Update On St. Louis Blues’ Justin Faulk
Leading up to the trade deadline, there don’t appear to be many untouchables on the St. Louis Blues’ roster, if there are any. One player that has generated interest is defenseman Justin Faulk, whose price has been set.
Speaking on NHL Tonight, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Blues are looking for a return similar to the one that the Calgary Flames received for defenseman Rasmus Andersson. In that deal, the Flames acquired Zach Whitecloud, a 2027 first-round pick, a conditional 2027 second-round pick, and college prospect Abram Wiebe from the Vegas Golden Knights.
It’s unquestionably a lofty price, but it’s important to remember that Faulk remains a capable top-four option and is signed through next season at an affordable $6.5MM. Furthermore, he has the capacity to quarterback a competitive team’s second power-play unit.
Even as he enters the latter stages of his career, Faulk has remained reliable. Over the last three years, he has scored 17 goals and 94 points in 196 games, averaging 22:18 of ice time. 28 of those points came with a man advantage. He’s never managed high possession metrics with St. Louis, but has averaged a respectable 90.9% on-ice SV% at even strength.
Several teams might be interested in Faulk, particularly to enhance their power play. Surprisingly, the Colorado Avalanche have the league’s worst power-play percentage, and recently traded puck-moving blue liner Samuel Girard to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Still, with four capable right-handed defenseman on the roster, it’s far likelier the Avalanche will seek a left-handed defenseman if anything.
Meanwhile, the Utah Mammoth are known to be looking for an offensive-minded right-handed defenseman. In fact, they were linked to Dougie Hamilton of the New Jersey Devils earlier today. If the Devils opt to hang on to Hamilton for their own playoff desires, the Mammoth could consider pivoting to Faulk.
Lastly, the New York Islanders could be a team to watch on the trade market. Led by the breakout of rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders are eying the postseason this year, and General Manager Mathieu Darche is looking to reward his group. Considering that Faulk isn’t necessarily a long-term commitment, he would provide an obvious upgrade over Tony DeAngelo in New York’s second-pairing.
Assessing The Blues’ Direction
The Blues are in a strange spot. They’re 31st in the league with a record of 20-26-9 and a goal differential of -54, tied for the worst in the NHL.
They’re very close to having the best odds to win the draft lottery, and while they aren’t technically out of the playoff hunt, they’re 10 points back of the Kings for the final Wild Card spot, and Los Angeles has games in hand. The Blues are likely finished for this season, and despite that, they haven’t fully committed to a rebuild, though they’re clearly not close to contending at the moment.
They have some good young players and a mix of veterans, some on bad contracts and others they probably want to trade, especially as the playoffs grow further away with each game.
St. Louis’ roster construction has been disjointed over the last few years with a mixed bag of moves. They’re far from alone in that regard. But what has been missing is a clear direction on how to sell to Blues fans, who are hoping for some signal that the team has a plan.
Entering the season, it looked as though the Blues were hoping to compete for a playoff spot, as they did last season. Those hopes have been dashed by inconsistent play and the struggles of core players Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko and Jordan Binnington. You either sell winning or you sell hope, and this season the Blues haven’t been able to sell either. That will need to change in short order, and a clear direction needs to be established.
Of the players listed above, Thomas is the only one who hasn’t been constantly linked to trade rumours this season, but that has changed as of late. Kyrou, Parayko and Binnington have all been fodder for trade board segments across the hockey media and have been joined by teammates Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk.
In a perfect world, St. Louis would have a clear choice about who to move and who to keep. Still, some of the team’s previous moves have left them in a precarious spot, with their only real option being to retool rather than bottom out. They aren’t anywhere close to being a contender and already have several talented players and a very skilled coach in place.
Therein lies a big problem for the Blues. How do you tell Jim Montgomery that the team plans to sell off its veterans and go with younger players who are still finding their way in the NHL? It probably wouldn’t be popular with the veteran head coach.
The alternative is to continue pushing an aging roster into the playoffs and finishing in the middle of the standings, outside the postseason. Montgomery doesn’t need to look far to find a coach who was stuck in that spot for several seasons: Mike Sullivan, formerly of the Penguins.
Sullivan’s final three seasons with the team saw him try to will an aging lineup over the finish line, only to fall just outside the cut when it came to playoff time. Interestingly enough, Sullivan left the Penguins last summer to pursue a better opportunity with the Rangers, only to end up in the same position he had been in with Pittsburgh.
