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St. Louis Blues Sign Perunovich, Five Others

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The St. Louis Blues have announced six contracts, including a new one for restricted free agent Scott Perunovich. The 23-year-old defenseman has agreed to a one-year, one-way contract for next season.

The team has also signed Josh Leivo to a one-year, one-way contract, while Anthony Angello, Matthew Highmore, and Dylan McLaughlin are all coming aboard on one-year, two-way contracts. Nathan Walker has agreed to a one-year contract extension for 2023-24.

Perunovich will be earning just $750K according to Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest, a number that leaves a lot of room for surplus value. The young defenseman has shown top-four NHL ability but hasn’t been able to stay healthy long enough to establish himself as a full-time option. Since signing in 2020, he has just 43 games of professional experience. Seven of those came this spring in the playoffs for St. Louis, where he recorded four points despite averaging fewer than 11 minutes a game. That’s the kind of offensive upside he brings, able to contribute even in a limited role.

With no arbitration rights, there wasn’t much leverage that Perunovich had at this point. The fact that he is still waiver-exempt also likely played into the negotiation, as his qualifying offer would have come with a higher salary ($874K) but would have been two-way, giving him much less if he ends up in the AHL. Agreeing to the one-way deal guarantees him the $750K and likely helps him stay in the NHL, as he’ll carry a lower cap hit for the Blues to navigate.

Leivo, meanwhile is coming in on a $750K contract according to John Matisz of theScore, after leading the Chicago Wolves to the Calder Cup this year. The 29-year-old forward had seemingly established himself as an NHL regular before 2021-22 but ended up in the AHL and made the most of it. With 29 points in 18 playoff games, Leivo was named playoff MVP and now has another chance to show he is too good for the minor leagues. In 214 NHL games, he has 38 goals and 77 points.

Walker actually played in 30 games for the Blues this season, easily the longest NHL stint of his career. He even had eight goals and 12 points during that time and dressed in four playoff games. While he won’t be making a huge impact, extending him now suggests he’s a valued part of the organization that the team doesn’t want to see hit free agency next summer.

St. Louis Blues Extend Will Bitten, Sign Dylan McLaughlin

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Amidst the craziness of the ongoing free agent frenzy, the St. Louis Blues have re-signed an RFA depth player, Will Bitten. Per the team’s release, Bitten has signed a two-year, two-way deal carrying a $762K cap hit, per CapFriendly.

Bitten had a breakout season with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds after a midseason trade saw his NHL rights dealt to the Blues from the Minnesota Wild. Notching a solid 25 points in 45 regular season games after the trade, he was also stellar in the Calder Cup Playoffs for Springfield, tallying 21 points in just 18 games.

At 24 years old, the long-term NHL ceiling for Bitten isn’t super high, but there’s still time for him. He’s a cerebral player with good hockey sense, and he’ll look to continue to work his way up the Blues’ depth chart over the next two seasons. Bitten was originally a third-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 2016. He’s yet to see an NHL game.

The team has also signed forward Dylan McLaughlin to a one-year, two-way contract that will pay $750K in the NHL and $175K in the minors (link).

McLaughlin began his amateur career in the USHL, playing for both the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders before spending four years at Canisus College, where he had 147 points in 152 games. The forward turned pro, signing with the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. The 27-year-old has split his professional career between the IceHogs and the Indy Fuel of the ECHL, most recently compiling a strong 2021-22 with Rockford, tallying 13 goals and 29 assists in 55 games.

St. Louis Blues Sign Noel Acciari

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The St. Louis Blues have added a quality bottom-six forward at a reasonable cost, signing Noel Acciari to a one-year, $1.25MM contract. Acciari arrives in St. Louis having spent the last three seasons as a Florida Panther.

You can never have enough affordable bottom-six forwards, and that’s the attitude GM Doug Armstrong is taking with the signing of Acciari. At a $1.25MM price tag, Acciari is a market-price investment for Armstrong to bolster the back of his lineup. An undrafted player, Acciari has 307 NHL games on his resume.

