St. Louis Blues Going To Upset Lots Of Fans With Jake Allen Choice

The St. Louis Blues have made nothing official, but reports point toward a lot of people being upset somewhat soon. Jake Allen’s future may not be as certain as some thought.

The St. Louis Blues never cease to amaze. While the players are still making the celebratory rounds and have yet to have their day alone with the Stanley Cup, Doug Armstrong and his staff have already turned the page and are looking toward the 2019-20 season and beyond.

While there was mild speculation Armstrong might do something surprising during the 2019 NHL Draft, the Blues let it all play out. They made their picks – what few they had – and turned their sights to free agency and training camp, which is not as far off as it would seem.

Interestingly, there has been a development that few expected. According to Pierre LeBrun, the Blues are planning on keeping Jake Allen and his $4.35 million salary. Full disclosure, if you do not subscribe to The Athletic, you will not be able to read the linked article and will have to take my word. Just do a quick social media search on Allen and you will see enough corroboration.

This is interesting in multiple ways. One is that so many, including myself, just automatically assumed Allen would be gone.

From a personal standpoint, it felt like it might not have made the most hockey sense to deal Allen away, but it would have been more humane. Allen might not regularly check social media, but it seems hard to believe he had no clue what was being said about him.

The venom that was spewed toward The Snake, no pun intended, was astounding at times. Fans that prided themselves on being astute in the game just vomited such garbage that bordered on pure hatred that it made your head spin. At times, it literally felt like an apocalyptic battle between fans of one goaltender or the other. There was no room for middle ground and the arguments made by the other side forced you to act like you hated the other guy, no matter which side you chose.

I’ve never been against Brian Elliott or Carter Hutton or Jordan Binnington. However, my opinions toward Allen often forced me to argue against those guys, even though they fight just as hard to win for our team.

It was stomach turning. It seemed the most humane thing was to let Allen go, get a fresh start in a new city and an opportunity to be a starter free of the baggage accumulated in St. Louis. Allen could have gotten his spoils of war and moved on to guard another realm.

Instead, it seems, barring a deal Armstrong cannot refuse, the Blues will be sticking with something closer to a tandem, rather than handing the keys over to Binnington alone. Though puzzling, this is actually the best choice from a pure hockey sense.

Those against it will argue the money. They are not completely wrong. $4.35 million is a lot to be paying a backup goaltender. It’s not that crazy though.

James Reimer is a backup in Florida, though he split time this past season. He makes $3.4 million a year and I would argue Allen is better, or at least can be better.

Scott Darling got $4.15 million from Carolina. He got pushed to the side rather quickly by poor play in 2017-18 and injury in 2018-19.

Cam Ward got $3 million from Chicago. Granted, he was signed to be a starter until Corey Crawford got healthy, but that’s still a good amount tied up in goaltenders.

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However, the really funny thing is just a few months ago, Blues fans would have sold their dog or slapped their mom if they thought it meant the Blues could sign Carey Price. Even if the Blues pay Binnington $6 million per year, which I believe would be a mistake, they would still be paying less per year for two quality goaltenders than Montreal has to pay for just the one.

So, let’s drop the financial aspect of it. The only reason Allen’s salary becomes burdensome is because the cap did not go up by the expected amount, so the raises for restricted free agents might not be as big as they hoped.

Fans like to pick and choose their stats with Allen to fit their argument. There is no doubt he had a down year the past two seasons, but he was not exactly receiving a ton of support.

Allen’s playoff numbers in 2017 were fantastic. He had a 1.96 goals against and a .935 save percentage. It was not exactly his fault that the Blues offense was drier than a desert against Nashville.

What about Allen’s .920 save percentage and six shutouts in 2015-16? Fans are quick to forget that because of how hot Elliott got during that run to the Western Conference Final. Try pointing out how little Elliott has done since then and suddenly Blues fans start witnessing how bad defenses affect goaltenders on other teams, but that is not the case with their own squad.

What about the near record number of high quality chances the Blues were giving up against Allen to start 2018-19?  No, much simpler to blame the goaltender than look at a larger problem.  Perhaps Allen is not full-time starter material, but we forget how many mistakes Binnington covered up.  Allen was covering up those mistakes a few years ago, but like a punch-drunk quarterback – looking at Marc Bulger -, you can only take so much.

The truth is much simpler though. Allen is the best fit with this team of all the options out there.

Elliott just re-signed with Philadelphia, despite a rather horrid 2018-19 year. The other main options were Petr Mrazek or Curtis McElhinney, depending on who does not re-sign with Carolina, or perhaps Mike Smith, if he was willing to take less money. Former St. Louis Bandit Keith Kinkaid was also a name bandied about.

I have nothing wrong with any of those names, but they all have their own risks. McElhinney is actually older than Elliott. Mrazek has been inconsistent his entire career, which would essentially be swapping like for like in the opinions of most Blues fans regarding Allen. Kinkaid is a decent goaltender with flashes, but he has not carried a team as Allen has done.

So, this decision, if it sticks, is actually the smartest. You do not want to put all your chips on a mostly unproven goaltender when you cannot prove with absolute certainty that Binnington is not a flash in the pan. Even as an early detractor, I do not believe he is a flash in the pan, but this league is rarely won by one goaltender any more.

As much drool as everyone covers Price with, he has not won anything. That does fall on the entire Canadiens team, but just look to a few years ago when Montreal got off to a record start. Price got hurt and since they had an unproven backup, they faltered and it was all for nothing.

The Blues proved that you can’t just pick up any guy with this team. The Chad Johnson experiment, no offense to him, was an abject failure.

Ville Husso is not ready for the NHL. He struggled mightily in the AHL, which is actually one of the main reasons Binnington even got the call up for the Blues. Husso needs to play starter’s minutes, not sit the bench in the NHL.

Allen is the right choice. If Binnington falters or gets hurt, you have a proven commodity. Haters can whine all they want, but Allen is as good as anyone when in the right frame of mind and getting good defense.

People can talk about the money all they want, but let’s be realistic. Some of the same people saying you cannot give $4.35 million to a backup goalie are the same ones that would have put this team to ruin by handing out multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts like the one Price has or the one John Tavares has.

Having Allen will not break the bank and his salary is not going to make the difference between this team contending either. If nothing else, I believe Allen’s value (should he be playing well) would be greater at the trade deadline than now anyway.

So, while all of us had Allen’s name penciled in as someone not coming back, this is the right move. Nothing is set in stone, but at this point, I would be more surprised to not see a 34 sweater in training camp than if he’s there.