St. Louis Blues Re-Up With Dmitrij Jaskin

The St. Louis Blues have re-signed restricted free agent Dmitrij Jaskin.

It wasn’t the first bit of news St. Louis Blues fans expected or wanted, but the first bit of real offseason news for the ‘Note is the re-signing of Dmitrij Jaskin. For right now, details of the deal have not been released.

What is known about the contract is that it is for two years. Official financial terms have not been disclosed yet, but Jaskin made $775,000 last season. As I was writing this, it was revealed that the AAV of the contract is $1 million.

Jaskin's AAV on his two-year extension with #stlblues is $1 million.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) June 16, 2016

The big question of the deal will be whether it is a one-way or two-way. At 23, it seems Jaskin would be beyond accepting a two-way deal, but you take what is available to you and perhaps that’s what the Blues offered.

For their part, the Blues would be wiser to attempt giving a two-way deal since it gives them the freedom to send Jaskin to the AHL without having to clear waivers. However, whether the Russian would take a two-way offer or demanded to be guaranteed NHL time is yet to be seen.

Jaskin has been somewhat of a disappointment since arriving in the NHL. Some of it has to do with him being overhyped by Ken Hitchcock. Comparisons were made that Jaskin seems unlikely to be able to live up to.

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Jaskin has the body and has some skill. So does Patrik Berglund. Berglund has put up much better numbers than Jaskin, even in his first two seasons in the NHL, and is widely considered a flop by many who support the Bluenote.

More time, could be what Jaskin needs though. In his best season, when he scored 13 goals, he averaged over 13 minutes of ice time. Anything less than that and his production has gone down.

We pondered the possibility of having him on a third line with Jori Lehtera and Berglund earlier this spring. From a size perspective, it would be hard to compete with that line. However, all three have a propensity to disappear so it could be a dangerously underperforming line as well.

To be fair, Jaskin is only 33 and has yet to truly play a full season of NHL hockey. European players who aren’t at the absolute peak of the talent spectrum have traditionally taken a little bit longer to acclimatize to the NHL.

Jaskin showed some of the speed and skill that the team and its fans want to see more of when he was finally included in the lineup for the playoffs. After having missed almost a month, he scored a goal almost immediately.

Time will tell how good of a move this is, but the Blues were always likely to retain their RFA’s anyway. The term is not very long if he does not materialize. The dollars are unlikely to be high enough to really make a difference in other signings.

Next: How Much Will Brouwer Cost The Blues?

So, in the grand scheme of things – whether you think he’s a good player or not – it is a good move. Not everyone is ready to make a jump from the AHL to the big league and the Blues need depth (especially with their injury woes).

We’ll all continue to hope to see the Jaskin we were promised. Even if we only get the Jaskin we’ve seen, it’s a smart deal.