Acciari has struggled to stay healthy as of late, but in his most recent healthy season he scored 20 goals. The five-foot-ten, 209-pound winger is a bundle of energy, physicality, and grit and will give coach Craig Berube a trustworthy bottom-six option. Given his recent inability to stay in the lineup and overall lack of scoring since his impressive 2019-20 campaign, expecting another 20-goal season from Acciari would be a mistake. But with reasonable expectations, Blues fans should be satisfied with this move as a sensible, low-risk option.

Blues Sign Max-Term Extension With Robert Thomas

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11:25am: The Blues have now made it official, though it will cost a bit more than originally reported. St. Louis has signed Thomas to an eight-year, $65.1MM contract, meaning he will carry an $8.125MM cap hit starting in 2023-24.

7:20am: While unrestricted free agents often dominate the headlines at the start of free agency, it’s also a day when players that are entering the final year of their contracts can sign extensions.  It appears one of those will be Blues center Robert Thomas as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the two sides are closing on an eight-year, $64MM extension.

After a tough injury-riddled 2020-21 campaign that saw the 23-year-old put up just three goals and nine assists in 33 games, St. Louis pushed for a bridge contract last summer, eventually agreeing to a two-year, $5.6MM pact that was identical to the one that Jordan Kyrou had signed a month earlier.

It’s safe to say that the Blues got a fantastic return on the first year of that deal as Thomas put up 20 goals and 57 assists in 72 games last season, good for second in team scoring behind Vladimir Tarasenko.  On top of that, his playing time jumped up by more than five minutes a game to 18:36 while becoming an all-situations player.  In other words, he performed like a true top center.

He’s certainly about to be paid like a top-line center as the $8MM AAV of this deal nearly triples his current price tag and would make him the Blues’ highest-paid player for 2023-24.  This contract will buy out his final two remaining RFA-eligible years and then give St. Louis six extra years of team control beyond that.

St. Louis has $18MM coming off their books in the summer of 2023, the bulk of that coming from $7.5MM expiring deals for Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly so GM Doug Armstrong certainly has some flexibility at his disposal to give Thomas this type of contract.  He’ll likely want to keep O’Reilly while Kyrou will be looking at a significant raise of his own and by the time those two deals get done between now and next summer, most of their savings will already be spent.  But they’ll have Thomas locked up through the prime of his career and if he can continue to improve, this contract could become a team-friendly one down the road.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

St. Louis Blues Extend Nick Leddy

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According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the St. Louis Blues are closing in on a four-year extension with defenseman Nick Leddy. The team confirmed a four-year deal worth $4MM per season. Leddy was originally acquired by the Blues from the Detroit Red Wings in a mid-season trade.

In St. Louis, Leddy provided what he’s provided at pretty much every stop of his 851-game NHL career. He’s a defenseman who’s at his best with the puck on his stick, moving the play up the ice in order to get his team into the offensive zone. Leddy is among the smoothest-skating veteran defensemen in hockey, and although his offensive production hasn’t been where one might assume it would be for a defenseman of that profile, he’s no slouch there either. Leddy had a healthy eight points in 20 games in St. Louis and five in the team’s playoff run. Leddy could be routinely counted on for 40-plus points in his days as a New York Islander, although those days are likely over.

At 31 years old, the Blues are likely getting a defenseman who can help ease some of Justin Faulk’s transition-game load. A point total of around 30 would be a reasonable expectation for Leddy, and the hope has to be that he doesn’t age too poorly, as this deal will take him until he’s 35 years old. The Blues will need to shelter Leddy a bit, as he’s far from an effective defensive defenseman, but if coach Craig Berube can deploy him effectively he’ll be a strong addition to a Blues club intent on competing for a Stanley Cup in the near future.

One note is the structure of the deal: the contract is mostly front-loaded, with the salary declining by around $500k per year, per reports. With that in mind, the Blues could be structuring the deal so it can be easily traded in a cap-dumping move similar to the ones we have seen already this offseason.

St. Louis Blues Expected To Sign Thomas Greiss

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After not being able to retain Ville Husso or Charlie Lindgren, the St. Louis Blues have found a new backup. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports that the Blues are expected to sign Thomas Greiss when free agency opens.

