- Blues RFA forward Robert Thomas is believed to be seeking a higher AAV than the $2.8MM that Jordan Kyrou received earlier this season, reports Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription link). The 22-year-old is coming off a tough injury-riddled season that saw him post just a dozen points in 33 games but with 75 points in 136 contests over his first two seasons, he has enough of a track record to try to get that on a bridge deal. Louis doesn’t have that much cap space but with Oskar Sundqvist headed for LTIR to start the season, that would give them enough of a buffer to get Thomas under contract although they’d need to get cap-compliant by the time Sundqvist returns.
Blues Rumors
A Case For St. Louis To Keep Vladimir Tarasenko
There has been an expectation of a trade involving Vladimir Tarasenko for several months now with both sides admitting that a change of scenery would be beneficial. However, between his $7.5MM AAV and his injury history, the interest hasn’t been strong and the veteran remains with the Blues. Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests that at this point, St. Louis may be better off just holding onto the 29-year-old in the hopes that a good start to next season would boost his value around the league and remove some of the question marks surrounding his health. That would be an outcome that is better than moving him with retention and/or taking a minimal return just to grant Tarasenko his wish to play elsewhere even though there could be some awkward moments given how public his trade request is.
St. Louis Blues Agree To Terms With Zack Bolduc
The St. Louis Blues have agreed to a three-year, entry-level deal for first-round pick Zack Bolduc. The young forward was picked 17th overall in 2021 and is coming off a strong season with the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL.
Bolduc, 18, had 29 points in 27 games this season for Rimouski, following his 30-goal 2019-20 campaign that earned him the QMJHL Rookie of the Year honors. The former linemate of 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere, Bolduc is a talented offensive player in his own right who has been compared to players like Sean Monahan in the past. His ability to play the middle of the ice is an important one, as true center prospects are difficult to acquire, especially ones with the upside that Bolduc represents.
That’s not to say he’ll be in the NHL right away. In fact, it seems very likely that the young forward will be back in the QMJHL this season to continue his development with the Oceanic and really try to dominate the league offensively. He’ll also be a candidate for Team Canada at the World Juniors and was recently at the team’s summer camp.
If he does return to junior, Bolduc’s contract will slide forward, meaning the first year of his three-year deal will not be burned in 2021-22. That could actually happen again is 2022-23 should he go back to the QMJHL once again, meaning this contract gives the team plenty of control.
Zdeno Chara Unlikely To Sign With Blues, Wants To Stay In East
While the Blues are believed to have shown interest in Zdeno Chara, it doesn’t appear to be mutual. Fox Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland notes (Twitter link) that if the 44-year-old decides to play next season, his intention is to stay in the Eastern Conference to be closer to his family. Chara still logged more than 18 minutes a game with Washington last season and led the team in shorthanded ice time so he can still contribute in a limited role. But at this stage of his career and knowing he’s going to be signing for the minimum salary or close to it (plus possible bonuses) for cap purposes, Chara can afford to be selective about where he wants to go and if the right fit doesn’t materialize, he can simply call it a career.
Offseason Extension For Colton Parayko Unlikely
Players signed until the end of the 2021-22 season are eligible for contract extensions and there have been some notable ones handed out already. One player that can get that next deal is Blues defenseman Colton Parayko but Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests it’s unlikely that such a move would happen anytime soon. While St. Louis would undoubtedly love to keep the 28-year-old around, Parayko is coming off a tough injury-plagued year and accordingly, his value is far from its peak. Waiting to see if he can bounce back is the more prudent move from Parayko’s end as doing so would allow him to get a bigger contract in the end. He’s carrying a cap hit of $5.5MM for next season and he’ll need to get back to being a top-pairing performer if he’s going to get a sizable raise next summer.
Latest On Zdeno Chara
With one more full season, Zdeno Chara would take the lead among all NHL defensemen in career games played. He currently sits in fifth, just 43 games behind the leader Chris Chelios, who played until he was 48. Chara isn’t quite that old at 44, and is coming off a relatively effective season with the Washington Capitals. If he intends on playing again this season as expected, there’s an old rival interested in his services. According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, the St. Louis Blues have expressed interest in Chara, as they did in the 2020 offseason before he signed with the Capitals.
Chara and the Blues know each other very well from their 2019 Stanley Cup Final, which went the full seven games and resulted in St. Louis’ first franchise championship. As usual, the veteran defenseman was dealing with injuries by the time the title series came around—this time playing with a broken jaw—but still managed three points in the seven games. Chara is up to 200 playoff games in his career, but hasn’t been able to hoist the trophy since 2011.
It also wouldn’t be the first defenseman from that 2019 series that the Blues would be targeting; they signed Torey Krug to a seven-year, $45.5MM contract last fall after losing captain Alex Pietrangelo to free agency. But as Rutherford writes, Chara is a long-shot for the Blues, as the veteran defenseman would like to stay as close to his family in Boston as possible with everything else equal.
There is still a place for Chara in the league, as a defenseman that is deployed almost solely in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill, but he’s obviously not what he used to be. He agreed to a one-year deal last season that paid him just $795K in base salary with another $730K in potential performance bonuses, but even that may be more than he gets this time around. He averaged just over 18 minutes this season for the Capitals, the first time since 1999 that he was under the 21-minute mark over a full season.
St. Louis Blues Sign Zach Sanford
The St. Louis Blues have agreed to terms with Zach Sanford on a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration with the young restricted free agent. The deal will carry a salary of $2MM. Sanford was one of 17 players who elected salary arbitration earlier this week.
