- While it was initially believed that Blues defenseman Justin Faulk had missed Friday’s game due to the flu, the team announced (Twitter link) that he’s actually dealing with an upper-body injury. He’ll be re-evaluated today. It has been a rough first season with St. Louis for the 27-year-old as he has a career low 15 points in 67 games and will begin a new seven-year contract with the Blues next season with an increase in his cap hit from $4.833MM to $6.5MM.
Blues Rumors
Snapshots: College Free Agents, Ceci, Perunovich
While we have to way until July to get any free agent action among NHL players, the college season will be ending a little sooner. The end of the line for the best NCAA players means a feeding frenzy for NHL organizations, who will be snapping up talent in the hopes that they can step directly into the professional ranks. With that in mind, Frank Seravalli of TSN breaks down five names who are on the radar.
The top name as expected for most of the season is Connor Mackey, who has drawn plenty of speculation over the years. Seravalli reports that 28 of the league’s 31 teams have shown interest in Mackey, including nine that apparently are willing to sign him to an NHL contract this season—allowing him to burn the first year of the entry-level deal he will be restricted to. Remember, to do that the team must have an empty slot under their 50-contract limit, something that the Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning currently do not.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs, who will surely be one of the team showing interest in the college defenseman, are getting back one of their own blueliners. Cody Ceci has been activated from injured reserve, adding some more experience to a group that has very little at the moment. The Maple Leafs have been forced to play Travis Dermott, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Timothy Liljegren and Calle Rosen all at the same time, a quintet that has 291 games of NHL experience between them. Ceci, for all his faults, has played in 494.
- Speaking of college defensemen, the St. Louis Blues are monitoring one of their own draft picks very closely in Scott Perunovich, who is having another outstanding season for the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription required) examines the situation and exactly what options Perunovich will have after his year is done. Rutherford points out that there may not be a ton of opportunity right away in St. Louis, which has many speculating about whether the dynamic defenseman will try to find a different destination to start his professional career.
St. Louis Blues Announce New AHL Affiliation
When the Vegas Golden Knights decided to purchase the San Antonio Rampage and relocate them, the St. Louis Blues were left without an AHL affiliation. No longer, as the team has signed a five-year agreement with the Springfield Thunderbirds beginning with the 2020-21 season. That will leave the Florida Panthers looking for a new affiliation. AHL reporter Mark Divver tweets that the rumor is that the Panthers will move their AHL affiliate to Charlotte, while Carolina will make a partnership with the Chicago Wolves.
The Rampage will be turning into the Henderson Silver Knights for next season, throwing the Blues’ plans into chaos once again. The team previously spent a season without an AHL affiliate when the Golden Knights came into the league, but will at least not have to go through that situation again.
GM Doug Armstrong released a statement on the new partnership:
We are excited to announce our deal with Springfield and close our search for a new affiliate. Springfield is a strong franchise in a city with a rich hockey history. Our partnership will allow us to continue to develop our players and further strengthen our franchise as a whole.
The Thunderbirds are 30-26-2 this season and sit in fifth place in the Atlantic Division.
St. Louis Blues Sign Tyler Tucker
Now that the calendar has turned to March, teams around the league can sign prospects to entry-level contracts that won’t officially start until next season. With that in mind, the St. Louis Blues have signed Tyler Tucker to his three-year entry-level deal. Tucker currently plays with the Flint Firebirds of the OHL.
The 20-year old defenseman was selected 200th overall in 2018, but took a huge step forward last season for the Barrie Colts. The 6’2″ 205-lbs Tucker not only led all Colts defensemen in scoring with 14 goals and 59 points, but also was the team leader in penalty minutes with 105. He has another 17 goals and 55 points this season split between his two clubs, and 83 penalty minutes to go along with it.
While you can already see why the Blues may be a perfect fit for Tucker, he’ll still have quite the road before getting to the NHL. Just earning a contract is a big step for someone drafted so late, but next season will likely be spent in the AHL polishing his game.
Tucker did play two games for the San Antonio Rampage at the end of last year and will likely get into some more this time should Flint be knocked out early.
