St. Louis Blues: Pat Maroon Is Gone And We Just Don’t Know It

St. Louis Blues fans will be forever grateful to local guy Pat Maroon helping to deliver the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, unless something unforeseen happens, he simply cannot come back for a second year.

When the St. Louis Blues signed local product Pat Maroon prior to the 2018-19 season, they knew it might only be for one year. They were giving Maroon a team-friendly deal that would provide them an extra body and give him a chance to prove himself to the rest of the league.

After helping his team win a Stanley Cup, the assumption among fans was he was likely gone for a bigger contract, but we all hoped he might stay. Surprisingly, the bigger contract has not come – July is almost over and he remains on the market – but regardless of hopes, it appears impossible for him to return to the Blues.

One of the things I found most interesting when news broke about Oskar Sundqvist signing his somewhat large raise was the lack of any discussion about how that impacted the Maroon situation. When I say lack of discussion, I honestly saw nobody talking about it other than my family and myself.

There were still discussions going on in Facebook groups and Twitter threads about Maroon still being in the mix. Either those discussions forgot all the players still needing to be signed or they were blissfully unaware of the Blues’ salary cap situation.

As we end the month of July, the Blues currently have around $5 million in cap space, which is actually up from the estimated space immediately after Sundqvist inked his deal.

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What most online discussions were leaving out was the fact that Joel Edmundson is still yet to sign a contract and has an arbitration hearing for early-August. Another thing we forget is that his last contract gave him $3 million per season.

Edmundson had a rough season, no doubt. All his statistics were down with the exception of hits and he almost doubled his previous regular season high for turnovers.

Even so, the team leaned on him when healthy and he played in 22 of 26 playoff games. It seems quite unlikely that an arbitration judge would give the Blues that much of a discount. So, it’s safe to assume the total spent on him, should he return, is going to be around $3 million again.

Ivan Barbashev does not have arbitration rights, which is why he’s having to wait until last, but he’s going to get an increase in salary. Most Blues writers and analysts, such as Jeremy Rutherford as he discussed on 101 ESPN, believe the team will reward Barbashev with a contract worth a total of $1 million, perhaps slightly more, per season.

For argument’s sake, let’s say he gets $1.2 or $1.3 million. That’s $4.3 million spent and only $700,000 left, give or take.

Going into this season, the veteran minimum salary is going to be $700,000. It may increase to $750,000 for 2020-21.

That means, even if the Blues could squeeze it in, another one-year deal for Maroon. At 31, I doubt he wants that kind of insecurity unless that is absolutely his only option.

Another thing is Doug Armstrong has been on record over the years that he does not like being right up against the cap. It gives you no freedom if players get banged up, but are not injured enough to be placed on Long Term Injured Reserve. If there is no room to bring up an AHL player for only a game or two, you better stay healthy the entire season if Maroon’s salary is jammed in there.

Thus, he’s gone. If the Blues keep all their restricted free agents, there simply is no money to keep Maroon, much less reward him.

However, the one fly in the ointment to my argument is the growing uncertainty with Edmundson. The Blues signed Derrick Pouliot and traded for Andreas Borgman.

Those deals seemed like nothing more than depth additions initially, since they are on two-way contracts. However, the influx of multiple defenders makes one wonder if the Blues are giving themselves insurance if they do not come to terms with Edmundson.

If they do not have to shell out $3 million or more on him, there would be money available to keep Maroon. One does wonder if he is waiting out that situation, perhaps wanting to stay in St. Louis.

Still, I do not see there being a number-7 for the Blues in 2019-20 unless it is another player. Maroon deserves more than the absolute minimum and the Blues cannot give him any more than that and they might not even have that much available.

Time will tell, since nobody thought this would drag on the entire month of July. Odds are incredibly high that Maroon was a one-year wonder in terms of being able to wear the Note.