St. Louis Blues Staying Quiet At Deadline Best Thing For A Repeat

The St. Louis Blues made zero waves at the actual trade deadline and only one move just prior. That was the perfect chess move in an effort to repeat.

As we all know by now, the St. Louis Blues let the NHL trade deadline pass by without a move. The only trade the team did make was to acquire Marco Scandella from the Montreal Canadiens.

That trade has had significant impact, which was not what most fans expected. We knew that Scandella would be a nice depth addition and get some games, but he has settled into a shutdown role in the Blues top-four better than anyone anticipated, including Doug Armstrong.

However, as well as Scandella has played, the truth of the matter is that deal was only made by necessity. If Jay Bouwmeester does not have a cardiac event, knocking him out for this season and possibly his career, the Blues don’t make any moves.

Some will argue if Bouwmeester was healthy, the Blues would have been free to go out and get a top-six forward. Firstly, the cost was too high and secondly, of all the players actually traded, who would have fit a top-six role on the Blues? Nobody.

So, the Blues were very smart to hold on to their pieces and make a run for it this year and hope those pieces help them make runs in future years. They were smart, not only because there was not really a true upgrade available but also because the reality is Cup winners rarely make splashy deals at the deadline.

Everyone wants to talk about who won the trade deadline. Look at any site that covers the NHL as a whole or any league and there is almost always a winners and losers article on there.

However, as The Hockey Guy points out, true winners might be teams that did little or nothing.

To break down his points, I’ll give you the Cliff notes version of the last few deadlines and what happened.

In 2019, the Blues added Michael Del Zotto. Everyone knew this was nothing more than a depth trade to give the team insurance in case anyone got hurt. Del Zotto played seven regular season games, no playoff games and got himself a ring out of it.

In 2018 Washington picked up Michal Kempney and Jakub Jerabek. Kempney went on to be a good pickup for the Capitals on defense, but nobody thought that was the move that would put them over the hump.

In 2017 Pittsburgh traded for Ron Hainsey. Hainsey, like Kempney, had a good run with Pittsburgh and played in 25 playoff games that run. However, despite his positive addition, he was not seen as a piece the team had to bring back and he was let go in free agency the following summer.

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The year prior to that, 2016, Pittsburgh added James Melindy, Dan O’Donahue, Dustin Jeffrey and Justin Schultz. Melindy and O’Donoghue have not played in the NHL. Jeffery did not play in the NHL that season. Schultz was a decent pickup, though his playoff production would actually be better the following season, and he stuck with the team too. Still, nobody was saying oh my God, they got Justin Schultz, watch out!

In 2015, the hated Chicago Blackhawks picked up Kimmo Timonen and Antoine Vermette. Vermette drew some eyes when the deal was made, but went goalless with Chicago in the regular season. He scored four goals through their playoff run. Timonen would have been a huge addition 10 years earlier, but he scored no points in the playoffs or regular season for Chicago and did not even see the ice for 10 minutes per game.

2014 might be the one of the few years that is a slight exception. Los Angeles added Marion Gaborik, Brayden McNabb and Jonathan Parker. At the time, Gaborik was still a big name and people were saying that was a solid addition. However, it still was not the splash that so many fans across the league want. At that stage in his career his production had already taken a large drop. Even so, the trade did cause a few waves and Gaborik went on to score 14 goals and 22 points that Cup run.

In 2013 Chicago basically made no major deals. There might have been some minor league deals or picks swapped, but nothing that affected their team that season.

2012 is an interesting case. Los Angeles picked up Jeff Carter, who was still a hot name having scored 36 goals for Philadelphia the year prior. Things were not working in Columbus, so he got dealt, but with the Kings squeaking into the playoffs as the eighth seed, nobody saw Carter as the one to make them contenders. Carter was a good add, but Jonathan Quick stole that Cup for them.

In 2011, Boston traded for Tomas Kaberle and Anton Khudobin. At the time, Khudobin was a minor league pick up since the Bruins had Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask. Kaberle had one goal in the regular season, but did pick up 11 assists in the playoffs. Even so, it was seen that his career was on the down side, which it was and was seen as little more than depth.

In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks added Kim Johnsson, Nick Leddy (no playoff games) and Nick Boynton (few games). Boynton played in three playoff games and was out of the league after one more season in the NHL. Leddy played in no playoff games for Chicago. Johnsson did not play in the playoffs and retired after that season.

The bottom line for all of this is to show that for all the whining and teeth gnashing and furious fingers lighting GM’s up in chat boards and social media, champions don’t make big moves at the deadline. Their teams are already set up by the time they get to this point in the season.

Teams that make big moves, at or just prior to the deadline, are teams that had significant cap space, thus were not spending enough to make their team a contender prior to the season, or are just trying to get into the playoffs. The Blues are neither of those things, either last season when they won or this season when they have a good shot.

So, what would be the reason of adding another scorer? Why mortgage your future years and potentially future runs at the Cup with reload options like Chicago or Pittsburgh in a strange attempt to pick up a 20 goal scorer when there is no evidence it is necessary?

The answer is you don’t. Maybe in years far in the past there were examples of teams making a splashy move and it paying off. That is not how it is done now. The past champions for the last decade prove that.

Depth moves, like the Blues did with Del Zotto or Scandella are fine. If you truly think you need a top-flight scorer at this point of the season, then you’re not really a contender and not likely to find one anyway.

The Blues played their cards just right. Now it’s time to see what the rest of the table has in their hand as the dealer turns the flop and the playoffs begin.