The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming weeks with free agency fast approaching. Next up is a look at St. Louis.
It was an eventful year for the Blues who made an early-season coaching change and wound up going on a significant late-season run to propel themselves into a playoff spot before being ousted by Winnipeg in the opening round. GM Doug Armstrong doesn’t have a lot of salary cap flexibility to work with but he will be tasked with making at least some tweaks to his group this summer.
Continue To Reshape The Defense
A good chunk of the back end for the Blues has been around for quite a while now with three veterans being around for at least the last four years. While they made a key addition early in the season with the acquisition of Cam Fowler following the summer signing of Philip Broberg, there’s still some work to be done.
Colton Parayko isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Broberg. Fowler is heading into the final year of his deal but at this point, he’s more of an extension candidate than a trade candidate. After that, there are some question marks.
Justin Faulk is no stranger to trade speculation and was even in some recent speculation heading into the trade deadline when it looked like St. Louis would be selling, not standing pat. He has two years left on his contract with a $6.5MM cap charge. Originally, it looked as if those last couple of seasons could be tough from a cap perspective but he’s still logging 22 minutes a night and is above-average offensively. With the UFA class not exactly being deep, he’s a viable trade chip not just to clear money but to get real value in return. With Broberg, Fowler, and Parayko being capable of playing the offensive roles, Faulk could become expendable.
Nick Leddy is entering the final year of a four-year, $16MM deal. The first two years weren’t bad but he battled injuries this season and struggled when he was in the lineup. It would be surprising if they could offload the final year of the deal but if they wanted to retain salary or take a player back in a change-of-scenery type of swap, there might be a chance to move him as well.
Torey Krug seems unlikely to play next season which could give them some extra flexibility. They have around $5MM in cap space per PuckPedia although Krug landing on LTIR could give them up to $6.5MM in additional spending room. Meanwhile, Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker have shown they can be useful players in a depth role but aren’t ready for top-four duty just yet.
In a perfect world, Armstrong would add a top-four defender, one who is a bit more geared toward filling a shutdown role. If Faulk is still around, they’d be in a good spot of having five top-four blueliners. Or if that acquisition makes Faulk expendable, they’d have a chance to cash in on a solid trade chip. Broberg and Fowler have helped reshape the back end but there’s still some work to be done there.
Extension Talks For Bridge Deals
The Blues went with bridge deals for the two players they signed on offer sheets from Edmonton (Broberg and Dylan Holloway). Both will be entering the final year of their respective contracts on July 1st, making them extension-eligible. While getting both of them signed would be a tall task, getting a sense of what those next deals might cost would be worthwhile for long-term planning as Alex Steen gets set to take Armstrong’s spot as GM next year.
Broberg was a wild card coming over from Edmonton. After not locking down a regular spot in the lineup in 2023-24 during the regular season, he played a little more often in the playoffs but even with that, his $4.581MM offer sheet was still a wild overpayment based on what he had to that point of his career.
But Broberg managed to not only live up to that deal this season but even make it look at least a little bit like a team-friendly pact. He quickly became a top-four threat, logging over 20 minutes a night and did pretty well offensively considering the low power play time he had. Basically, he lived up to his eighth-overall billing. Now, it’s fair to say that an extension is going to be a step or two above this rate. Broberg has two RFA years left after next season so this will be the contract they’ll want to go long-term on. With the anticipated jump coming to the Upper Limit and the projection that Broberg can build off the year he had, that type of agreement could conceivably push past the $7MM threshold, if not a little higher.
As for Holloway, he was the bigger bargain of the two, taking a $2.29MM contract and finishing third in the team in scoring with 26 goals and 37 assists, numbers that seemed unfathomable given his usage with the Oilers previously. We saw Calgary’s Matthew Coronato get seven years at $6.5MM without hitting the 50-point mark, a plateau that Holloway already has gone through. Like Broberg, he’ll have two RFA years left after this contract and it wouldn’t be surprising to see his camp asking for something starting with an eight on a long-term deal.
It would be surprising to see either player sign this early after just one year. But even knowing how much extra money they’re going to need to set aside for 2026-27 could affect how they approach this summer.
Find A ‘200-Foot Offensive Player’
If this seems like an oddly specific category, there’s a reason for that. At the end of the season, when Armstrong was asked what he’d like to add to his roster, this was his answer. With that being a stated goal, it’s fair to say they’re going to go out and try to add one of those pieces.
The Blues finished 13th in offense this season so this type of player doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-producing one, just one that can play a two-way game and move around the lineup when needed. Speculatively, a 40-to-50-point player fits the bill, preferably a center to give them some extra depth while also giving them options if Brayden Schenn were to find his way back into trade talks.
Of course, this is not necessarily the easiest profile of player to find. There are only six UFA forwards in that particular point range and realistically, only two of those profile as two-way players, winger Reilly Smith and center Pius Suter. Each of them would likely take up the bulk of their remaining base cap space, forcing them back into using LTIR for Krug.
With that in mind, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Armstrong try to land this type of player on the trade market. While his second-round picks are off the table for the next three years, they still have all of their first-round selections and boast a prospect pool that has been improved as of late. That should be enough trade capital for him to work with if he wants to swing a deal to add to his group up front.
Re-Sign Hofer
Joel Hofer has been one of the better bargain goalies in the NHL over the last couple of seasons. Signed to a league-minimum contract, he has been an above-average backup to Jordan Binnington over that span, posting a 2.65 GAA and a .909 SV% in 65 games over that span. It’s safe to say that the bridge contract worked for both sides; St. Louis got a team-friendly deal while Hofer got a chance to prove himself and did exactly that.
Now is the time for him to cash in. That is, at least in theory. Knowing their desire to add a 200-foot offensive forward and the speculated desire to continue to build up their back end, it’s fair to wonder how much they’re going to have left for the backup goalie position.
Armstrong probably wouldn’t mind working out a long-term deal with Hofer, giving the Blues at least some stability with Binnington only having two years left on his contract. But the longer the contract, the higher the price tag will be, cutting into what they can spend elsewhere.
With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Blues pursue a second bridge deal with Hofer. He has three RFA-eligible seasons remaining and though they’re all arbitration-eligible, they can use the extra club control to kick this one down the road. A two-year deal would see him expire at the same time as Binnington and should cost around $3MM per season while a one-year pact would see the price tag go a bit lower, potentially around the $2.5MM mark. Hofer is the lone NHL RFA St. Louis has so Armstrong can push this past the start of free agency and potentially let what happens there dictate what they do with Hofer.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images.