St. Louis Blues: Kevin Shattenkirk Rumors Becoming A Soap Opera

Ah, the summer. Don’t you love it? As soon as you’re certain one rumor could become fact, something else pops up to say it’s not true. That’s the case with Kevin Shattenkirk.

On the latest episode of As the World Turns…oh wait, this is the real world? It might as well be a soap opera.

We’ve been reporting on some of the differing rumors regarding a potential Kevin Shattenkirk trade. The first one involved the potential of shipping him to Edmonton since they are flush with scoring forwards. Then, just the other day, we wondered if a trade with Boston might be back in the works.

Now? Who knows. It seems like we are all grasping at straws, trying to decide which source is the most believable.

Our friends over at Oil on Whyte just did a story saying Shattenkirk and Carolina’s Justin Faulk may both be off the table. What makes their story more believable than the next? Well, the source was the Oilers’ own color analyst, Bob Stauffer.

If this is an Edmonton issue, it doesn’t make sense. Unless it’s playing hard to get, you shouldn’t close the door on any potential deals, especially when you have more forwards than you know what to do with and can’t keep the puck out of your own net.

If the Blues have pulled out on wanting to deal with Edmonton, it’s equally head scratching. Shattenkirk’s pending free agency in a year is a drawback, but he’s young enough and skilled enough to bring in a decent haul. If you packaged something with Shattenkirk, like a later pick or a cost controlled forward, you might even get their #4 pick (unlikely, but why not dream?).

So, if this latest swerve in the soap opera is to be believed and Stauffer has some inside information, who could be the eastern team? Also, does it mean the Blues are less likely to get an actual NHL player in return and might seek out picks to push a larger deal with another team?

We’ve already talked about Boston. In that article, we discussed the intriguing idea of bringing in Brad Marchand. In reality, that’s not very likely. Unless Boston is looking to clear cap room for a run at someone in the summer, they aren’t likely to give up on a good scorer.

Shattenkirk could be packaged for their 14th pick and a player. From a Blues perspective, you would need to have a solid player falling down the draft board to make that deal. It doesn’t make as much sense to move up, purely to move up unless there is a player the Blues really love in addition to whatever else is included in the deal.

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Who else is out there? Taking a very quick look down the draft, there’s not much early.

Toronto is an absolute no. They were reportedly offered Arizona’s two first rounders along with either Max Domi or Christian Dvorak and turned it down. The Blues can’t afford to package anything richer than that.

Columbus at number 3 is a maybe. The Blues have a good relationship with John Davidson and the Blue Jackets are in need of defense. However, Davidson seems to want to build the way he did with the Blues and is more likely to stick with his pick.

Buffalo picks eighth. They have a couple interesting younger pieces that would be great if they were willing to part with them, but their higher priced talent has been disappointing.

Montreal is at ninth. The Canadiens probably don’t have the cap room to pick up Shattenkirk unless they send out some salary. Pulling in Alex Galchenyuk or Max Pacioretty would be nice, but doesn’t seem likely.

New Jersey picks at number 11. If Clayton Keller is there at 11 or someone else you really like, then maybe but the Devils don’t have a lot of NHL players that make sense. Kyle Palmieri would be ok if he kept up his 2015-16 pace, but he’s a FA. Adam Henrique would peak interest, but doesn’t make sense to give up from the Devil’s perspective.

The draft goes Ottawa, Carolina and Boston after the Devils pick. The Senators have some reasonably priced scorers that would be nice, but already have high dollar blueliners, so probably wouldn’t be interested.

Carolina is kind of a mystery. On the surface, you would not think Shattenkirk would be of interest since they already have a scoring defenseman. However, you never really know what is going on when a team is in turmoil the way the ‘Canes are.

Trading up in the draft doesn’t make much sense after you get past Boston’s pick (to me anyway). So, while a trade may still happen at the draft, perhaps draft picks won’t factor into it highly?

If the Edmonton deal is unlikely, it’s harder to tell what might happen. While I always say it’s best not to get attached to any trade or free agent given the uncertainty of anything until the ink is dry, even I have to admit that the idea of bringing in one of the Oilers’ scorers was salivating.

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Obviously, doors are not officially closed. I respect Mr. Stauffer the same way I respect Darren Pang. However, people in the broadcast booth don’t always have the inside information for other teams.

It does throw another wrench into the mix though. The drama keeps unfolding and if we keep having twists and turns, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear a story that the Blues are going to keep Shattenkirk at least until the deadline released next week. Time will tell how this all plays out since there are still two weeks before the draft.