At the end of the day, for general manager Doug Armstrong, his job isn’t to please his coach; it’s to put together the best roster for the team he can and put the players in a position to win. Adding to an old, slow roster does nothing to accomplish that, and the Blues can’t make that the direction they go.
If there is anything we’ve learned in the last half-decade, it is that teams can remain competitive and retool on the fly by surrounding older talent with fresh legs and young energy, brought in by calling up skilled, speedy prospects. The Washington Capitals proved it last season; the Penguins are showing the same thing this year; and the Blues have to look at that model and see how best to apply it to their own roster construction.
The Blues have some pieces in Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Jake Neighbours, and Dalibor Dvorsky. Now they need to figure out which veterans to keep around to guide them and which to let go to acquire more young talent to insulate the core.
It makes sense to move Binnington, given that Joel Hofer is waiting in the wings and probably deserves the bulk of the ice time. The issue for St. Louis is that they missed the best time to trade the 32-year-old: last March, before the trade deadline, or this past summer.
This year, Binnington’s game has fallen off a cliff, and he is dead last in the NHL with -24.4 goals saved above expected in 31 games (per MoneyPuck). Add to that the fact that he is counting $6MM against the salary cap and has a 14-team no-trade clause (per PuckPedia), and you have a player who is close to impossible to move.
Moving Faulk would also be a step in the right direction, as the 33-year-old makes $6.5MM this year and next and is having a reasonable offensive season with 11 goals and 13 assists in 52 games, while cleaning up the turnover issue that plagued him last year. The Blues are reportedly looking to strike while the iron is hot and are asking for a premium package to move the right-shot defenseman. If the Blues can move Faulk and get a return even remotely close to their ask, it would be good business and could set them on a path to retool sooner than later.
Outside of those two, Schenn, Thomas, and Parayko remain options to be moved, and it’s hard to say whether the Blues want to turn their roster over completely. The Penguins tried to move Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson last year but couldn’t find anyone willing to meet their asking price. Perhaps the Blues will chart a similar course and try to move those three veterans if they get the right price. If not, they’ll wait to see how their own roster shakes out over the next six to 12 months. In any event, St. Louis has to show direction sooner rather than later if it hopes to position the team for improvement in the near future.
Morning Notes: Panarin, Hamilton, Faulk
New York Rangers leading scorer Artemi Panarin is arguably the best skater likely to be traded in advance of this season’s trade deadline, and as a result, it appears the Rangers are set to receive a significant package of assets in exchange for the pending UFA’s services. Yesterday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the Saturday Headlines segment of Hockey Night in Canada that the Rangers’ “starting point” in terms of their asking price on any Panarin trade is the package received by the New York Islanders when they traded away Brock Nelson last year.
The Islanders received a first-round pick, top prospect Calum Ritchie, and a third-round pick from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Nelson, who was also a pending UFA. That would indicate that the Rangers are, at least, looking for a first-rounder and a high-quality prospect in exchange for Panarin. Nelson was, and is, certainly not of the same caliber of talent as Panarin, but unlike Panarin, Nelson has the extremely valuable attribute of being a natural center, which upped his value considerably. Friedman named the Anaheim Ducks, Washington Capitals, and the Los Angeles Kings as teams that are considering making a pitch to acquire Panarin. The veteran, who has 56 points in 51 games this year, has the protection of a full no-move clause in his contract.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- Friedman also issued an update on the status of New Jersey Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who is widely considered to be one of the top blueliners available to be acquired via trade. Per Friedman, the recent injury to blueliner Luke Hughes has slowed trade talks surrounding Hamilton “to a crawl” as the Devils await further clarity on the status of their promising young defenseman. Hamilton has 17 points in 46 games played this season and is under contract at a $9MM AAV through 2027-2028.
- The St. Louis Blues are likely to be among the selling teams in this year’s trade market as they currently sit second-to-last in the Western Conference with 47 points. One of the players they are considering trading is veteran defenseman Justin Faulk, a 33-year-old with one more year under contract at $6.5MM AAV. Friedman reported yesterday that the Blues are looking for a trade package comparable to what the Calgary Flames received in exchange for Rasmus Andersson in any Faulk deal. (The Flames received a first-rounder and a conditional second-round pick for Andersson alongside veteran Zach Whitecloud.) Faulk has been St. Louis’ No. 3 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, and has 24 points in 52 games.
