The St. Louis Blues could be quite busy this offseason, especially if they want to keep their captain Alex Pietrangelo. Which players should they trade?
The St. Louis Blues are the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Their first objective right now is to try to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. But obviously, they might not get a chance to do it. If the Blues don’t, they’ll have to enter the offseason with some salary cap questions.
While CapFriendly projects the Blues to have over $4 million of cap space with 20 players signed, that’s assuming the salary cap ceiling rises to $84 million. There’s a very good chance it won’t, especially if the NHL doesn’t have a postseason.
If it remains stagnant at $81.5 million (which seems likely), suddenly the Blues would only have a shade over $2 million of cap space to re-sign RFA defenseman Vince Dunn around and upgrade the rest of their roster. Now, nobody signs anyone to offer sheets, but Dunn would be mighty tempting for a lot of GMs. At the very least, a rival GM could force the Blues’ hand rather easily.
Unless there are compliance buyouts, which might happen if the cap decreases, the Blues are going to have to make some moves this offseason if they want cap space. Why would they want cap space? First, to re-sign Dunn, ideally to a long-term deal. Second, to do what they can to keep team captain Alex Pietrangelo, who will be a UFA at the start of free agency, around.
Let’s take a look at some players who could be traded by the Blues this offseason.
Honorable Mention
Let’s get Alexander Steen out of the way. Yes, the Blues would probably like to trade him. Steen is a great leader in the locker room, but his value is quickly decreasing and he’s simply overpaid at $5.75 million per year.
Unfortunately, trading him could be next to impossible, if not impossible, because he has a full no-trade clause that doesn’t expire until Feb. 1, 2021. Steen’s not going anywhere unless the Blues buy him out, which would be costly after next season, or he wants to go somewhere else.
3. Jake Allen
Contract: 1 year left, $4.35 million cap hit, $4 million salary
The case for trading him: Jake Allen is the Blues backup goalie, though he’s more of a 1b type. Jordan Binnington is clearly the starter. Finding another backup goalie wouldn’t be easy, but it might be easier than finding another skater. Allen is having a strong 2019-20 campaign, so they likely wouldn’t have much trouble trading him.
Why they shouldn’t trade him: Allen’s role is to be Binnington’s security blanket. What if Binnington gets tired? Allen can be there to give him a rest. And, as I said earlier, he did have an impressive 2019-20 campaign. Spending over $8 million on your goalies certainly isn’t ideal, but when you have a tandem like Binnington and Allen, who combined to have the ninth-best save percentage in the league, it’s not terrible.
Verdict: Considering Allen outperformed Binnington this season, keeping Allen around is probably a good idea.