St. Louis Blues: Three Toronto Maple Leafs Free Agents To Consider
By Todd Panula
Nick Foligno
Some fans will see this name and wonder what I am smoking. Why would the Blues want to bring in a 33-year old Nick Foligno?
It is a fair question. His offensive years are almost certainly behind him.
He makes the roster older, unless his inclusion was part of Tyler Bozak leaving. It’s almost a certainty that he would not improve the team speed either.
So, what does he bring? Well, it depends on what the Blues want to shape their roster toward.
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If St. Louis opts to copy the likes of Colorado or Tampa, then bringing in Foligno probably doesn’t make a ton of sense. It’s not as though he’s slow, but anybody at 33 isn’t going to catch Nathan MacKinnon.
However, if the Blues elect to find players that fit Craig Berube‘s style instead of forcing the coach to change, Foligno fits the bill. The guy will hit people.
Even during his best offensive years in Columbus, Foligno came close to 200 hits. He surpassed 200 hits a couple times in his career.
With all his physicality, he stays out of the penalty box. Foligno has only gone over 100 penalty minutes once in his career and is regularly down in the 50’s.
Foligno can help out in the faceoff circle. He’s not a true center, but is good enough to fill in for a spell if someone is injured or still secure a key faceoff win if his own line’s center gets booted out of the circle.
Foligno doesn’t cure the Blues scoring problems, but he can chip in offensively. While his one 30-plus goal season is clearly an outlier, he’s still capable of giving you double-digit goals.