St. Louis Blues Future Is Better Without Pat Maroon

The joys of fandom reared their ugly heads again after the St. Louis Blues let Pat Maroon sign elsewhere. Despite the uproar, it was for the best.

For those of you that missed the news from August 24, Pat Maroon ended up signing a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He took even less money than he received in his one season with the Blues, which caused a lot of upheaval among fans.

Despite the consternation online, the Blues made the right decision. Even if their hand was forced due to salary cap restrictions, not bringing back Maroon is probably better for the team in the long term.

That is not to say that anyone wanted Maroon gone from the Blues. While he does not fit the prototypical NHL player of today, he was a valuable asset in 2018-19.

Maroon finished his lone season with the Blues with 10 goals and 28 points. That was not what fans were expecting, but it was pretty much on par with his NHL numbers elsewhere except for one good season in Edmonton in 2016-17.

Maroon provided a big body, which is something the Blues have been steadily going away from, even though physicality and net-front presence was a big reason they won the Stanley Cup. So, there will be a hole in the lineup without Big Rig from that perspective.

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However, the reason the Blues are better off without him is a financial one. Maroon signing a $900,000 contract in Tampa seems like the Lightning got away with a steal, but Maroon keeps trying to bet on himself and eventually, he might get to a point where a team will need to pay him more than he is getting on a one-year basis.

Even if he settled for the veteran minimum each time, that is still taking space away from a team. Amazingly, the Lightning have a lot of cap space given the quality of their players, so they can take the risk.

The Blues did not have that luxury. As Jason Martin pointed out in his piece, the Blues have just under $2 million in cap space and many assume that Ivan Barbashev would command over $1 million in his deal.

So, the reality is the Blues did not have $900,000 to spend on Maroon. Even if they did and managed to get Barbashev to sign for just the $1 million, it does not make sense to put yourself that close to the cap.

The reason you give yourself cap space is to give yourself freedom throughout the year.

If the Blues were right at the cap, you have to trade salary for salary if you want to make a trade during the year. Thus, you could not trade a player like Barbashev or Robby Fabbri, or anyone really, for any player making more money than the one sent away if you have no cap room at all.

So, by doing nothing, the Blues have actually set themselves up better for the future, even if not for this season alone. The absence of Maroon, possibly coupled with the hold out of Barbashev, opens valuable spots for young players.

While everyone that did not feature much under Craig Berube showed they need a lot of work before they are truly NHL ready, eventually guys need to sink or swim in the league. Jordan Kyrou is on the cusp and guys like Makenzie MacEachern and Sammy Blais are all knocking on the door, looking for full-time spots. Eventually, you have to see if Klim Kostin can play in the NHL or not too.

The bottom line is that not keeping Maroon for sentimental value is the right move. Yes, if he stayed for one more year, he would not have been a wasted spot.

However, the Blues are in a rare spot at this moment. With the exception of the hardcore fan that is difficult to please, the Blues are getting a pass this year no matter what.

Unless they fall apart and finish in last place, they have flexibility within the fandom given they just did what many thought was impossible by winning it all. Thus, it makes more sense to give new players a look.

It also makes sense to have some sort of change within your team anyway. While none of us wanted to lose any of the players off a Stanley Cup team, you almost never win with the exact same team anyway. That is probably even more true with a team like the Blues that had so many things come together and click at once for them to win, since it was not all about talent.

Fans complaining about the lack of Maroon only see things in a vacuum. They see the $900,000 price tag and say there had to be a way to afford that.

It is not just the price of the player though. It is the roster spot and how it all fits into the grand scheme of the salary cap.

Maroon is a decent player and a better person.  This is a business though and sometimes you cannot take personal feelings into account.

Online, there are a lot of arguments about how he won the Stanley Cup.   Let us not overstate things.  He was on a Stanley Cup winning team.  He did not win it single handedly.

David Freese was a big part of why the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series in 2011, but he was not the only reason.  The same as Maroon scored a big goal, Freese hit a big home run.

That does not mean they get to stay with their teams forever if it does not make financial sense, which it did not given the bigger picture.  That is not meant to diminish either one of their accomplishments, but too many of us get emotionally attached and allow that to cloud their judgment.

Thus, the Blues are better off without him for the long term. Hopefully he will be successful and the Blues can face the Lightning in the final. No matter what the outcome, given all the things surrounding this situation, the Blues were right to take the action they did.