St. Louis Blues: Vince Dunn’s Next Contract Should Be Bridge

The St. Louis Blues have been rewarding many of their players following a championship win. One of their young defenseman might need to wait for a payday.

The St. Louis Blues have an interesting decision to make regarding Vince Dunn whenever the 2020 offseason comes around. While most fans are focusing on the availability of money for an Alex Pietrangelo contract, the Blues still have to find funds to keep Dunn around as well.

The thing favoring the Blues is that Dunn is a restricted free agent. He is going to be coming off his entry-level contract, so the Blues do not absolutely have to pay him just yet.

Some fans, particularly those in Dunn’s corner, will say he deserves a raise after being part of a championship team. There is no doubt he will get a bump in pay from his current $722,500, but why jump up a huge amount if not forced to?

The Blues still need to figure out what they see Dunn being in the future. While he definitely has offensive skill and a keen eye for what to do with the puck in the offensive zone, his defensive abilities have not caught up the way the team probably hoped.

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Much of that is down to the eye test. Dunn’s defensive point shares are actually not all that bad.

However, his decision making still lacks. Dunn jumps into the play offensively with too much regularity and sometimes with reckless abandon.

Several times last season and into 2019-20, Dunn would fly up toward the offensive zone and the puck would be turned over. This would leave his defensive partner to fend for themselves and the odd-man rushes would end up in the back of the net.

This is not to say Dunn might not still evolve into something better than he currently is. The Blues are still high on him and are likely going to keep him.

However, his next contract may indicate what they think of his future with the team. If, as I suggest, the Blues give Dunn a bridge deal, they might not be 100% sold on him being a top-four defenseman.

If the Blues give Dunn a larger raise and decent years on the deal, they probably think he is going to be a key part of their defensive core for years to come. Regardless, trying to get him on the cheap is likely the smarter move one way or the other.

The only real issue the Blues could run into is a potential offer sheet from other teams. If the Blues sign Pietrangelo and other NHL teams know the Blues are up against the wall with regards to Dunn, a team could throw an offer sheet on the table to put the Blues between a rock and a hard place.

In a perfect world, the Blues would give Dunn a bridge contract. While he already has three NHL seasons under his belt, he is only 23. A two-year bridge contract could allow him to improve his defensive play and still be young enough to really cash in on a future contract while he’s still 25 or 26. If he does not improve his defensive play, the Blues could hope some of their other prospects are fully ready at that time.

Trying to low-ball Dunn is slightly risky, but any contract negotiation involves some risk. The Blues need to roll the dice and try to keep his deal as low and for short amount of time as reasonably possible. Dunn is a decent NHL player, but he still has more to prove.