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Patrik Berglund

Central Notes: Berglund, Stastny, Brodin, Hjalmarsson

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While defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is the first player many think of when it comes to St. Louis and the upcoming trade deadline, Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests in a reader chat that center Patrik Berglund may be the one to really keep an eye on.

Berglund is having one of his better seasons in recent years and has already passed the double digit goal mark for the ninth straight time.  However, like Shattenkirk, he’s poised to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and if GM Doug Armstrong is looking to avoid a repeat of last year where his top UFA (David Backes) left for nothing, Berglund could potentially be on the move between now and March 1st.  He’d slot in nicely in a middle six role for several contending teams and carries a $3.7MM cap hit.

More from the Central:

  • Still with the Blues, center Paul Stastny will not play tonight against Montreal, reports Chris Pinkert on their team site. He suffered a lower body injury on Thursday against the Maple Leafs.  Fortunately for St. Louis, the injury isn’t believed to be serious, Rutherford adds in a separate column.  Stastny sits fourth in scoring for the Blues this season with 15 goals and 20 assists.  In his absence, Alexander Steen will slide over to the middle on the top line.
  • The Wild are hopeful that defenseman Jonas Brodin will only miss another seven-to-ten days as a result of his fractured finger, reports Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He has been out of the lineup since January 17th and was expected to miss at least four weeks at the time so his recovery appears to be right on schedule.  Brodin has 16 points (3-13-16) in 43 games this season and sits fourth on Minnesota in ice time per game at 19:47 per night.
  • Count Blackhawks blueliner Niklas Hjalmarsson among the many players who are publicly advocating for the NHL to go to the 2018 Olympics, notes Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune. Hjalmarsson had the chance to play in the 2014 tournament, earning a silver medal with Team Sweden.  While there remains no firm deadline for a decision by the NHL, the expectation is that it will have to come at some time in March.

Deadline Primer: St. Louis Blues

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With the trade deadline now just weeks away, we’re going to start taking a closer look at each team.  Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs?

After earning a berth in the 2015-16 Western Conference Final, the St. Louis Blues were again expected to be among the top teams in the conference and to perhaps make it as far as the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately the Blues have underachieved on the season, ultimatley leading management to dismiss veteran bench boss Ken Hitchcock. More changes could be on the horizon as the team currently finds itself fighting for their playoff lives.

Record

27-22-5, 54 points, fourth in Central Division

Deadline Status

Buyer and perhaps seller

Draft Picks

2017: STL 1st, STL 2nd, STL 4th, BUF 5th, STL 6th, STL 7th

2018: STL 1st, STL 2nd, STL 3rd, CGY 3rd*, STL 4th, STL 5th, STL 6th, STL 7th

*Pick is conditional on whether Brian Elliot re-signs with Calgary

Trade Chips

It would be understandable if Blues GM Doug Armstrong doesn’t view this year’s edition of the team as a viable Stanley Cup contender and was therefore reluctant to part with either prospect or draft pick capital for rental players at the deadline. St. Louis boasts a shallow prospect pool after years of earning draft selections outside of the top-10. The team does possess their own first and second-round picks in each of the next two seasons and perhaps in the right deal they would be willing to include those assets but it would have to be a trade the brought back a young, controllable top-six forward.

Kevin Shattenkirk might represent both the team’s most valuable asset as well as the one most likely to be dealt. Stung by losing veterans David Backes and Troy Brouwer for nothing as free agents last summer, Armstrong might be motivated to cash in the puck-moving defenseman in order to avoid a similar fate in July. As a skilled, right-shot defenseman, Shattenkirk is a tremendously valuable commodity on the open market, especially if he agrees to an extension with an interested club prior to the deal being made, and could return multiple pieces to improve the team moving forward.

Team Needs

  1. A Starting Goaltender – The Blues took a risk in the offseason by splitting up the effective netminding duo of Brian Elliot and Jake Allen, moving the former to Calgary at the draft in exchange for picks. Allen was viewed as the goalie of the future but has struggled to stop the puck with any consistency this season. His backup, Carter Hutton, simply isn’t a starting-caliber backstop in this league. If the Blues decide to go for it this year, it would behoove them to look at the starting goalie market where one of Marc-Andre Fleury or Ben Bishop would easily solve their need.
  2. A Top-Line Center – Paul Stastny is a nice, #2 pivot but he’s miscast in St. Louis as their top option due to the absence of any other competent scoring line options. Patrik Berglund (20 points in 54 games) and Jori Lehtera (16 points in 49 games) simply haven’t gotten the job done. The team chose to let Backes go in free agency and it’s looking more and more like a mistake that they didn’t either bite the bullet and re-sign him or replace him in the offseason. If the Blues could find a top-line center under long-term control, they’d have to take a look at it.

