St. Louis Blues: What Would It Cost To Keep Troy Brouwer?

One of the big decisions the St. Louis Blues will be making this summer is who to pursue from their own crop of free agents. So, what would the cost of Troy Brouwer be?

Troy Brouwer was one of the big keys for the St. Louis Blues taking the next step and advancing to the Western Conference Finals. He scored what proved to be the game-winning goal against the Chicago Blackhawks and was one of the team leaders in goals for the postseason with eight.

He had a bit of a down year in the regular season. 18 goals was his lowest total since the 2011-12 season. His 39 points were a little less than many had hoped for as well. However, he was brought in to help in the playoffs and he did just that.

We all remember the goal against Chicago, but he only had that one. He had four against Dallas and was one of the few that could score against San Jose, netting three for himself.

So, with all this in mind, what would re-signing Brouwer cost? Unfortunately, there isn’t a concrete answer. There are comparables, but nothing to really hang your hat on.

On the one side, you have a younger player who put up more points in Ottawa. Mark Stone currently has a contract with an average annual value of $3.5 million. He signed that deal coming off a 64 point season and scored 61 points in his first year of the deal.

Stone is 24 with more offensive upside at this point in his career and earned slightly less than Brouwer did. The Blues would no doubt point to him as an example of what is fair in their view.

Sadly, you have a lot of bad contracts that point things in the other direction. One good playoff run netted Bryan Bickell a $4 million contract. That deal was so bad, it ended up costing Chicago Teuvo Teravainen just to dump the salary on Carolina.

On the Blues own free agent front, David Backes might cause them problems signing Brouwer. Backes is likely gone and word is going around he might fetch as much as $7 million per year on the market. Backes has a lot more points, but he’s also got two full seasons more under his belt. Backes has averaged just over 20 goals a season in his time and Brouwer just under 19. Not a lot of difference there.

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Brouwer isn’t likely to bring home $7 million, but he is likely hoping to get one final big deal that would carry him into his mid-30’s. So what raise makes sense?

For comparison, Jaromir Jagr is getting $4 million and so is Ryan Johansen. Justin Abdelkater put up similar stats last season and is earning $4.25 million on average. James Neal has slightly better career numbers and is earning an average of $5 million a year.

That’s about where you should cap your offer to Brouwer. There are likely other teams that will offer more, either because they overvalue leadership or are looking to get away from the cap floor, but that is their problem. For right now, the only other team that has voiced interest is the Vancouver Canucks, but that can change in an instant.

If the Blues want to be fair, but keep themselves viable, they’d offer something in the $4.5-5 million range. Clearly, you attempt to keep it lower than that even if the player shows any interest, but if you go in that range then you’re offering a raise from last year plus vaulting him over some similar players.

Anything over $5 million AAV and you’re just going too high. $5 million plus puts you with some high profile names like Jamie Benn, Evander Kane and Marian Hossa. It also gets you associated with bad contracts like Dave Bolland.

For me, I would offer three years at $4.75. Brouwer is 30, so you don’t lock yourself in to a long term deal when stats can start to drop off dramatically for some. You also give a reasonable raise for what he provided the team on the ice and in the locker room.

Again, anything over $5 million and you really have to take things into consideration. Brouwer is younger, but if you’re going over five, then should you think about just paying the extra to keep Backes here the rest of his career?

Brouwer isn’t going to be the next team captain, but he provides leadership and playoff experience in winning situations. He isn’t going to light up the scoresheet, but he is going to get you those timely goals and those gritty performances that lead to scores in the playoffs.

Next: Free Agents For Blues To Consider Part III

He would be a really valuable piece for this team to bring back and allow you to bring up your younger players, like Ty Rattie, as depth players instead of forcing them into the every day lineup right away.

The Blues don’t want to overpay. They’re close enough to the cap that they need to keepsome room for trades or outside help. However, the free agent pool is relatively light, especially in terms of what the Blues can realistically afford. So, bringing back Brouwer, if he does not have mile-high expectations of dollars would make a lot of sense.