St. Louis Blues: What Is Anyone’s Plan?
By Todd Panula
Following a somewhat discouraging draft day, fans were hanging their hopes on the St. Louis Blues making a move via free agency. That didn’t happen, so what is the plan for all parties involved?
To say that decisions made on the first day of free agency were head scratching is an understatement. Whether it was players or general managers, people seemed to just decide to pull the trigger on a deal and live with the consequences later.
It begs the question of what they are thinking. Are they thinking clearly? What is their plan for the future? Does winning matter or money? Are we getting the whole story or just what the teams/players want the media to know?
That last question is the one that is the hardest to tell. Often it depends on what and who you choose to believe. Montreal’s GM, Marc Bergevin, said he was not shopping his superstar defender P.K. Subban and then trades him to Nashville. Doug Armstrong told the media they were going to utilize both Brian Elliott and Jake Allen in this season and now Elliott is a Flame.
The flip side of that has teams saying they offered this or that and the player ends up taking a deal somewhere else for less than the report. Players can also say they want to end their career somewhere only to leave and prove it was always about money or a perception of respect etc.
David Backes falls under that portion. We all loved him as a player. He truly did give his all on the ice and for the city. Whether his all was enough is a different matter. He bled blue. However, he became stuck on a number and that’s dangerous.
Backes turned down a deal from the St. Louis Blues during the season that was reported to be worth $5.5 million per season. The deal was supposedly for three years, but Backes was insistent on five or more.
Well, he got his five years with the Boston Bruins. He will get an average value of $6 million per season. Ok, fine. He got his raise. Or did he? A cost of living comparison between Boston and St. Louis shows that his $4.5 million salary in St. Louis compares to $8.6 million in Boston. So, he’s actually losing money by taking $6 million there as opposed to $5.5 million here.
Security is all well and good, but if he is confident in his ability to play at 35 then he should be ok with getting a new contract at 35 instead of one that lasts until he is 37. In the end, he’s losing money for the satisfaction of knowing he’ll be employed for five years.
Employed is the only guarantee too since Boston has been hit or miss. There’s as much a chance he’ll get traded before the deadline as there is of them being in the playoffs. Boston is one of those teams that can win a Cup or can miss the postseason entirely and you aren’t sure which will happen.
And what do the Bruins get? They get a hell of a man, who will fit in with the locker room like a glove. They’re also paying $6 million for a third line player. Unless they move him to a wing, Boston isn’t going to put him higher than the third line, but they’re going to possibly have him on the team until he’s 37 at that price.
Troy Brouwer is also a confusing case. He gets four years at $4.5 million per season. The Blues could not have afforded that? Four years is a tiny bit long and the price is a tiny bit high, but in the grand sense he was a big presence in the playoffs.
On the flip side, if the Blues actually offered some form of raise from Brouwer’s 2015-16 salary, what is Calgary offering other than a chance to stay in his summer home year round and being closer to his father?
They have some good young talent, but like the Avalanche, their playoff season from two years ago appears to be a fluke. Blues fans don’t want to hear it, but Elliott and Brouwer won’t be enough to make them a contender, so what is the appeal of going to Calgary instead of a team that can win now?
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Do these other teams have good plans either? The players clearly want big money and why wouldn’t they? But, the teams are just going nuts. Seven years to a guy like Andrew Ladd? Six years for a streaky Loui Eriksson? Seven years at $6 million for Kyle Okposo, who has yet to score 30 goals?
It’s not incredibly crazy numbers that we worried about. It’s not $7 million for Backes or 10 for Eric Staal or Steven Stamkos, but teams are just terrified to not spend. They’re worried that someone will outbid them for a decent player, so they just give out the best offer they can right off the bat. They get the player, but is it worth it by the end of the contract?
Teams always have to weigh the matter. What was spent on July 1, 2016 was too much. However, the Blues paid too much for Paul Stastny, but it was what they needed to pay for what they considered a player they could not let pass. That seems to be the case with too many teams now.
Next: Do The Blues Know What They're Doing?