Justin Faulk Reportedly Drawing Trade Interest
In his recent look into the potential trade board heading into 2026, Sportsnet’s Nick Kyperos believes that St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk is drawing plenty of trade interest from around the league. According to Kyperos, interested teams are considering Faulk a fallback option for those that fail to land Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames.
Outside of not having as much trade value as Andersson, Faulk would be more complicated to trade for. The 15-year veteran is signed through the 2026-27 season at a $6.5MM cap hit and has a 15-team no-trade clause for this season and next.
Despite not displaying the offensive prowess he showed a few years ago, Faulk has stayed relatively consistent as he enters the back-nine of his NHL career. The 33-year-old rear guard scored 27 goals and 97 points in 158 games for the Blues from 2021 to 2023, with a +37 rating. He wasn’t a stranger to a heavy workload at the time, either, averaging 23:17 of ice time per game.
Factoring in his physicality and willingness to block shots during those two years, it’s no question why Faulk earned a few Norris votes, albeit at the bottom of the table. Since then, especially as St. Louis has entered a transitional period of their own, Faulk has seen his offensive production fall by a healthy margin.
Since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign, Faulk has scored 12 goals and 75 points in 162 contests, a more than 20-point dropoff from his production from 2021 to 2023. However, although his physicality has fallen somewhat, Faulk remains a quality shot blocker while averaging more than 22 minutes of ice time per contest.
He’s actually shown a slight uptick in his defensive metrics, as well. Averaging a 91.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength throughout his time with the Blues, Faulk averaged a 91.7% mark in 2023-24, and 91.6% last season.
Although Kypreos didn’t mention any interested parties, there are a few teams that could theoretically use Faulk’s service, despite the relatively high cap hit for an in-season trade. The Detroit Red Wings, who have fallen to 25th place in GA/G, could certainly use more skill on the blue line.
Additionally, the Carolina Hurricanes and Utah Mammoth, each of which have ample cap space and has dealt with multiple injuries to their defensive core this season, may swing a trade for Faulk to improve the floor of their depth options.
Blues Open To Moving Justin Faulk
Add Justin Faulk‘s name to the list of players the Blues will be open to moving if their season-opening slide continues, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period writes.
It’s far from the first time Faulk’s name has been brought up in trade speculation. For years, each one of the Blues’ aging top-four group on defense was listed as a potential target. That talk has quieted down after St. Louis aggressively retooled their left side in the past couple of seasons, losing Torey Krug to a career-ending injury and waiving Nick Leddy while adding Philip Broberg via offer sheet and Cam Fowler via trade.
Today’s report on Faulk is more than just speculation, though. Moving him this season becomes much easier after his no-trade clause was downgraded to a 15-team no-trade list, much like how captain and fellow trade candidate Brayden Schenn‘s contract is structured. With just one season left after this one on his deal, his $6.5MM cap hit becomes more appealing, too – especially since his actual salary owed is just $4.5MM per season.
Faulk and Colton Parayko have each seen relatively equal time with Broberg and Fowler as their partner this season. The two lefties have posted significantly worse possession numbers when paired with Faulk. Broberg has controlled 59.7% of expected goals at 5-on-5 with Parayko compared to 57.7% with Faulk, while Fowler has controlled 53.5% with Parayko and just 40.7% with Faulk.
That will undoubtedly be a concern for more analytically-focused clubs and could steer them away from their interest. However, his traditional stats paint a picture of him being worth the investment for a team in need of a puck-moving righty in their top four. The 33-year-old leads Blues defensemen with eight points in 16 games while averaging 23:32 of ice time per game, the most on the team.
Still, moving Faulk would leave a gaping hole on their right side if they’re anticipating a quick retool and a return to postseason contention in 2026-27. Top righty prospect Logan Mailloux, acquired from the Canadiens over the offseason, is still a long-term wild card thanks to his extreme defensive deficiencies. The 22-year-old has been offensively dominant in the minors and juniors, but has just five points and a -16 rating in 17 career NHL games thus far. He’s likely more than a year out from being ready for a top-four role as a result, and the Blues don’t have any other righties in the system with the two-way utility or upside to give them quality second-pairing minutes behind Parayko.