 

Robby Fabbri Out For Entire Season With ACL Injury

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After reporting that Robby Fabbri left last night’s game with an apparent leg injury, the St. Louis Blues have announced today that he will miss the rest of the season with an injured ACL in his left knee. The team has recalled Magnus Paajarvi and Kenny Agostino from the Chicago Wolves in a corresponding move.

Fabbri took a check from the Penguins’ Carter Rowney in the first period, slamming into the boards just in front of the Blues’ bench. He needed assistance to get off the ice and was in obvious pain, as he was heard yelling on the broadcast.

As we wrote yesterday, losing Fabbri is a big hit for St. Louis, who were trying to turn around their early season struggles. They would lose 4-1 to the Penguins last night, unable to build on their big win against the Maple Leafs on Thursday. For a team sitting at 55 points and just barely out of a playoff spot, losing a top forward can completely change the complexion of a season.

Already expected to deal expiring contracts in Kevin Shattenkirk and Patrik Berglund, it will be interesting to see how another injury like this one will affect the way the team views the trade deadline. Other players like David Perron, Paul Stastny or even Alex Steen would be attractive pieces to many teams if the Blues could make the salaries work (which will be difficult, as all three come with significant cap-hits).

The Blues were expected to be a contender for the Stanley Cup once again but are having a nightmarish season. Between Jake Allen’s struggles, nagging injuries, the Ken Hitchcock circus and now the end to Fabbri’s year, the team may want to put this year in their rear-view mirror.

Robby Fabbri Suffers Lower-Body Injury

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With the St. Louis Blues trying to build on their 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, they have lost a key forward. Robby Fabbri suffered an injury on a hit from Carter Rowney against the Penguins tonight and will not return. He left the ice in considerable pain, and needed assistance from the training staff.

Fabbri let out some cries of agony you could even hear on the broadcast, as he put no weight on his left leg. This is not the same leg that he injured two years ago at the World Juniors, when he suffered a high ankle sprain in his right leg.

For the Blues, losing another forward will test their depth even more. The team already watched David Backes and Troy Brouwer leave in free agency, and have struggled through the first 50 games. Finding themselves just a few points out of a playoff spot, some wonder whether they will go ahead and deal upcoming free agents Kevin Shattenkirk and Patrik Berglund or hold on and try to make another run with the newly promoted head coach Mike Yeo.

Fabbri has taken another step forward this season after an exceptional rookie season that saw him score 18 goals. He has 29 points in 50 games this year and has been logging close to 16 minutes a night as he builds the trust of the coaching staff. If the injury is as bad as it looked, it will be interesting to see who the Blues move up the lineup. Perhaps Nail Yakupov, the former first-overall pick the Blues acquired earlier this year will get another chance to show he’s deserved of an increased role on this team.

Unfortunate Extensions: Jake Allen & Petr Mrazek

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When the St. Louis Blues went into this offseason, they had a problem. Some may call it a good problem, but it was an issue all the same; what to do with the tandem of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen? The team had gone to the Conference Finals for the first time in 15 years, and did it on the back of two outstanding seasons from their pair of netminders. Allen had a .920 save percentage in 44 starts, while Elliott carried a .930 mark through his 38 starts and continued his dominance into the playoffs, essentially moving Allen to the bench.

But when the summer came, the team decided it was time to move on from one of them and traded Elliott to the Calgary Flames. With just a year left on each goalie’s deal, the Blues wanted to get ahead of the controversy and establish Allen as their true franchise netminder. They signed him to a four-year, $17.4MM extension on the first day of free agency, locking him in long-term as their starter. After all, he was coming off the best season of his career and was still just 25-years old.

That decision hasn’t turned out too well for the Blues, who last week sent Allen away from the team, not even bringing him on a road trip to Winnipeg. Allen is sporting a .897 save percentage through the first half of the season, easily a career low for him. While some of that is a much weaker team in front of him defensively, not all of the blame can removed from his shoulders. He simply hasn’t been good enough for the Blues, and now it comes time to wonder about the decision to extend him in the summer.

With a $4.35MM cap-hit going forward, it’s not like the Blues will be completely hamstrung by his deal. There is room to get a quality veteran to split the season with him like Florida is doing with Roberto Luongo and James Reimer, but it is far from ideal. A team that has pending unrestricted free agents in Kevin Shattenkirk and Patrik Berglund, along with big RFA deals with Robby Fabbri and Colton Parayko looming in the next couple of seasons, needs their cap space used in effective manners. A long-term extension for a struggling goalie is not that.

