St. Louis Blues Tyler Bozak Might Not Be Tradeable

The St. Louis Blues are likely to consider all their options in a bid to keep their captain on the roster past 2020. The pandemic climate might make that even harder than originally thought.

When the St. Louis Blues acquired Tyler Bozak, many fans were of the opinion that it was a decent acquisition but scratching their heads. They wondered if that was all the Blues were going to do.

Bozak quickly turned that lethargic reaction around. He turned into a great locker room presence, a steady performer on the ice, a good faceoff man and somewhat of a mentor to Robert Thomas. His wife took to the city quite well too and is an excellent social media follow.

Unfortunately, in pro sports, the honeymoon often ends just as things were getting good. Such might be the case for the Bozaks.

The Blues want to keep Alex Pietrangelo on their roster. The team feels he is an upper-echelon player and would not be easily replaced.

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However, Pietrangelo staying was going to be difficult even with the salary cap increasing by several million. Now, with the cap remaining stagnant due to the pandemic, the Blues basically have no money to spend.

So, the only way to keep the captain is to move a piece, or several, off the roster. Bozak’s name has repeatedly been included as a likely candidate.

The issue, as discussed by Brandon Kiley of 101 ESPN, is whether the Blues actually could move him. This idea was sparked during a conversation with ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.

Wyshynski was talking about the availability of money for upcoming free agents and he said teams will find a way to make money available for players on the level of Pietrangelo. Wyshynski said the players that will suffer are the middle class players, who normally would get around $4-5 million but might only get $2-3 million now.

In the following segment, Kiley posed the question of whether that also impacts the Blues ability to trade Bozak. His contention is that with Bozak making $5 million, teams would pursue cheaper options in free agency rather than giving up an asset in a trade and also paying more money in salary.

Jamie Rivers and Alex Ferrario gave examples of why this would not be the case. Rivers said teams would love to have a great leader and proven winner like Bozak on a team looking to mentor younger players. Ferrario and Rivers both agreed that teams might look to add salary if they were near the floor or might pick up Bozak to expose during the 2021 NHL expansion draft.

Both are plausible scenarios, but it doesn’t mean some teams might not hold out. Having a Stanley Cup winner on your roster is really attractive to many teams, but saving money is just as attractive.

If you can save $2.5 million on a player in free agency that might have a similar skill set to Bozak, but has not won, you would be crazy to think teams are not going to go that route. Bozak being a free agent after 2021 might keep teams away too.

With the cap not going anywhere, teams might want more certainty. The fewer free agents you have to deal with, the less you have to worry about guys wanting raises or keeping a certain salary when the market might dictate a lower salary for the same type of player.

There are other players the Blues could try to trade, such as Jake Allen or Alex Steen. Allen’s salary is likely the most palatable, but Steen runs into the same situation as Bozak and he’s also older.

Needless to say, it is not going to be an easy situation no matter what. Personally, I really like Bozak and think he fits with this team like a glove.

The fact remains that someone has to go if you’re going to afford Pietrangelo. Knowing that, the ability to move that player, or players, becomes that much more critical to this scenario.

Everything is up in the air until teams figure what they can spend and what sacrifices they are willing to make. Thankfully, we have a playoff run to watch before all that stuff really hits the fan.