St. Louis Blues Trade News: Sunday Recap
As the trade deadline of March 2nd draws nearer and nearer, we at Bleedin’ Blue recap the day’s trades for you. We focus on the St. Louis Blues trade news, as well as how other teams’ movements affect our Blues. This feature will run every day until trade deadline.
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Recap
Yesterday saw one relatively major trade, as far as the Blues were concerned: Vermette to the Blackhawks. To review,
The Blackhawks have beefed up their defense and their offense in the past 24 hours. They are about to get much more dangerous across all aspects — the blue line, the faceoff circle, at the net…essentially, it will be hard to screw this up. The Blues need to be prepared for a massive seven-game fight if and when it comes down to that.
Don’t count Gleason and the Capitals out, however. That blue line of theirs just got a whole lot more physical. And they weren’t shy to begin with.
New News
Photo from NHL.com
The Capitals weren’t done with yesterday’s wheelings and dealings; today they traded a 2nd- and 3rd-round pick to be used in this year’s draft to the Calgary Flames for forward Curtis Glencross. Glencross may not be an elite scorer, but the Capitals don’t need one of those. They have Ovechkin. What he will be able to provide, much like Gleason, is a large body and physicality, in this case, in front of the net. Glencross has 9 points in 53 games this season for the Flames, and while he has spent 7 years with the organization, waived his NTA for the Flames to proceed with the deal with Washington.
How does this affect the Blues? Same as the Gleason trade. This is simply going to make the Capitals more powerful. And it gives the Flames, a team that was shockingly good this season, more to work with at the draft.
Photo from NHL.com
The Rangers made three different trades today, all of which screamed “Cup Or Bust!” Really. It couldn’t have been clearer if New York had made a banner and hung it from the Statue of Liberty.
The first was Yandle, who has been highly talked-about but came with a high price tag, Chris Summers, and a 2015 4th-round pick for John Moore (okay, fine), Anthony Duclair, and two picks, one of which was a first-round conditional.
Moore is a good defender, but what is truly important here is giving up Duclair, a top prospect, as well as a first- and second-round pick for this and the following draft year. The Rangers aren’t playing around anymore. With Yandle on their blue line they have not only improved their defense, but strengthened their offense. Yandle was the top scorer for the Coyotes this year.
Photo from NHL.com
The second trade the Rangers made today was with Winnipeg: Stempniak for Klingberg, which was a surprising move. Stempniak has 18 points in 53 games, while Klingberg has only appeared in two games for the Jets, having neither goals nor assists. He is a -1 in +/-, but the Rangers must see something in him they think will flourish in their system.
Photo from NHL.com
Finally, the Rangers traded the Sharks a 4th-round pick for James Sheppard, who has 16 points in 57 games. More importantly, however, he is 50% at the faceoff dot, which the Rangers currently lack. New York (R) has added the most talked-about defender in the NHL, as well as two pretty decent two-way forwards in the last 12 hours. (Klingberg I’m withholding judgment on until I’ve seen more than two games out of him.) They single-handedly made the biggest trade of the week in Yandle, and gave up a decent amount to get him.
The Rangers and Glen Sather may be done until deadline, but they made strides today that should make any team, including the Blues, a little nervous.
Photo from NHL.com
As you get closer to deadline, trades get more expensive.
The Red Wings and the Stars came to an agreement today: Erik Cole and a conditional 3rd-round 2015 pick in exchange for Mattias Backman, Mattias Janmark, and a 3015 2nd-round pick. Interestingly enough, apparently Detroit gets Dallas’ third-round pick if they make it to the Eastern Conference Final, but if not, it will revert back to the Stars.
Cole has 33 points in 57 games this season, and perhaps more importantly for Red Wings, is a relatively large player who has years under his belt. Cole has seen 46 playoff games, and has performed well against the Red Wings when he’s faced them. Apparently he impressed Detroit GM Ken Holland.
As for the Blues, well, at least the Red Wings aren’t in the Western conference anymore. This could mean an interesting showdown between the Rangers and Red Wings come playoff time, as both appear to be heading into it full steam ahead.