That essentially means the Blues and Detroit Red Wings swapped netminders, as Husso ended up joining Steve Yzerman’s club as their new potential starter. Greiss comes to St. Louis after two years in Detroit, the first of which was much better than this most recent season.

In 2021-22, the 36-year-old Greiss posted an .891 save percentage in 31 appearances, the lowest number of his entire career. For a .912 career netminder it was a huge fall, one that the Blues obviously hope won’t continue.

For St. Louis though, there wasn’t going to be enough money to keep Husso in place and a veteran backup was always the expected outcome.

More to come…

St. Louis Blues Sign Hugh McGing

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The St. Louis Blues have signed Hugh McGing to a one-year, two-way contract extension, after giving him a qualifying offer yesterday. The deal will pay him $750K at the NHL level and $90K in the AHL, the kind of compromise you’ll see from lots of players over the next few weeks. McGing’s qualifying offer would have been worth $874K in the NHL and $70K in the AHL but since he isn’t likely to spend much time at the upper level, he took the slightly higher AHL salary.

Originally selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft, the 24-year-old McGing was only in his second season of professional hockey this year after a long career at Western Michigan University. In 67 games with the Springfield Thunderbirds, he scored 14 goals and 34 points and was a strong contributor during the team’s run to the Calder Cup Final.

Now back on a one-year deal, he’ll be a restricted free agent again next season and arbitration-eligible.

The signing leaves St. Louis with five restricted free agents, including Niko Mikkola, Scott Perunovich, and Klim Kostin. The team decided not to issue Tanner Kaspick a qualifying offer yesterday, making him a UFA.

Latest On David Perron

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Several veterans in this year’s UFA class appeared as though they wouldn’t be going anywhere, and one of those names was that of St. Louis Blues winger David Perron. Back in late May, Perron had expressed his interest in returning to the Blues, who are not the only team he has ever played for, but they are the only team he has ever signed a contract with. Conversely, around the same time, Blues’ GM Doug Armstrong made it clear that he wanted to bring Perron back. A reunion between the two sides made perfect sense, Perron being a perennial offensive weapon for the Blues since the start of his career, though mixing in stints with the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, and Vegas Golden Knights.

Now, just about a day-and-a-half from the opening of free agency, The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that Perron is expected to hit the open market on Wednesday, making it unlikely he will return to the Blues. Seravalli adds that cordial talks have been ongoing between team and player, but the team simply does not have the necessary salary cap space to make an appropriate offer to Perron. The news is tough for the Blues, and presumably Perron, who were hoping to continue the relationship, but the realities of a flat salary cap have taken hold. The Blues currently have $9MM in available salary cap space, but do have to re-sign several RFAs and may look to retain pending UFA Nick Leddy. Even if this offseason was no problem, chances are Perron will command a multi-year contract, and St. Louis also has four star forwards with expiring contracts next offseason: UFAs Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly and RFAs Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, amongst others.

One positive to take from the update on Perron is the amicable nature of ongoing discussions, with the impasse being St. Louis’ cap situation rendering them unable to make what would constitute a reasonable offer. In other words, the desire for a new contract is apparently still there between both sides. It would be highly unlikely that the Blues can shed the necessary cap to make that offer to Perron by Wednesday afternoon, however Perron does have the option to take a wait-and-see approach on his free agency. While that option could be risky for Perron, if he does do so and the Blues cannot do what’s needed to offer him a contract, the veteran could serve as an option for a team who sought to spend on another top-notch option like a Johnny Gaudreau, Evgeni Malkin, or Claude Giroux, but missed out.