Vladimir Tarasenko To Participate In Contact Drills Next Week
- Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko will begin participating in contact drills on their upcoming road trip, notes Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That’s a big development for the veteran who has been out since late October with a shoulder injury. The expectation that he’d return late in the year played a big role in a quiet trade deadline for St. Louis but if he’ll be starting contact drills next week, he could be back a bit earlier than expected which would be a big boost for a team that’s already in the top ten in goals scored this season.
Vegas Golden Knights Purchase San Antonio Rampage
February 28: The AHL’s board has approved the sale and the relocation to Henderson, effective for the 2020-21 season. The team will play at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas next season.
February 6: The Vegas Golden Knights now own their very own AHL franchise, purchasing the San Antonio Rampage. The team is applying for relocation with the intention to move the minor league club to Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada. Golden Knights CEO Bill Foley released a short statement:
Since our initial season ticket drive began five years ago in February 2015, we have witnessed first-hand the incredible passion and enthusiasm our community has for hockey. By every relevant metric, the growth of the game here the last few years at all levels has been remarkable. We could not be more proud to bring a second professional hockey club to the Valley to accelerate this growth even further.
The Golden Knights are currently affiliated with the Chicago Wolves, who will be looking for a new NHL partner next season should the relocation go through. It is still pending AHL Board of Governors approval, but if everything goes according to plan the Rampage would relocate for the 2020-21 season. The team is expected to be named the Henderson Silver Knights.
The Rampage will remain affiliated with the St. Louis Blues through the end of the 2019-20 season. Blues GM Doug Armstrong announced that the team will begin the search for a new affiliate immediately, despite signing a five-year agreement with San Antonio in 2017.
Jay Bouwmeester Will Not Play Again This Season, Playoffs
At an emotional press conference this afternoon, St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester announced that he still hasn’t made a decision on his long-term hockey playing future. Blues’ GM Doug Armstrong did confirm however that Bouwmeester would not play again for the team this season or playoffs.
That’s certainly not unexpected after Bouwmeester suffered a cardiac episode earlier this month and underwent an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) procedure.
The 36-year old defenseman will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. In 17 NHL seasons, the minute-munching Bouwmeester has played over 1,300 games and won the Stanley Cup last year as a member of the Blues.
Blues’ Armstrong Speaks On Chris Kreider Interest
St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong met with the media today to discuss the quiet trade deadline, and eventually got to the subject of Chris Kreider. The Blues had showed interest in the New York Rangers winger, but Armstrong explained that they really couldn’t go down that path once they learned that Vladimir Tarasenko would be back this season:
The interest level waned quite honestly when we knew Vladdy was coming back. In a different world if I was managing the St. Louis Blues in the late-90s, yeah we would have been really interested. It’s only the owner’s money and I wouldn’t care about it.
But there’s a salary cap situation that is in place now. Knowing that to bring Krieder in knowing Vladdy is coming back we would have had to remove X amount of millions of dollars of contract to do that. We weren’t willing to go deep into our core group, upsetting the chemistry that we had for a potential short-term thing.
Armstrong would go on to explain that he’s not surprised Kreider would eventually sign a seven-year, $45.5MM to stay in New York. The speedy winger will be a core piece to build around for the Rangers as they look to jump into their next real competitive window.
For the Blues, Tarasenko’s return would have a huge impact on the team’s chances at defending their Stanley Cup championship. Armstrong is hoping the Russian star will be back for more than three or four games before the start of the playoffs, even saying “closer to twenty [games] than three, I’d be happy.”
The Blues were one of the only teams that were quiet at the deadline, and the executive explained that a big factor in that was not wanting to upset the chemistry the team has built. A “room full of champions” now, St. Louis is in first place in the Western Conference with a 36-17-10 record. While Kreider may have given them another weapon, they are already good enough to compete and contend for another title.
