St. Louis Blues: Warning! Trade Fever Epidemic Spreads Across St. Louis Area

By Dave Stobbe |

ST. LOUIS, MO. - JANUARY 03: Blues players celebrate in the third period after scoring during an NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the St. Louis Blues on January 03, 2019, at Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The St. Louis Blues fan base is in the grips of trade fever, and who can blame them with the team underperforming so spectacularly.

While winning is often the bromide for many ailments and might go a long way to stop the spread of the St. Louis Blues trade contagion, I don’t think it will be a cure-all. With fan expectations raised so high in the offseason and the on-ice reality being so far from those expectations, has left many despondent. Fan ire has fallen on four main culprits.

Jake Allen, a long time fan whipping boy for his inconsistent play and being prone to midwinter swoons, needs to be replaced. More significant right now his game has improved, and much of the recent losses have had little or nothing to do with him.

Alex Pietrangelo, surprising in he is the team captain and was thought to be a Norris Trophy candidate as recently as last year. The team seemed better without him and took a nosedive when he returned. Could be coincidental, especially the downtrend but his productions is down this year.

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Alex Steen, a long time Blue but the subject of recent locker room discord. Not sure if he resents being pushed aside, so to speak, by new arrivals Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn or what, but there are too many stories for them all to be false.

Lastly Vladimir Tarasenko, probably most surprising given his past performance and popularity with the fans. I feel some of the blame heaped on Vladi is undeserved and due to his shoulder injury. If you watched at the beginning of the season, he seemed to have some difficulty, for him, with stick handling and might be why he was choosing the pass first option.

Jay Bouwmeester gets an honorable mention in this group, using the term loosely. Anybody with a genuine interest in him needs only wait for the end of the season and sign him to a short-term incentive laden contract. If they felt they wanted him for a playoff push, it would only cost them a low round draft pick.

Now to be captain bring down. I thoroughly enjoyed the article by my colleague Jason Martin, with a great first and second assists to the fans, and enjoyed the trade possibilities even more. The reality of it all is, the Blues are not dealing from a position of strength.

Like in the stock market you want to buy low and sell high, and right now all the above commodities are a low point, not the bottom. Other teams realize this and are not going to offer the actual value for these players in a trade, especially Pietrangelo and Taresenko.

Any envolving trade Allen has to mean the Blues get a younger, better NHL ready goalie in return. The Blues backup goalie situation is a bit of a mess right now, and I don’t think electing to ride Jordan Binnington the rest of the season is going to make the fanbase any happier.

Now making a trade to appease a restless fanbase puts you in danger of executing a high-risk, low reward deal. Like the March 5, 1991 trade of Geoff Courtnall, Robert Dirk, Sergio Momesso, Cliff Ronning and future considerations to Vancouver for Dan Quinn and Garth Butcher that not only gutted the team of talent but destroyed chemistry on a team poised to make a strong playoff run.

Now, in the case of player or players that is causing discord and resentment in the locker room then I would support getting as much as you can for him, even if it is below market value. The long-term benefit of removing cancer outweighs the loss of talent in the trade.

Another and a possibly more significant impediment to trading most of these players is that they all have limited or no trade contracts. Which means not only do you have to find a willing dance partner you have to find one that the player agrees to as well.

There is one thing the Blues have in their favor going into trade season. That is the fact that many of the players being talked about being traded have a smaller salary cap hit than the players for whom they are being traded.

Although it does mean that teams looking to clear cap space to sign players might be more willing to make a deal than others. Helping to even out the playing field and get the Blues a little bit more value in their trade. It also limits with whom you can deal, and who you can get.

The Blues also need to evaluate where they are at developmentally as a team. They started the season as a legitimate cup contender and now most likely won’t make the playoffs. Now, are they one are they one or two players ready to insert into the lineup away from getting back to that or are prospects more attractive and a longer timeline to become more competitive the way to go.

One thing I noticed about the fan trades is that they focused, mostly, on scoring. While I agree you can’t have enough scoring (especially in a season like this), I don’t think that it is a significant concern facing this team right now.

The first thing that they should be addressing is defense, especially if Pietrangelo is involved in the deal. The Blues scoring pipeline is seemingly well stocked for now, while their NHL ready defensive prospects are not as strong.

Plus I still feel goaltending is in need of being addressed in the long term. That might be better remedied in the offseason via free agency than trade this season. Jake Allen is not a cup winning goalie; he is fine for the rest of this season, they can miss the playoffs with or without him.

A mentality exists in the NHL that letting a player walk via free agency when you could have traded him for anybody is lousy management. I would agree in some cases but why bring in somebody you don’t need or want to save face or look good.

I would advise Mr. Armstong to keep his trade powder dry. Listen to all offers, make a few Clayton Keller like home run offers and see if anybody bites, but don’t act like Congress and do something just because you feel you need to be doing something to justify your salary.

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