The St. Louis Blues lost over the weekend at home to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was ugly and Toronto seemed to get all the bounces in this one.
The real news of that game is a report that came out just after on NHLTradeRumors.com that Toronto has made an offer for Alex Pietrangelo. You can find that report here.
In this report, it says that chatter surrounded the Blues that Petro wasn’t happy when the Blues traded for Justin Faulk and signed him to a long-term deal. Ok, maybe. If that is true then the “chatter” was very quiet and only known to very select few.
No one in the media picked up and reported on this “chatter” so I don’t think it’s as big as “surrounding” as the report suggests. It may have been a mumbling if anything.
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It goes on to say that the team hasn’t made any real legit offers to the captain. Perhaps that’s true but doubtful.
One thing the Blues GM Doug Armstrong is great at is keeping contract talks, trades, and extensions quiet. To take the statement that the Blues haven’t made any legit offers to heart is questionable. Nothing has been made public that we know and we won’t know anything.
I have been on the record here at Bleedin’ Blue on more than one occasion saying I don’t expect the captain to be a Blue after this season. Armstrong has not been the type of GM to sign guys to long and expensive contracts that will take them into the wrong side of their thirties. At least not since he has felt the crunch from the Alex Steen contract.
The Justin Faulk deal I believe was more of an expansion draft defense than anything else and maybe Armstrong offered Petro what the Blues were willing to commit and Petro declined the offer so Armstrong has to move forward accordingly.
The article says that the Leafs are willing to include William Nylander a name we have heard for the past couple of years. If there is no chance for an extension then they will send Kasperi Kapanen or Andreas Johnsson.
The Blues are also rumored to be in the Taylor Hall market. I wouldn’t want Taylor Hall, but if I’m the GM and the writing on the wall says I’m not going to sign Pietrangelo, then I’m going to create as much smoke as I can involving him in trade scenarios and get the sale price as high as possible.
Linking Petro to a Taylor Hall trade only makes Toronto’s GM Kyle Dubas more willing to part with more for Pietrangelo. Dubas and Toronto have been linked to Petro for a couple of years so the interest is high and linking him to a Hall deal only increases the price IMO.
I don’t want to see the captain go, but I also don’t want the Blues to become the Chicago Blackhawks with high paid wrong side of thirty-year-old defensemen.
It’s not the popular move but from my viewpoint, Armstrong appears to be holding all the cards right now. Armstrong is no dummy and has made some great trades in his career with the Blues. Fans didn’t like the Faulk signing me being one of them, but the way the trade deadline market is shaping up Armstrong could be genius.
Armstrong has positioned the Blues to be winners during the deadline. We either ink Petro to a team-friendly deal, or we trade him for Taylor Hall or a William Nylander package.
If the Petro is willing to sign with the Leafs and waves his NTC for either team then the price for him goes up and the return is greater.
Buckle up Blues fans. Changes could be on the horizon. I’m not sure what they will be if any, but one thing seems certain, Armstrong is creating a buzz around the captain more now than ever.
How this shakes out will be interesting, but Army, from my perspective, has the Blues in a position of power not being held hostage by a contract negotiation and setting the stage for max returns if he doesn’t get what he feels is fair from the captain.
Hopefully, we can keep the captain and he signs to a team-friendly deal that makes both sides happy. The complexities of such a deal and what it would look like I can’t speculate, but if it can’t be done the Blues are sitting well in the trade market to get max return on a potential trade.
The only way the Blues and Army lose is if Petro doesn’t sign and he doesn’t wave his NTC to get traded. Something I believe has already been discussed with the captain or else we wouldn’t be hearing the chatter.