St. Louis Blues Making Necessary Moves Internally

With the NHL about to open its free agent period and the St. Louis Blues making a splashy trade at the draft, these are slower times. However, the Blues are still making roster moves.

The St. Louis Blues are not sitting on their laurels in this dead period between the NHL Draft and free agency opening. They have begun the all-important process of looking to their own players and setting things up for themselves.

The Blues tendered several qualifying offers over the last day or so and brought back some scoring depth as well. These are not the sexy moves that get fans salivating. They are the moves that keep a team stocked in the necessary talent to flesh out a roster though.

St. Louis has given qualifying offers to pending free agents. Colton Parayko, Petteri Lindbohm, Magnus Paajarvi, Oskar Sundqvist and Jordan Binnington all received the necessary paperwork to keep their Blues careers going.

Now, there is simply a waiting game to see if the players and their agents think the QO’s are acceptable. As GameTime pointed out, it is safe to assume the Blues are making the necessary raises for guys making under $1 million last season but we don’t know any numbers for sure yet. We won’t know any numbers until contracts are dotted and signed.

The one that might not be signed is Parayko’s. Fans should not get upset if that happens. A qualifying offer is simply the paperwork necessary to keep the player’s rights in the Blues hands for a longer period of time.

Parayko is likely going to sign a higher-dollar deal than the QO is going to offer. It’s all a matter of dollars compared to years when it comes to his signing.

Unless there is some sort of meltdown though, that’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of whether it’s a bridge deal or long-term.

Paajarvi coming back is a little interesting (assuming he signs it). He had a big turnaround under Craig Berube with the Chicago Wolves and looked a completely different player when given a chance by Mike Yeo.

Still, he’s not going to be a consistent player. With the glut of wingers and prospects the Blues have, it would be hard to imagine Paajarvi getting 40 or more games, but if he plays well enough perhaps that assumption will be wrong.

The rest of the offers will likely just flesh out the Blues minor league team, whichever team that may prove to be.