St. Louis Blues Should Not Overpay Alex Pietrangelo

St. Louis Blues fans and members of the front office want to reward those that helped the franchise win its first Stanley Cup. However, despite being captain and a Cup winner, the Blues cannot give Alex Pietrangelo a blank check.

In the past, before the Blues hoisted the holy grail of hockey, fans would likely have said you should give a blank check to whomever was the captain of the first team to win the Stanley Cup. However, despite still being at the top of his game, the Blues need to be prudent and careful with what they offer Alex Pietrangelo.

The Blues put themselves in an interesting position with their recent contracts. In past years, Doug Armstrong did himself no favors by overpaying the likes of Jori Lehtera, Patrik Berglund, Dmitrij Jaskin and Alexander Steen. Some fans will lump Jay Bouwmeester in there, but that deal was fair when it was signed.

Armstrong has rectified the dollar amounts lately. He has gotten relative steals with the new deals given to Jordan Binnington, Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk.

However, even with those contracts, the Blues are in danger. The average annual value of the deals is good, but Armstrong was forced to give out long-term deals, which could hamper them down the road.

Armstrong joked that he might be apologizing to the next GM if/when that happens. However, as we have seen with other teams in the NHL, salary cap hell is no laughing matter.

The structure of the contracts should give just enough wiggle room for the Blues to remain out of true cap hell. However, much of that assumes the cap will go up and a new television deal will infuse more money. Lots of ifs and buts.

So, we circle back to the issue of Pietrangelo. After the Blues gave raises to Schenn and Faulk, the main consensus was Pietrangelo would be next.

There were even rumors that the Blues were on the brink of signing Pietrangelo while the team was in Toronto for a game on Ocotober 7. That never materialized, but it makes us wonder what the asking price will be.

The facts are that Pietrangelo is in the last year of a deal that pays him an AAV of $6.5 million. He is also 29 and will be 30 by the end of the 2019-20 season.

The prevailing thought process is Pietrangelo could command as much as $10 million per season. If that is true and that is what he is asking for, we should all thank him for his services and applaud him on his way to his next city.

I do not mean that to be harsh, but the Blues have no business paying anyone $10 million per season, let alone someone that will be 30-plus in the first years of this new deal. There are enough question marks giving long-term deals to guys that are 27 and 28 and will be 36 when their deals are done.

Players, especially defensemen, are proving they can play, and play well, into their late 30’s and even early 40’s. Still, does it really make sense to tie up roughly 1/8th of your salary cap to one player?

More often than not, teams with incredibly high priced players don’t have postseason success. With a few exceptions, the Chicago Blackhawks are really the only team that has players with AAV’s over $10 million and won.

Pittsburgh has won while paying guys like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Maklin more than $10 million per season. However, their AAV was kept below that $10 million number. It makes a difference when constructing a strong team. Just look at the roster problems the Blackhawks are having now after giving so many players raises, in addition to their high dollar guys.

Also, from a personal opinion standpoint, I do not believe Pietrangelo is worth $10 million per season. Winning a championship erases a lot of things, but fans are quick to forget that they were willing to drop Petro like a bad habit just months before the team hoisted the Cup.

No player is perfect and lots of players still get paid. The guy is talented, but there is no way Erik Karlsson is worth an AAV of $11.5 million dollars.

Pietrangelo is definitely a better overall player than Karlsson. That does not mean the Blues need to pay him the same amount or even something close.

Hockey is not baseball. Money spent does not automatically mean championships and the Blues have put themselves in trouble in the past by being so close to the cap ceiling when a little flexibility might have aided them in a trade.

Nobody wants to see Pietrangelo go. It would be nice to have a situation where a player gets drafted and remains with an organization his entire career.

The Blues have to be smart though and not let their hearts do the talking. They have to ask themselves how many years it would be before a $10 million dollar contract to anyone would start being a regret.

With an AAV of $6.5 million now, Pietrangelo should get no more than $8 million on a future deal. That’s a decent raise, roughly equal to the pay bumps most of the other guys have received, and something the team can live with.

Armstrong and Pietrangelo’s agent can work out the details to where Pietrangelo would actually bank $10 million in a few seasons. That is between them and the Blues book keepers. However, as far as the salary cap is concerned, anything much over $8 million and it is hasta la vista baby.