Some may wonder, with Perron coming off of a four-year, $16MM pact, and the Blues having $9MM in salary cap space, what would, absent Tarasenko, O’Reilly, Thomas, and Kyrou’s contracts next year, stop St. Louis from bringing Perron back, especially on a one-year deal? Although it is technically possible, Perron is coming off a rather team-friendly deal that allowed him to return to St. Louis, signing at the $4MM AAV after posting 66 points in 70 games for Vegas the season before. Since then, Perron has continued his performance, even stepping up his game, scoring 94 goals to go along with 127 assists in 251 games over the life of the contract, including a 2020-21 that featured 58 points in 56 games. At 34 years of age, producing as well as he ever has, Perron could be due a fairly long-term deal and would be unlikely to settle at such a team-friendly rate once again.

Detroit Red Wings Acquire Ville Husso

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The Detroit Red Wings have decided to bring in another goalie, acquiring Ville Husso from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a third-round pick in today’s draft. The team then quickly signed Husso to a three-year extension, keeping him from unrestricted free agency next week. The deal will carry an average annual value of $4.75MM.

The Red Wings, who have Alex Nedeljkovic coming off an inconsistent season and signed for just one more year, needed another goaltender if they want to be competitive in the Atlantic Division this season. By acquiring Husso, they’ve grabbed one of the top options on the market.

Already an extremely shallow pool, the group of free agent goaltenders is getting smaller by the minute. Husso and Marc-Andre Fleury are now off the market, while Alexandar Georgiev is no longer expected to join them after being traded to the Colorado Avalanche. It leaves Darcy Kuemper and Jack Campbell in line for a big payday, as the two remaining options that could be considered starting goaltenders.

Husso, 27, had been considered a top goaltending prospect for years but it took until the 2021-22 season for him to get a real opportunity in the NHL. He ran with it, posting a .919 save percentage in 40 games and essentially stealing the starter’s role from Jordan Binnington. In his first taste of playoff action, he faltered and gave that job right back but the Finnish netminder has still shown he can be a strong option at the NHL level.

With Nedeljkovic, who has also shown flashes of brilliance over his relatively short NHL career, the Red Wings have a young, competitive tandem that should push each other for playing time this season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Offseason Checklist: St. Louis Blues

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With the offseason in full swing, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at the Blues.

2021-22 was a decent season for St. Louis.  While they finished in third in a very tight Central Division, they got past Minnesota in the first round and then took the eventual Cup-winning Avalanche to six games.  GM Doug Armstrong can afford to keep most of the core together but there will still be a lot of work to do over the coming weeks.

Decide Tarasenko’s Future

Last summer, Vladimir Tarasenko wanted a trade but coming off another season that saw him miss extended time due to a shoulder issue and a $7.5MM cap hit, there were no takers.  Seattle had an opportunity to take him in expansion and passed.  The end result was somewhat of an awkward return to St. Louis.

It’s safe to say it worked out well for both sides.  Tarasenko was able to show that he’s fully recovered from his shoulder surgeries, getting back to the 30-goal mark while eclipsing 80 points for the first time in his career.  That was good enough for him to lead the Blues in scoring, giving them a much deeper offensive group in the process.

Now Armstrong has a decision to make.  The trade request hasn’t been rescinded and there should be a much better trade market for Tarasenko’s services this time around although it’s worth noting that Tarasenko has a full no-trade clause which could come into play as well.  The fact that the commitment is only for one year will help his value in a cap environment where it’s difficult to move pricey multi-year contracts.  Moving him would almost certainly yield some cap savings which could come in handy this summer.

But trading Tarasenko away now would also create a big opening to fill on the Blues as teams rarely get better after trading their top scorer.  While there’s definitely a risk in potentially losing him for nothing in free agency, that has to be weighed against their current situation where they’re a team with an eye on contending next season.  The next couple of weeks is when trade activity is at its peak so if Armstrong is pondering a trade, it may need to happen sooner than later.

Re-Sign Or Replace Husso

Coming into the season, Jordan Binnington was expected to be the starter for the Blues with Ville Husso, who had a quiet rookie year, serving as the backup.  That changed in the second half of the year when Binnington struggled and Husso stepped up with a .917 SV% from the beginning of January to the end of the season.  Unfortunately for Husso and the Blues, the 27-year-old struggled in the playoffs when Binnington was injured so his season ended on a down note.  However, Husso showed enough during the season to position himself as one of the top goalies heading into unrestricted free agency this month where he’ll also be one of the younger goalies to hit the open market.