With a $2MM Sanford in tow, the Blues now have just about $1.5MM in cap space with Robert Thomas still to sign. That number can be finessed a bit by dropping the number of players on the roster, but realistically will need a Vladimir Tarasenko trade if the Blues want to sign Thomas to a long-term deal. Otherwise, they could go short-term with him as well, just as they have with Sanford and Jordan Kyrou, who recently inked a two-year deal.
This contract for Sanford is interesting though, because it will walk the 26-year-old forward right to unrestricted free agency next summer. The 6’4″ forward is coming off a disappointing season which ended with just 16 points in 52 games. That’s a big step backward from his 2019-20 campaign that included 16 goals and 30 points in 58 games.
With that in mind, this is kind of a “prove it” deal for Sanford, to establish himself as a valuable secondary scoring threat or simply a bottom-six depth player. If he can do more than just contribute at the defensive end of the rink, he’ll could be one of the most sought-after free agents next summer. If those scoring totals don’t come up though, there’s no guarantee he even gets more than the $2MM St. Louis is comitting to him this time around.
St. Louis Blues Sign Jordan Kyrou
The St. Louis Blues have reached a contract with Jordan Kyrou, signing the young forward to a two-year deal. The contract carries an average annual value of $2.8MM, paying Kyrou a total of $5.6MM.
Kyrou, 23, broke out this season, finally showing off the high-end upside that made him the 35th overall pick in 2016. An outstanding skater, he posted 14 goals and 35 points in 55 games, almost all of which came at even-strength. With players like Jaden Schwartz, Mike Hoffman, and potentially Vladimir Tarasenko all leaving the Blues this offseason, there will be a real opportunity for Kyrou to take another step forward in 2021-22.
If he does, that $2.8MM cap hit will suddenly look like an extreme bargain, given he would have been eligible for salary arbitration next summer. Instead, he’ll lock in at a reasonable number and try to establish himself as one of the team’s most important forwards. Still, he won’t be handed a top-line role right away, as Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad were also added on the wings this offseason. Both will be making quite a bit more than Kyrou, meaning he could still find himself playing third-line minutes and seeing rare powerplay time. That could be a way to keep his next contract down, but it’ll be hard to keep him bottled up if he continues to improve.
For the Blues, a $2.8MM contract leaves them with about $3.5MM left to spend this summer. With Zach Sanford and Robert Thomas still to sign as restricted free agents, that isn’t a lot of wiggle room. The big move will still be Tarasenko, which could clear as much as $7.5MM off the cap if the team makes a trade without any salary retention. Once Kyrou and the others are signed though, the team will know exactly how much it can retain in order to facilitate the best return.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Slow-Developing Market For Vladimir Tarasenko
There has been an expectation over the past few months that the Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko would be parting ways. First came the news that he was being shopped which was followed up by Tarasenko’s trade request going public. The first opportunity came and went with expansion; although St. Louis left the winger unprotected, Seattle instead opted for RFA defenseman Vince Dunn. Then came the draft and the opening of free agency and still the veteran remains with the Blues.
Accordingly, GM Doug Armstrong told reporters including Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is changing his focus towards dealing with his restricted free agents and “as of now I don’t see anything changing for a while” when it comes to his roster which suggests there is no viable trade option on the horizon for Tarasenko.
There are a trio of restricted free agents to deal with in forwards Zach Sanford, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas. The Blues have a little over $6MM in cap room, per CapFriendly, which means they should be able to get those three locked up but they won’t have anything left to spend after that. That means that the delay in finding a Tarasenko trade is basically holding up the rest of their offseason planning.
Thomas notes that Tarasenko has expanded his list of teams he’s willing to go to and at this point, he’s willing to go pretty much anywhere to get the change of scenery he so desires. In terms of potential suitors, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period suggested in a recent appearance on the NHL Network (video link) that the Islanders, Rangers, and Devils are in the mix but others that had interest such as the Flyers have since dropped out. Of those three, New Jersey has the cleanest cap situation to make a move for Tarasenko without needing any sort of salary offset.
Tarasenko’s trade value is certainly at the lowest it has been in a while as the 29-year-old underachieved after coming back from yet another shoulder surgery (his third in two years), notching just four goals in 24 games last season and didn’t make much of an impact at the World Championships after joining Russia late in the tournament. With a $7.5MM cap hit for two more years and a $9.5MM salary, it’s a hefty price tag to take on and considering how he performed after coming back, it’s understandable that there is some hesitance to give up a return of significance.
While there is no firm timeline to necessarily get something done, the more that teams spend either on the open market or re-signing their own players makes it harder to get a Tarasenko trade done as cap space dries up so from that standpoint, the sooner a move gets done, the better. The old adage is that it only takes one phone call to get something going on the trade front. Armstrong is certainly hoping that call is coming soon.
St. Louis Blues Re-Sign Dakota Joshua
The St. Louis Blues have announced a one-year extension for restricted free agent forward Dakota Joshua. The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford reports that it’s a two-way deal for Joshua making him the league-minimum $750,000 at the NHL level. The Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas further adds that Joshua will be paid $100,000 at the AHL level.
Joshua made his NHL debut this year, getting into 12 contests with the Blues. He tallied his first NHL goal while he was called up, but that was his only point during his short stint. Originally drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth round in 2014, Joshua produced well offensively post-draft at Ohio State University. However, he’s more well-known for his physical brand of play and could be in for a long career in the NHL as a fourth-line forward. Joshua was traded to the Blues on July 12, 2019, for future considerations.
He’s a likely candidate to see some NHL games next season after his previous call-up, but the two-way deal suggests that the team doesn’t envision him making the squad out of camp. He’ll likely start with the Springfield Falcons, the Blues’ AHL affiliate for 2021-22.