In Detroit, a similar goaltender situation played out last year when Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard split the duties and pushed a underwhelming team into the playoffs. While Howard struggled during parts of the season and in the playoffs, Mrazek looked like a lock as a starting goaltender and perhaps even all-star going forward. The Wings were locked into Howard for another three seasons, but looked like they wanted to give the number one job to Mrazek after his great stretch run.

The team likely shopped the veteran Howard around but found no takers, and eventually decided on just a two-year deal with Mrazek when it came to free agency. Had they been able to find a taker for Howard and his $5.3MM cap hit, they probably would have tried to work out a longer-term deal with the younger netminder. Perhaps their inability to move Howard was a blessing in disguise however, as Mrazek has imploded in the Wings’ net, posting an .894 save percentage behind a reeling team. Howard was actually off to a great start before suffering an injury, making the decision even harder this summer.

Howard is still likely on the move out of town as the Red Wings start a rebuild, but luckily they haven’t committed to Mrazek long-term. If they decide he’s not the goaltender they thought he was, and in a year choose to go in a different direction he’ll be a hefty trade chip on the market. If he rebounds and shows them that this was just a blip on what will be an otherwise excellent career, they can then lock him into a longer deal.

For St. Louis though, they have to hitch their horse to Allen and hope he can pull them out of it. With another four-years after this dedicated to the former second-round pick, they basically don’t have any other choice.

Central Notes: Darling, Subban, Tarasenko, Maurice

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The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Boston Bruins 1-0 Friday night thanks to another stellar game from Scott Darling. Darling has been superb this season, and as it usually goes for the Blackhawks, is due a pay raise when his contract expires after this season. Mark Lazerus writes that even with all the success, Darling is quick to credit his teammates for any one of his performances while also counting Corey Crawford as “one of the best goalies in the world.” In Darling’s mind, Lazerus reports, there is no goalie controversy, no matter how strong Darling continues to play.

In other Central Division news:

  • The return of P.K. Subban will continue to be a  delicate process writes the Tennessean’s Adam Vingan. Subban was supposed to play less in last night’s game but ended up logging 23 minutes of ice time. Vingan also reports that just having Subban’s presence in the lineup proves to be an immediate boon for the Predators’ possession game. With the Preds winning five of their last six, Vingan adds that there’s no rush for Subban to return to pre-injury form.
  • Stuck on 20 goals for a half dozen games, Jeremy Rutherford reports that Blues bench boss Ken Hitchcock will move Vladimir Tarasenko in an effort to generate scoring. Tarasenko will move to a line with Patrik Berglund and Robby Fabbri since Berglund has notched 10 goals in his last 16 games. Rutherford adds that Berglund cannot recall ever being on the same line with Tarasenko in his five years with the Blues.
  • The Winnipeg Sun’s Paul Friesen doesn’t envy  Jets bench boss Paul Maurice in having to deal with all of the different personalities on the team. But he is “puzzled” by Maurice’s approach. Friesen compares Maurice’s handling of 20-year-old Nik Ehlers with that of 31-year-old Dustin Byfuglien, and just how different it is working with a veteran and a rookie. Friesen reports that while Maurice was quick to explain Ehler’s shortcomings, he’s unsure as to why a veteran like Byfuglien is immune to the same critiques. He just wonders how Maurice will get a more consistent effort out of both players.

Rickard Rakell To Miss World Cup; Patrik Berglund Named Replacement

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Anaheim center Rickard Rakell will miss the World Cup of Hockey, Team Sweden announced.  Taking his place will be St. Louis Blues center Patrik Berglund.

Rakell played in Sweden’s first pre-tournament game, collecting an assist in 13:47 of ice time vs Finland on Thursday but did not play in the rematch on Saturday.  He did not travel with the team as they flew to North America and is currently in a Swedish hospital being treated for an unspecified illness.

Rakell is currently a restricted free agent and is coming off his best NHL season so far, picking up 20 goals and 23 assists in 72 regular season games last year.  He’s expected to play a top six role for the Ducks this coming season.

The issue may pertain to the surgery Rakell had back in March to remove his appendix, reports Eric Stephens of the OC Register.  His agent, Peter Wallen, noted that Rakell is currently unable to eat.

Berglund, meanwhile, is coming off a tough year with the Blues.  He didn’t get into game action until January after undergoing shoulder surgery last August and suited up in just 42 regular season contests, scoring a career low ten goals and five assists.  He did, however, fare better in the postseason, tallying nine points in 20 games.

[Related: Sweden’s World Cup Depth Chart]

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