St. Louis Blues: Edmonton Trade Muddies Pat Maroon Waters

As the St. Louis Blues busy themselves with their restricted free agents, one unrestricted name still dangles in the wind. His future might have become even more uncertain because of a trade elsewhere.

We thought the St. Louis Blues had to wait a long time for Pat Maroon‘s decision the first time. In 2018, it took until July 10 for pen to be put to paper. Now, we are at July 19 without so much as a rumor of an offer and the days keep counting.

As time keeps slipping into the future, it seemed as though things were looking as though they would be in the Blues favor. Each day that passes solidifies other team’s rosters and teams are less likely to hand out lengthy, expensive contracts further into the summer.

But, while the Blues were waiting for Big Rig to have his day with the Stanley Cup – coming on Saturday, July 20 – things might have gotten a little more interesting. There is suddenly a need for a big body north of the border.

The odd thing about Maroon’s situation is that there have been no reports of any teams being interested. When free agency began, there were rumors of two or three teams looking into the situation, but there have not even been crickets it has been so silent since then.

However, one of the teams rumored to have interest in Maroon was the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers just traded Milan Lucic to the Calgary Flames for James Neal. That deal just threw a rather large wrench into the plans of Blues fans hoping Maroon might come back.

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By no means does this trade mean anything solid regarding Maroon. Yet, one cannot wonder if the Oilers might not want a less expensive version of Lucic to replace the now departed forward.

Maroon already has experience in Edmonton and seemed to enjoy his time there, apart from not winning. He got along with Connor McDavid and his career highs in points and goals came in Edmonton too.

As with the Blues, the question for the Oilers will be how much Maroon wants. They are not exactly swimming in money.

Despite their struggles on the ice, the Oilers currently have less then $3 million in cap space. They have yet to sign restricted free agent Jesse Puljujarvi (if they even intend to) and have a bevy of unrestricted free agents coming after the 2019-20 season.

So, you have to ask the question of whether they want to tie up multiple years or multiple millions in a player that, no matter how much we like him, is not likely to put you over the hump.

But, the Oilers never seem to make much sense. They want to add veterans to a young team that is not as close as anyone would think, but they seem to choose the wrong players or the wrong deals.

Bringing Maroon back would make sense if he signed a deal like the one that brought him to St. Louis. If he has stayed a free agent this long, it might be because nobody wants to give him more money than what he earned in 2018-19.

Another interesting twist to this is Calgary acquiring Lucic. On opening day of free agency there was a false rumor going around that the Flames had signed Maroon.

Now that they have Lucic, surely they are not in on Big Rig. How much sense would it make to slow down one of the fastest teams in the NHL with two 30-plus forwards with no legs? Very little.

The Flames do currently have a lot of room, but they also have to sign RFA’s Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett. Unless they get bridge deals to retain RFA rights, they are likely to take a large chunk of the remaining $9 million in space. It seems unlikely they would be in on Maroon now.

The New Jersey Devils have the need and the money. Maybe a return to the Meadowlands would work?

Basically, all this means is we are no closer to knowing Maroon’s future now than we were 19 days ago. Having gone this long, I figured he would end up back in St. Louis, but the Lucic trade has muddied those waters.

Next. Will the Blues have a Stanley Cup hangover?. dark

Maroon might be back. He might go back to a former team. Nobody knows at this point and, in fact, we might have less of a clue now than when it all started.

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