lineup come October.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.