The inevitable Justin Faulk trade has happened, as the Carolina Hurricanes shipped the defenseman to the St. Louis Blues. In return, they got Joel Edmundson, a draft pick, and 2018 first-round pick Dominik Bokk.
Justin Faulk has been in trade rumors for most of the past three or four seasons. He’s been reportedly on the move for a while now. The Carolina Hurricanes signing Jake Gardiner all but ensured his departure. Now the inevitable has happened – the defenseman has been traded to the St. Louis Blues.
In return for Faulk, the Hurricanes are getting 2018 first-round pick Dominik Bokk and defenseman Joel Edmundson, plus a seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft. Additionally, the Hurricanes are sending a 2020 fifth-round pick to the Blues.
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After trading for Faulk, St. Louis has surprisingly signed him to an extension. The deal is for seven years and is worth $6.5 million per year. While everyone was expecting Faulk to be traded and perhaps even sign an extension, the Blues weren’t a team people thought would be interested.
Let’s take a look at the trade and see who came out on top.
Hurricanes
The Hurricanes pretty much had to get rid of Faulk. Ideally, they should have gotten a 2020 first-round pick for him. But it’s understandable why teams might have been reluctant to give up a first-round pick in a such a deep draft. Plus, this isn’t an ideal world.
Still, the Hurricanes did quite well in effectively getting a first-round pick because Dominik Bokk was a first-round pick of the Blues in 2018. The German forward had 23 points last season in 47 games in the SHL. His calling card is his speed, which is something the Hurricanes value. Bokk also has quite a bit of skill, as he showed by putting up 41 points in 35 games in the SuperElit league during his draft year.
Edmundson is a decent defenseman, who, much like Faulk (until his extension), has one year left on his deal. I’m not sold the Hurricanes will keep him, they might try to flip him for more assets. But if they don’t, Edmundson is a very capable third-pairing or seventh defenseman. An extension is possible but does not appear to be likely, at least at first glance.
It’s also worth noting that Faulk had a no-trade clause, which limited his market. So all things considered, the Hurricanes did about as well as anyone could have expected them to do. Sure, it would have been nice to get a scoring forward for Faulk, but Bokk could become that down the road.
Grade: B+. It’s not the Ondrej Kase for Faulk trade that reportedly nearly happened, but Hurricanes fans have to be happy with this return.
Blues
For the Blues, this trade is a bit confusing. Seven years at $6.5 million a year is a bit of an expensive deal to give to Faulk. Especially when the Blues have two better right-handed options in Colton Parayko and team captain Alex Pietrangelo.
This could mean St. Louis hasn’t had good talks with their captain about an extension. Pietrangelo will be a free agent after the 2019-20 season. This could be the Blues way of replacing him. Faulk is strong on the power play, ranking 55th in points per game there over the past three seasons. But Pietrangelo actually ranks higher, at 33rd. As does Parayko, at 44th.
Still, in the right situation with the right deployment, Faulk is a very capable defenseman. I don’t have any huge issues with them trading for him, though Bokk is still a hefty price to pay. My main concern is with the extension.
The Blues are now left with about $20 million (assuming the salary cap rises) to re-sign Vince Dunn, Alex Pietrangelo, and Brayden Schenn. Plus re-sign several players after that. That’s rough.
Grade: C-. The trade was fine. The extension, though, isn’t good.