The St. Louis Blues got their trade deadline day going with a bang. They traded one of their supposed star players to a divisional rival making a strong push.
The St. Louis Blues jumped into the deep waters of the trade deadline day. According to the team website, the Blues sent Paul Stastny to the Winnipeg Jets.
St. Louis will receive the Jets first-round pick in this summer’s draft. The Blues also get a conditional fourth-round pick in 2020 and a highly touted prospect in Erik Foley.
The deal can be seen in a couple different ways. The first is a slightly more negative one.
It feels as though this is the Blues giving up on the 2017-18 season. Foley is not going to be brought up to the Blues this season, or if he is it would only be for a handful of games.
So, if this is the only move the Blues make it is definitely not for this season. They have no true number two center now and have not been openly linked to any centers in the market.
The Blues are clearly putting a lot of eggs in the Robert Thomas basket right now. The likelihood he does not make the team next season seems low, even if the Blues hit the free agent market.
The positive side, if you choose to think this way, is the Blues have cleared cap space for a deal later today. They have definitely cleared space for the offseason, but the specifics of what they could do at the deadline remain a little murky.
Reports are saying the Blues are retaining half of Stastny’s salary. That means they do not get the full value of his $7 million being off the books.
With the #Blues trading Paul Stastny at 50% Retained Salary, we estimate that St. Louis now has roughly $3,824,168 in Deadline Cap Space.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) February 26, 2018
Meaning at this point in time they can add a player with +/- $3.8M cap hit to their roster without sending another body the other way. pic.twitter.com/VYjeThUgj7
Still, it gives St. Louis a lot more flexibility than they had. Whether another deal materializes or not remains to be seen. This deal was apparently not something the Blues planned on prior to their losing streak.
Stastny deal was something that came together in the last 24 hours. This was not the team's plan prior to the losing streak, which reached six games on Sunday. Stastny had to waive his no-trade clause, but liked Jets because he played with Wheeler during the lockout. #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) February 26, 2018
On the plus side, the Blues get an interesting prospect in Foley. He was drafted with the 78th overall pick in 2015, but Winnipeg was still reasonably high on him.
Foley played with Tage Thompson on the 2017 gold medal winning US National Junior team. He played for Providence College this past season and had 15 goals and 34 points in 32 games.
Hey @StLouisBlues fans, you got Erik Foley (of Providence College) in that @PaulyWalnuts26 trade with @NHLJets. He’s a Bull in a China shop. Takes it to net and can't be stopped. Can score from outside tops of circles with release. Great hands. pic.twitter.com/ONR8CXfWxU
— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) February 26, 2018
Stastny’s time was marred by injury and misfortune during his time here. He was never a bad player and gave his utmost on most nights. Sadly, his contract numbers put him behind the eight ball in public opinion. He was never a scorer and was always unlikely to put up numbers that would match what the Blues paid him. Nevertheless, we should all wish him well – though not too well since he is in Winnipeg.
Next: The Top Reasons Not To Trade Vladimir Tarasenko
This might be the beginning of the end for the 2017-18 Blues. It might be the beginning of more deals. It could be the beginning of looking toward the summer.
Time will tell. Stay tuned. 2 pm Central Time is still a bit away.