That has him well-positioned to earn a significant raise after making the league minimum the last two years.  While it’s unlikely he’ll be able to command true starter money – he has 64 career NHL appearances (including playoffs) after all – Husso could reasonably expect to get the type of top backup money that has been thrown around in recent years in free agency.  Jonathan Bernier, a platoon goalie like Husso might be best suited to be, just received a two-year deal with a $4.125MM cap hit last summer from New Jersey.  With the potential for more upside, it’s quite possible that Husso could receive more than that on the open market on a multi-year commitment.

Is that something the Blues can afford on their books with Binnington still on the books for another half-decade at $6MM per season?  Is that a price they should want to pay even if they had the money to?  If Armstrong feels that the answer to one of those questions is no, then St. Louis will be among the teams joining the annual goalie shuffle that will take place at the start of free agency on July 13th.

Extension Talks

In their summer spending planning, the Blues will need to keep in mind that three prominent forwards (beyond Tarasenko) will need new contracts a year from now so any spending this offseason could cut into what they have for contracts in 2023 (unless they sign players to one-year deals).  Once July 13th hits, contract extensions can be worked out and Armstrong will be wanting to have those discussions somewhat quickly.

Ryan O’Reilly continues to be one of the more prominent two-way centers in the league.  He consistently produces at a minimum of a 60-point pace (over a full 82-game season), kills penalties, and is one of the most prominent faceoff players in the league.  He’s not a true number one center in terms of his scoring output but prior to this past season, he averaged more than 20 minutes a game for six straight years.  With a $7.5MM cap hit currently, O’Reilly – who will be 32 when it starts – could conceivably command a similar price tag on a long-term deal, one that runs a little longer than preferred to keep the AAV down.

Then there are a pair of prominent younger forwards who will be coming off their $2.8MM bridge contracts in Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.  Both players hit career highs across the board in 2021-22 while surpassing the point-per-game mark.  A repeat performance on either side would only push the asking price higher than it might be this summer.  At this point, barring a significant drop-off next season, both players should easily double their current price tag at a minimum.  New long-term contracts for those two basically will offset any cap savings if one of Tarasenko or O’Reilly goes unsigned a year from now.

While he’s not at the level of the other three listed here, it’s also worth mentioning that center Ivan Barbashev will also be on an expiring deal next summer and is extension-eligible later this month.  He’s currently on a $2.25MM and is coming off a 60-point season.  The 27-year-old will be unrestricted in 2023 and is currently in a position to land a significant raise of his own.  It’s less likely that he’ll be extended now since his performance was an outlier relative to his first few seasons but if Armstrong intends to keep him around, he’ll be budgeting some room for that as well.

Create Cap Flexibility

If you read through that and thought to yourself that the Blues could use some extra cap flexibility, you’re certainly not the only one who thinks that.  Looking ahead to this summer’s spending, it should also be noted that on top of Husso being unrestricted later this month, so are winger David Perron and defenseman Nick Leddy, both quality veterans.

It’s well-known that there is a mutual desire for Perron to stick around which will cut into the $9MM of cap space they have to work with this summer and likely into 2022-23’s money as well unless they can convince the 34-year-old to take a one-year deal.  Doing so would put Perron’s next contract into 35+ territory so that’s not an ideal scenario from his point of view.  Between that and needing some money for Husso or his replacement, it’s unlikely that Leddy returns although St. Louis would undoubtedly love to try to bring in an upgrade there as well.

There’s one contract that stands out above the rest in terms of an overpayment that they’d likely want to get out of and that’s defenseman Marco Scandella.  At $3.275MM for two more years, it’s not as if it’s a massive above-market contract but they can likely find someone capable of covering his 18 minutes a game for less money.  After that, however, it’s important parts of their core that might have to be moved to create that extra wiggle room.  In an ideal world, Armstrong is able to kick that decision down to next summer and delay the tough decisions for another year but they’ll need to move one notable salary off the books to have a chance at that happening.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

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