St. Louis Blues Want Pat Maroon But He Might Not Need Them

The St. Louis Blues are just about all in on trying to retain the services of Pat Maroon. However, the bigger question might be whether he actually should come back.

The St. Louis Blues are likely to have little or nothing to do when free agency officially opens on July 1. Unlike the summer of 2018 when the Blues opened things with a flurry of activity, there is likely to be next to no news coming from the Stanley Cup champs.

The Blues signed Carl Gunnarsson. They have extended their qualifying offers to all their restricted free agent. Unless they plan a surprise move toward one of their lesser UFA’s, the only move they have to make is to re-sign Pat Maroon.

For Doug Armstrong, it is not really a matter of whether you bring Maroon back. The only question is how much money will it take for it to still be a smart move and how long do you give him on the deal.

The Blues are in decent shape for the salary cap, especially since Gunnarsson took a paycut from his previous contract. Unless they were planning on big raises to one of the restricted guys, the cap will be tight but very doable.

However, the bigger question will be whether Maroon should come back. When you remove all personal feeling from the equation, you have to ask yourself if it truly is in his best interest to come back to the Blues.

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Let me first say that I believe he will come back. I think Armstrong and Maroon’s camp will come to a conclusion that will satisfy both sides. That said, I think it’s not in his best interest to come back.

Hear me out. Maroon has accomplished everything anyone could ever want in his one season with the Blues.

He got to play in front of his son at an age that he will remember those games and those experiences for a lifetime. Maroon also got to don the sweater he grew up watching for years and dreaming about putting on.

Maroon got to score the game winning goal to eliminate the Dallas Stars in an overtime classic. He was a huge reason the team got as far as they did.

Maroon won the Stanley Cup. He made himself a hometown hero, to borrow his own words. Despite a relatively mediocre regular season, Maroon could live the rest of his life and never hear a negative word in St. Louis based only on his playoff run with this special team.

Do you risk making that memory fade by staying? What more is there to accomplish in St. Louis when you really boil it down?

I highly doubt the Blues can pay Maroon the most money there is to offer. The funny thing is I have long advocated fewer dollars in St. Louis compared to other cites, such as in the Albert Pujols situations, because of the lower taxes. However, Maroon is all but certain to get an offer of either higher dollars or longer term, or perhaps both, from another team.

Is it worth it to take another hometown discount? That is a question only he can answer.

If after getting all the glory, Maroon is really interested in maxing out his monetary earning power, he should go. I don’t want him to go and I doubt many in this fan base do, but if another team is willing to throw money at him, we could understand. The Blues cannot do that because they have enough pieces in depth spots or coming through the pipeline that you cannot hamstring yourself with another gluttonous contract to a bottom-six forward.

If Maroon truly wants to be around family more often, then the Blues are the place to be. His son is not likely going anywhere anytime soon unless some situation behind the scenes changed and if that was the case it is none of our business.

If Maroon simply wants to remain a part of this organization and make another run at a Stanley Cup, then nobody will argue him staying. Money is great, but if you have planned and saved properly, there is no way you cannot live your life off what pro sports contracts pay out. Glory is much harder to come by and the idea of not only ending the St. Louis drought but maybe being one of a handful to win back-to-back might appeal to the Big Rig.

The truth is nobody outside the Maroon clan really knows. All the insiders have put their two cents in and the basic consensus is there are several teams making inquiries.

However, we all assumed Gunnarsson was out the door. The rumors said he was going to get longer term and more dollars elsewhere and he signed a two-year deal barely worth more in total than he made all of 2018-19 to stay with the Blues.

So, nothing is out of the realm of possibility with Maroon. It’s all up to him. Nobody should be that surprised if he heads elsewhere when all is said and done though.