Wild To Host Blues In 2021 Winter Classic
Earlier this month, the NHL revealed that Carolina would be hosting their first-ever outdoor game next season (against an opponent that’s yet to be determined) but it wouldn’t be in the Winter Classic. Now, we know which two teams will be competing on New Years’ Day as the league announced that the Wild will host the Blues for the 13th edition of the event that first began in 2008. It will be the 31st outdoor game in NHL history.
This will be Minnesota’s first-ever time hosting the event though it won’t be their first outdoor game. They hosted a game against Chicago as part of the Stadium Series back in 2016 and won that game 6-1. Meanwhile, this will also be the second time that St. Louis plays outdoors. They hosted the 2017 edition of the Winter Classic (also against Chicago) and won that game 4-1.
That will be the only other outdoor game on the schedule for the 2020-21 season. There have been talks about another Heritage Classic game in Canada but that won’t come until 2021-22 at the earliest.
Trade Deadline Primer: St. Louis Blues
With the trade deadline now just hours away, we continue our look at the teams in the Central Division. Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs? Next up is a look at the St. Louis Blues.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have had a largely successful season. They’ve been among the top teams in the Central pretty much all season long and are in first place in the conference at the moment despite injuries to several key players. However, it’s that injury situation coupled with limited cap room that makes it likely that St. Louis will have a quiet trade deadline.
Record
35-17-10, first in the Central Division
Deadline Status
Limited Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$7.991MM in a full-season cap hit (using LTIR), 0/3 used salary cap retention slots, 47/50 contracts per CapFriendly
Upcoming Draft Picks
2020: STL 1st, STL 3rd, STL 4th, CAR 5th, STL 5th
2021: STL 1st, STL 3rd, STL 4th*, STL 5th, STL 6th
* – If St. Louis makes the Western Conference Final this year with Marco Scandella playing in at least half of their games or Scandella re-signs before the start of next season, the pick will transfer to Montreal.
Trade Chips
Options here are minimal with most of their listed cap space tied to Vladimir Tarasenko ($7.5MM) staying on LTIR. He’s expected to be activated before the end of the season so they’re in a situation where they’d likely need to match money to make a deal.
One roster player that could go is Jacob de la Rose. Acquired early in the year from Detroit, his role has largely been minimal. He’s someone that could be a non-tender candidate as things stand to save a few bucks for next season but at the same time, he’s still only 24 but has over 200 games of NHL experience. A rebuilding team looking to add a defensive forward could have some interest in his services. Veteran winger Troy Brouwer recently cleared waivers and if there was a team that was willing to give him NHL time down the stretch, they’d probably move him on. Beyond that, there aren’t many likely candidates to go.
In a bigger move, center Tyler Bozak makes some sense as his $5MM AAV for this season and next is a bit pricey for his third line role most of the time. GM Doug Armstrong has said any moves he makes from here on out would likely be ‘hockey deals’ and something with Bozak could make that happen.
At the AHL level, defenseman Jake Walman is someone whose stock has dropped lately. At 24 with very limited NHL time under his belt, his NHL prospects are starting to thin out so a change of scenery could be in his best interest. A swap of AHL players involving him might draw some interest. Beyond that, there isn’t much to consider with a limited set of draft picks (including the second rounders that are popular trade chips at this time) and a lower-end prospect pool.
Five Players To Watch For: F Tyler Bozak F Troy Brouwer, F Jacob de la Rose, F Austin Poganski, D Jake Walman
Team Needs
1) Scoring Depth: With Tarasenko out, they’ve counted on the rest of the forwards to pick up the slack. They’ve done so for the most part as they’re in the top half of the league in scoring. If they could find a cheap option for their bottom six, it would give them just a bit more offensive punch and a bit of a hedge against injuries. Moving de la Rose for this player could be a possibility and would basically be the opposite of the move they made to acquire him when they moved Robby Fabbri to get him.
2) Veteran Spare Defenseman: This isn’t a big need but given the extremely limited scope of what they can do, this could be on Armstrong’s list. Adding another veteran defender that can be stashed at the AHL level and be called upon if injuries arise would be nice. They have Derrick Pouliot and Jake Dotchin as options already but finding an upgrade on them would give them someone they’re more comfortable using if it comes to it.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.