The St. Louis Blues have traded away Jordan Schmaltz for Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Andreas Borgman in a one-for-one deal.
We figured the St. Louis Blues would make a trade before the season opens in October, but acquiring Andreas Borgman for Jordan Schmaltz was not the trade I had in mind.
Borgman spent all of last season in the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs AHL affiliate. In 45 regular-season games, the 24-year-old recorded four goals and 17 points.
He also played in an additional 13 playoff games for the Marlies in 2019, netted a goal and an assist in the postseason.
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Giving away Schmaltz is not entirely surprising when first notified of a trade, I thought I would see Edmundson’s name.
Instead, Schmaltz is the one that gets moved. It seems like the Blues gave him every chance in the world to make it in the NHL, but the 25-year-old never stuck around in St. Louis.
Schmaltz spent three different seasons in St. Louis trying to stay with the big club.
Cumiliatvley, Schmaltz played in 42 regular-season games for the Blues and registered just five assists in those contests. The former first-round pick never played more than 20 games in a season.
In Borgman’s situation, he has only played in 48 career games in the NHL. During the 2017-18 season, the defenseman netted three goals and eight assists.
The Blues roster is all but set, and the team still needs to resign restricted free agents Edmundson and Ivan Barabashev before camp breaks, and the team has an estimated $5 million left in cap space.
The loss of Schmaltz does not necessarily indicate that Edmundson will either stay or go, but the Blues still have plenty of depth in their system without Schmaltz.
St. Louis still has players like Derrick Pouliot, Jake Walman, Niko Mikkola, and Mitch Reinke waiting for their opportunity to make an impact. While Pouliot may be the one who is most ready to make a difference, the Blues are still high on the young prospects.
All told, this trade seems like a lateral move. It is depth defenseman for depth defenseman, and all it does is give both players a change of scenery, though it is still noticeable when any team trades a former first-round pick.