St. Louis Blues Smart To Avoid Max Pacioretty Trade

The St. Louis Blues made a lot of offseason moves in the summer of 2018, but fans kept wanting more. A move they did not make could be one of the smarter decisions they have done.

The St. Louis Blues really altered their lineup going into the 2018-19 season. Four players who were not on the 2017-18 roster will be joining the Blues for the upcoming season.

However, fans will be fans and thus they are rarely, if ever, satisfied. Several kept wanting more deals and wanted the Blues to be a completely different team instead of a mostly different one. Nevermind that a third of the forwards are different.

One of the big names out there that Blues fans were clamoring for was Max Pacioretty. It is understandable why. Prior to a poor 2017-18 campaign, he had four straight 60 point seasons and five out of six.

The 29 year old had some injury problems and his production suffered in 2017-18 though. He had 17 goals and 37 points in 64 games – not terrible numbers, but not what many have come to expect from him.

More from Editorials

• St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
• Hayes’ Debut And Other Bold Predictions for the St. Louis Blues
• St. Louis Blues Captaincy Is Suddenly A Huge Problem For 2023-24
• St. Louis Blues National Games Cause More Problems Than They’re Worth
• St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn Has To Be An Impact Player In 2023-24

He will not be joining the Blues now, however. The Montreal Canadiens traded their captain to the Vegas Golden Knights on September 10. Montreal got Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki and a second round draft pick.

While Tatar is a good player – he’s had 20 or more goals each of the last four seasons – the Blues could have offered up similar players. The reason the Blues were wise to stay away from this deal is the prospect.

Suzuki is coming off a 100 point season in the OHL and a 96 point season before that. That would basically be the Blues trading either Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou, with the option leaning toward Thomas since Suzuki is a right-handed center.

The entire offseason and even some moves made during the 2017-18 season were done with the intention of not trading any major prospects. The Blues accomplished that and acquired some really good players.

On top of all that, the Blues addressed their problem up the middle by adding Ryan O’Reilly and Tyler Bozak. Pacioretty is a decent scorer, but the Blues already had an abundance of left-handed wingers.

Also, Pacioretty would have cost a lot against the cap, which the Blues might not have had room for anyway. He reportedly signed a four-year, $28 million deal with Vegas, meaning his AAV would be $7 million.

That is the amount the Blues would have had to extend him for too. He turned down a longer term deal with Los Angeles because it would have paid him $1 million less per season.

Ultimately, the Blues made the right moves for them. There is little doubt that someone with Pacioretty’s talents could have helped the Blues, but it would have cost too much.

Though there is no true proof, I think a Pacioretty deal would have come at the cost of one or two of the team’s other moves. So, not only would you lose Thomas or Kyrou but potentially one of the other free agent or traded forwards as well.

St. Louis needed to and did hold on to their top-tier prospects to allow them to grow in their system. The Blues still managed to add quality players and also addressed their issues up the middle.

Again, not all fans feel the same, but to me this was another example of Doug Armstrong’s patience paying off.