St. Louis Blues Smart To Make No More Trades At Deadline
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues upset a lot of people by making no further moves at the trade deadline. Despite the outcry, the team was smart not to get involved in a rather boring day.
The St. Louis Blues all but let their fans know they were not going to be very involved in the trade deadline day. Once Kevin Shattenkirk was gone, there just were not many deals the team was going to make unless someone knocked their socks off.
Nobody did that. The Blues stuck with their current group, minus Shattenkirk of course. They were smart to do it.
Now, before everyone flips out on me, I am not saying the Blues were right to stick with this current team because I believe in the current team. Far from it. This team needs a decent overhaul in the summer.
The point is no trade the Blues could have been a part of that occurred would have made them any better. No matter how much people whine and cry and moan about it, the Blues could not improve themselves with any of the players available.
On Twitter, there was a great uproar about the Los Angeles Kings getting Jarome Iginla. I’m sorry, but this is not Iginla anymore. The guy has eight goals and 18 points right now. We all thought David Perron was a joke signing and he has 33 points at the moment.
I find the Kings deadline moves rather quizzical. Ben Bishop is a fine goaltender, but he’s fallible as well. He gives up soft goals like anyone else. Also, there is simply no way that Bishop is in LA next year unless the Kings decide Jonathan Quick‘s groin is done for.
So, the Kings gave up several draft picks for the hope they can make the playoffs. Granted, LA won the Stanley Cup as an 8th seed, but this does not look like one of those years for any of the Wild Card teams.
P.A. Parenteau is having a pretty good season. He could have helped the Blues a little, but he’s 33. He’s also a free agent at the end of the season.
The same could be said of Drew Stafford. He’s 31, a free agent and having a down/injury prone season. He has scored 31 goals before, but Blues history is riddled with guys that did something once or twice and the team kept hoping the Blues would get that play from them again and don’t.
The only person I might have taken a gamble on was Valterri Filppula simply because he might be an upgrade on Jori Lethera. He would also be under contract for next season. Even then, I don’t think I’d pull the trigger if I was Doug Armstrong. Another aging (32), declining asset that is going to be a free agent in the summer.
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That’s all that was dealt this deadline. Either aging players, pending free agents or players that are depth players at best.
There were no team altering deals. There were no Wayne Gretzky’s or Keith Tkachuk’s for the Blues to try and pick up.
You can be mad at Armstrong if you want. However, it doesn’t make sense to say he did not do his job when 29 other general managers were on the phone all day and could not get anything accomplished. No team was going to just hand over a top center to the Blues simply because we wanted it to happen.
Is it waiving the white flag a bit? Maybe so, and that sucks to have to stomach as a fan.
On the flip side, this group of players needs to get their heads out of their backside. Bringing in reinforcements would almost be rewarding them.
They got a Hall of Fame coach fired, have not taken personal pride in giving 100% consistently and the top guys take too many plays off. I’m not sure that deserves to have any faith shown in them or help given.
Doug Armstrong has faults and I’m not going to sit here and defend his job. He made some good deals early on but has been very gun shy since the Ryan Miller trade blew up in his face.
Still, he was right in this instance. The Blues were not going to be able to improve with so many teams holding onto their assets.
Like the NBA deadline, there were lots of rumors of big names going somewhere and it did not happen. I could see throwing the moon at teams for Matt Duchene or even Radim Vrbata, but no team pried them away.
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All that was traded this season was fourth liners and a few third liners. The Blues already have enough of those and most fans aren’t happy with them to begin with. There is no point to having a team full of third liners at this point.
It sucks to have the team take a step back, but that’s why last year was so special. Not every team can take the next step. All we can do now is hope the team is taking a step backward to take two steps forward.