St. Louis Blues Sign Two RFA’s And Switch Two Numbers

The St. Louis Blues made some big splashes at the beginning of July. The news was far smaller toward the end of the first week, but still had some interesting tidbits.

The St. Louis Blues did not make quite as many waves at the end of the first week of July as they did at the beginning. Nevertheless, they made some moves and switched a couple things up.

RFA’s Retained

Most notably, the Blues re-signed two more restricted free agents. Dmitrij Jaskin and Oskar Sundqvist were officially brought back after they had both filed for salary arbitration on July 6. That essentially guaranteed they would be given Blues contracts, but the team made it official by signing both by July 7.

Sudqvist only had one goal and four points in 2017-18, so it was smart for him to file for arbitration. The market would not have been too kind to him. Nevertheless, the Blues got a decent deal out of it, as well, inking him for only $700,000.

I am not a fan of his, personally, but it gives the Blues more depth. As we have seen in recent years, injuries happen in bunches, so you can never have too many bodies.

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Also re-signing, avoiding arbitration, was Jaskin. Jaskin’s deal is also only for one season, which will pay him $1.1 million.

Again, Jaskin is not overly high on my list, but if he is ok with being a fourth line player then he has managed to fit that role quite nicely. The deal is also quite friendly. It only sees Jaskin get a modest raise of $100,000 and the Blues stay protected as well.

Jaskin will still be restricted at the end of this deal, due to not meeting UFA requirements. So, even if the Blues are not happy with his 2018-19, he could still net them a draft pick if they extend another offer sheet.

Number Swaps

When the Blues picked up Ryan O’Reilly, fans were quite giddy. Of course, the most minor of questions after he became part of Blues Nation was what number he would wear.

Nikita Soshnikov had been re-signed recently and he wore 90 for the Blues in his brief time in St. Louis after the trade deadline. As happens, conversations happened behind the scenes and all was worked out. O’Reilly will continue to wear his customary jersey number 90 and Soshnikov will switch to 86.

Soshnikov must have no clear attachment to a particular number. He wore 41 and 26 with the Blues. 26 was available had he wanted. Perhaps he felt that number was still too warm to be had.

Speaking of numbers that might be too warm, Tyler Bozak went the opposite way as O’Reilly. After having worn 42 for his entire career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he will cut his number in half and wear 21.

Whether Bozak really took into consideration David Backes being 42 for so many years or not is up for debate. If that is the case, it is interesting he chose 21 since the recently departed Patrik Berglund held onto his Blues sweater more recently than Backes.

Next: Early Guesses At The Blues Lineup

Nevertheless, fans with Backes jerseys need not worry about anyone taking over the number just yet.