St. Louis Blues: Expect The Unexpected From The Blues On Draft Night

Despite not having a first-round pick in tonight’s NHL Entry-Draft, the St. Louis Blues could still make some noise in Vancouver.

St. Louis Blues’ general manager Doug Armstrong had his fingerprints up and down the Stanley Cup champion team, and some of those key players were a result of moves he made on draft day.

Brayden Schenn was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for two first-round picks and Jori Lehtera. The trade for Schenn may have been the most significant trade in the history of trades until Armstrong followed up two years later acquiring Ryan O’Reilly.

In 2017, the Blues turned Ryan Reaves and a second-round pick to acquire Oskar Sundqvist and a first-round pick that was used to draft Klim Kostin. Although Sundqvist took a while to become the player the Blues wanted him to be, he made noise with a 14-goal season, adding four more in the playoffs.

Kostin, on the other hand, is as close to a surefire prospect that the Blues have within their organization. The young Russian will have a chance to potentially make the team when camp opens in September.

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Despite not having a pick on the first day of the draft Friday night, this should not be a significant handcuff for Armstrong if he wants to make some moves.

St. Louis only has four picks in this year’s draft, but they do have two first-round picks in the next two years.

Armstrong needs to make some hard decisions soon. St. Louis has a handful of RFAs that still need to be signed, including two high-profile players that are set to be hitting the open market after the 2019-2020 season.

Schenn will be one of those players to hit free agency after next season and is expected to command a big salary. The Blues have committed 32.3% of their salary to Vladimir Tarasenko, O’Reilly, and Alexander Steen.

Schenn will likely ask for a figure in the range of $7.5 million that Tarasenko and O’Reilly currently make through the 2022-2023 season. It’s unlikely that the Blues will pay Schenn that amount of money before free agency.

By no means am I advocating for the Blues to move on from Schenn, but trading him seems like the best chance of getting a first-round pick.

The Blues have shown the ability to work around not having a pick on the first day in the past, and their development team has turned late-round picks into productive players.

Colton Parayko is a prime example. A third-round pick in the 2012 entry-draft has turned into a top-4 defenseman, capable of shutting down opponents’ top lines, even in the biggest stages.

There is nothing that suggests the Blues will even make a pick during the first day of the draft tonight, but with DA’s history of pulling a rabbit out of his hat, Blues fans should still tune in with interest tonight.