St. Louis Blues Unlikely To See Another Tkachuk Wear The Bluenote

Ever since fans figured out how good Matthew Tkachuk could be, there were dreams of another Tkachuk wearing the Bluenote. Sadly, baring something unforseen, it just isn’t going to happen.

Drafts are always somewhat of a crapshoot. While hockey is a little more of a sure thing than the NFL, you still never truly know what you’re going to get. Sometimes players need more grooming before they bust out as top notch players and sometimes the top prospects just aren’t ready once the bright lights of the NHL shine on them.

That said, it’s still important to draft well and pick up as many talented players as you can. If they are NHL ready, so much the better. That could be the case for Matthew Tkachuk.

He is the second rated American prospect behind likely number one pick Auston Matthews. TSN’s Bob McKenzie claims Tkachuk is as good as advertised.  NHL insider, Craig Button also believes Tkachuk could step into the league right away.

All of that is well and good. However, it also means there is next to no chance the St. Louis Blues have of acquiring the player who spent a good deal of his childhood in the Gateway City.

The Blues currently have the 28th pick in the upcoming NHL Draft.  The draft is going to take place on June 24 and 25.  That leaves the Blues plenty of time to wheel and deal if they see fit, but still not much likelihood they could pull something off to get high enough.

Most mock drafts have Tkachuk going anywhere from the #4 pick to the Edmonton Oilers to the #6 pick to the Calgary Flames.  The Vancouver Canucks pick fith and are also interested.

The most likely trade candidate for the Blues to move up would be the Oilers.  Even though DraftSite has them taking Tkachuk, it doesn’t make much sense.  The Oilers are heavy on forwards and were actively shopping Ryan Nugent-Hopkins before his injury prior to the trade deadline.

The Oilers are in need of defense.  Kevin Shattenkirk would likely be an attractive asset to the Oilers.  He is a steady blueliner with the puck handling skills to match the speed and skill of the current group of forwards in Edmonton.

Although rumors abound that the Oilers have heavy interest in Shattenkirk, it was recently stated that the interest is not likely to include giving up their fourth overall pick.

This isn’t completely surprising. If they think they could package a forward for Shattenkirk and keep their pick to take a defensive prospect as MyNHLDraft and DraftUtopia have them doing, then that makes the most sense.

So, what else would be available for the Blues?  Well, if Tkachuk is likely to slip no further than sixth, you have to figure something out with either Vancouver or Calgary.

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The Flames are unlikely to even think about being open to a Shattenkirk deal for the pick.  The Flames currently have more salary tied up in defensemen than they do forwards – they gave Dennis Wideman over $5mil per year, need we say more?  So, picking Tkachuk would fit in with their young group of scorers and give them more freedom to give a gigantic contract to Johnny Gaudreau.

The Canucks have more room defensively, but are in a similar situation regarding the cap as the Blues.  Vancouver also has a lot of money tied up in aging forwards.  Sticking with their pick and taking Tkachuk would give them freedom to either spend extra on defensemen in free agency or to attempt dumping some salary by dealing a veteran forward.

The only other outside shot at pulling off a deal to put Tkachuk in the ‘Note would be to deal with some old friends.  John Davidson and Jarmo Kekäläinen are in charge of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who hold the third pick in the draft.

Dangling a carrot like Shattenkirk might entice them, though it probably wouldn’t be a straight up deal.  The Blue Jackets are close enough to making a playoff push that they might see that as a deal to help put them over the hump.  However, Davidson and Kekäläinen helped build the Blues core through the draft and are likely to want to do the same with Columbus.

It would be awesome to see another Tkachuck wearing a St. Louis jersey.  Even if he isn’t ready for the NHL yet, he’s put up impressive numbers everywhere he’s been.  It might be junior hockey, but he scored 20 goals in one playoff year alone with the London Knights.

There have been enough rumors floating around about the Blues’ interest in trading up to show they have interest in him.  The league even posted an interview the Blues did with him.  It could be a where there is smoke, there’s fire situation.

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However, given the needs of the teams primed to pick him and given the scuttlebutt coming from people in the know in Edmonton, it seems unlikely to happen.  Things can change overnight in these situations, but the Blues might be wiser not to push this too hard.

The kid is going to be a solid player, of that there is little doubt in many circles.  It would probably take too much to get up that many spots though.  So, for know, Blues fans will have to settle for the occasional appearance of Keith Tkachuk at the Scottrade center.