Injury Updates: Faulk, Thomas, Red Wings, Vaakanainen
The Blues will welcome back a key blueliner tonight against Edmonton. Team reporter Chris Pinkert reports that Justin Faulk will return to the lineup after missing the last two games due to an upper-body injury. The 32-year-old has been more limited than usual offensively over the first couple of months as he has just one goal and six assists so far in 25 games. However, Faulk is carrying a big workload, averaging a team-high 23:26 per night, his highest ATOI since the shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- The Kings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated forward Akil Thomas off injured reserve. The 24-year-old had missed the last week due to an undisclosed injury. Thomas has been limited to just ten games so far in his first full NHL season and has a goal and an assist while logging a little more than 11 minutes a night of playing time. Los Angeles had two open roster spots so no corresponding move was needed to bring Thomas back to the active roster.
- The Red Wings won’t have goaltenders Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon available for a little while longer. MLive’s Ansar Khan relays (Twitter link) that the netminders will likely miss the next two games as they continue to deal with lower-body injuries. Talbot has posted an impressive .915 SV% in 15 games in his first season with Detroit while Lyon is only a few points lower at .911 in his first nine outings. Ville Husso will continue to serve as the starter for the time being while prospect Sebastian Cossa is back with the team after being papered down on Friday for cap reasons and will serve as Husso’s backup.
- New Rangers defenseman Urho Vaakanainen took part in the team’s optional practice today in a non-contact jersey, notes NHL.com’s Dan Rosen (Twitter link). The 25-year-old has missed more than three weeks with an upper-body injury and is still likely a few games away from being cleared to return. Vaakanainen has played in just five games so far this season, those coming with Anaheim before being part of yesterday’s Jacob Trouba trade.
West Notes: Broberg, Pospisil, Abbotsford
There is no clear outline of how the Edmonton Oilers will approach the offer sheets signed by forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg earlier this week. Still, some pundits in the media are already theorizing about their futures in St. Louis. Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal reported earlier today that if Broberg were to become a player for the Blues organization eventually, he would supplant Scott Perunovich on the second pairing and play next to Justin Faulk.
The main problem with this hypothesis is that Perunovich has arguably been the better defender over the last two years and has grown as a prospect through the Blues farm system. Perunovich has accrued 23 assists in his first 73 games in the NHL while Broberg has only potted 13 points in total through his first 81 games. Perunovich also appears to be the better defensive player at face value and in the advanced statistics with his 91.2% on-ice save percentage compared to Broberg’s 87.3%. In Broberg’s defense, he has been rarely utilized thus far by Edmonton as he’s only managed to average 12:42 of ice time per game with Perunovich receiving nearly three minutes more on average.
Head coach Drew Bannister should have plenty of flexibility on the blue line even if the Oilers decide to match Broberg’s contract. St. Louis already has nine defensemen signed to one-way contracts for the 2024-25 NHL season; with five being left-handed shots. Broberg would give the Blues a total of 10 one-way contracts on the back end with six left-handed shooting defensemen.
Other West notes:
- Calgary Flames forward Martin Pospisil is looking to continue his impressive run with Team Slovakia — this time in the 2026 Winter Olympics (Article Link). Later this month, Slovakia will host a three-game round-robin tournament against Austria, Hungary, and Kazakhstan with the winner receiving an automatic bid for the Olympic Games in Milan. The Slovakian Olympic team will likely rely heavily on Pospisil as he is coming off an impressive international tournament earlier this summer. In the 2024 World Championships, Pospisil scored three goals and seven points in seven games and helped Slovakia reach the playoff round for the first time since 2022.
- The Abbotsford Canucks, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, made several staff hires today according to a team announcement. The team brought in Harry Mahesh as an assistant coach, Andrew Shaw as a video coach, and Ross MacEluch as an assistant athletic therapist. Mahesh is the most significant hire of the group as he previously served as a development coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs last year.
Blues’ Justin Faulk Week-To-Week, Likely Out For Season
An upper-body injury is expected to hold Justin Faulk out for an extended time, per Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Dispatch (Twitter link). DeFranks shares that head coach Drew Bannister designated Faulk as week-to-week, adding that he’s likely done for the year. The Blues have four games left in their season.
Faulk left the Blues’ Saturday game early, following a fight with San Jose Sharks forward Luke Kunin. He instigated the fight after a bad hit on teammate Jake Neighbours that also forced an early exit. Bannister designated Neighbours as day-to-day with a resulting upper-body injury on Tuesday, per NHL.com’s Lou Korac (Twitter link).
