The St. Louis Blues have announced they have signed restricted free agent Dmitrij Jaskin to a one year deal worth $1.1MM. The team has been working hard locking up their restricted free agents. The team signed Oskar Sundqvist to a one-year, $700K Friday as well as inking Robby Fabbri and Mackenzie McEachern Tuesday, which now leaves the Blues with just three restricted free agents remaining, including defensemen Joel Edmundson, Jordan Schmaltz and Petteri Lindbohm.
Jaskin played in a career high in games last season for the Blues. The 6-foot-2 bruising winger played in 76 games last season as he’s had trouble earning a full-time role with the team. However, the bottom-six forward seemed to have gotten a foothold into St. Louis’ lineup this past season and has even seen some extra time this past season on the power play. The bottom-six forward has some skill and a touch of speed, but it hasn’t translated into offense, however, as he tallied six goals and 11 assists for 17 points, while averaging 12:27 of ATOI.
The new deal is a slight raise for the 25-year-old as he will make $100K more than last season when he finished up a two-year, $2MM deal that he signed in 2016. With the signing, the Blues have just a bit more than $5MM in remaining cap room after the team added Ryan O’Reilly via trade ($7.5MM AAV over next five years) and also signed veterans Tyler Bozak ($5MM AAV over three years) and David Perron ($4MM AAV over four years) to long-term deals. Edmundson’s deal could also take up a significant amount of the remaining cap room, suggesting the team could be close to done unless it can move out some salary.
I’m surprised the Blues haven’t given up on Jaskin. He is not the player they envisioned he would be at this point and he’s been incredibly inconsistent and ineffective.
Low risk move here.