St. Louis Blues Watching NHL Salary Cap Situation Closely

The St. Louis Blues have had some salary cap issues in 2019-20. Their tight purse strings might get a little looser starting next season.

The St. Louis Blues have been free to spend up to the salary cap ever since Tom Stillman and his partners took over the franchise. However, while the team has spent a good amount, they always left themselves some sort of leeway, even if it was a small amount.

In 2019-20, partly due to raises from winning a Stanley Cup, the Blues did not have that leeway. They were right up against the cap ceiling and had to rely on long term injury relief in a couple situations to keep themselves compliant.

That bloated salary pool has kept them at the top of the Western Conference. It has to have made for some frustrating moments for general manager Doug Armstrong in that he did not have the freedom to even think about upgrading any positions without overpaying.

So, the Blues are going to be waiting quite anxiously for the officials numbers on the 2020-21 NHL salary cap. According to multiple sources, including ProHockeyRumors.com and confirmed by the NHL itself, the cap could increase anywhere from a total of $84 million to just over $88 million.

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That last number, as we have learned, is the unlikely stopping place. Re-signing a player like Alex Pietrangelo, without having to lose another key player, would be much more likely with a cap ceiling of $88.2 million though.

Beyond just Pietrangelo, the Blues will simply be very interested in how much the cap will rise. If it only goes to 84, roughly a $2.5 million increase over the current cap, it might not move the needle that much.

The Blues would still likely have to not retain a pending RFA, not re-sign Marco Scandella and/or trade a player to keep their captain on the roster. However, if they get get an extra $6.7 million in space, that might open up room for a reasonable Pietrangelo contract and MAYBE keeping Scandella too, though it would take some working of the contract structures.

The interesting thing about the possible salary cap bump is that the Blues are not the only one that would benefit. St. Louis’s chances of keeping their captain would still largely hinge on the idea the Blues are the only team he has ever played for.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs are relying almost entirely on LTIR to keep themselves compliant, that extra money would likely be made to make a push for Pietrangelo. The Canadian media thinks the Maple Leafs were going to do that anyway, before this news of the cap increase, so any extra money available for them would increase their interest in Petro.

Still, the Blues need and probably will be smart. As much as we want them to be championship contenders as long as possible and keep every one of our favorite players, the market won’t sustain spending on the level of a Toronto or Chicago.

Just because the Blues have an extra $6.7 million in cap space, plus potentially $2-3.25 (Scandella or Bouwmeester’s deals), doesn’t mean the Blues can just offer Pietrangelo a $10 million contract. They will have to use portions of that to give up and coming players raises and still have to plan on the future.

The one good thing about this potential bump is that the NHL is trying to negotiate more stability into the collective bargaining agreement. Now, that would not take effect until the 2022-23 season unless there was some emergency negotiation made, but at least the idea would be that teams would know the cap number for multiple years instead of wondering what the number might be every spring. At least that way, you can plan your salary structure a little bit more.

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Anyway you slice it, the Blues will be among the many teams dying to know what the new number will be this summer. St. Louis might have plenty of stability for their 2020-21 roster already, but they can organize a strategy about what number to have as a final offer to Pietrangelo or potentially go after outside free agents with once they know the new cap.

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