Faulk has again served as a top defender for the Blues, averaging nearly 22 minutes of ice time through 60 games this season. But he hasn’t been nearly as productive as usual, with just two goals and 30 points – a far cry from his 50 points last year. Injuries could be to blame, with Faulk missing significant time in December, January, and February with a nagging lower-body injury. He’ll now end his season having played in his fewest games since 2013, excluding the shortened 2020-21 season where he played in all 56 games.
Faulk’s absence will give Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker more lineup security, though they’ll each still compete with Marco Scandella. None of the three have reached 10 points yet, with Scandella’s eight points in 66 games leading the group. Meanwhile, rookies Zach Dean and Zachary Bolduc could hang onto a role with Neighbours out. St. Louis is currently five points back from a Wild Card, and one game in the hole, though they’re not yet mathematically eliminated.
Blues Activate Justin Faulk, Reassign Matthew Kessel
The Blues activated defenseman Justin Faulk off LTIR on Monday, signaling he’ll be ready to play in tomorrow’s key Central Division tilt against the Jets, per a team announcement. Defenseman Matthew Kessel was loaned to AHL Springfield in a corresponding transaction to create a necessary roster spot.
Faulk, 31, has been out of the lineup since sustaining a lower-body injury in late January that cost him 12 games. The 13-year veteran will return to his usual spot alongside Torey Krug on the Blues’ secondary defense pairing as they try to gain separation from the streaking Minnesota Wild and get a step closer to overtaking the Predators for the final playoff spot in the West.
Now in the fourth season of a seven-year, $45.5MM extension signed after the Blues acquired him from the Hurricanes in 2019, Faulk has taken a step back with only two goals and 19 points in 40 games this year. He’s posted a -5 rating while averaging 22:14 per game, his lowest usage since his first season in St. Louis in 2019-20. The 2010 second-round pick has still yet to average less than 20 minutes per game in a season, sticking in a top-four role ever since making his debut with Carolina in 2011.
His pairing with Krug has been the Blues’ highest-event unit on the blue line, leading the team in both expected goals for and against per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck. As such, their 46.1% expected goals share is by no means elite, but it still leads all St. Louis defense duos with over 100 minutes together this year. He is an upgrade on the now-demoted Kessel, who controlled 43.3% of expected goals when paired with Krug, by any stretch.
Kessel, 23, has cemented himself as St. Louis’ top defensive call-up option for now. He hasn’t stood out among an already poor Blues defense, but he’s gained the trust of their coaching staff enough to dress in 22 games this year, recording two assists and a -4 rating while averaging 17:25 per game. The 2020 fifth-round pick stands at 6-foot-2 and over 200 lbs and was an impressive two-way force with UMass Amherst from 2019 to 2022. He’s in the second and final season of his entry-level contract and will be an RFA this summer with arbitration rights.
St. Louis Blues Make Several Roster Moves
In a flurry of roster activity, the St. Louis Blues have recalled forward Zachary Bolduc from their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, while also placing defenseman Justin Faulk on the team’s Long-Term Injured Reserve, with defenseman Scott Perunovich being placed on the injured reserve.
It will not change much in the short-term for the Blues’ roster, as they’ve been without Faulk for the last 10 games and Perunovich for the last seven. Factoring in the requirements to return from both the LTIR and IR, both players are eligible to be reinstated to the active roster whenever they are healthy enough to return.
The most exciting part of this transaction for St. Louis will be seeing the eventual debut of Bolduc. A first-round selection of the Blues back in the 2021 NHL Draft, Bolduc is in his first season within the Blues organization.
Although a member of Rimouski Oceanic during his draft year, Bolduc became a member of the Quebec Remparts as soon as the 2021-22 season under the tutelage of head coach Patrick Roy. Over 126 games in Quebec, Bolduc experienced a great deal of success, scoring 105 goals and 209 points over the regular season.
Outside of the regular season, Bolduc became a solid playoff performer as well, scoring 19 goals and 31 points over 30 postseason games for the Remparts, helping the team to a Memorial Cup championship in 2022-23. Now transitioning to professional hockey, Bolduc has not maintained the same degree of offensive production in his rookie season, managing only eight goals and 23 points over 48 games for Springfield this year.