It’s Time To Shut Oskar Sundqvist Down For The Season
By Jason Martin
St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist has not looked healthy this season, and the point production reflects it. However, with his recent injury, it’s time to shut him down for the rest of the year.
The St. Louis Blues are fighting for their lives in the Western Conference, and losses in four straight games make it more challenging. There is nothing to say that the recent losing skid would be different with Oskar Sundqvist in the lineup, but for now, the right thing to do is to put him on LTIR.
Sundqvist has not played a game since March 6, an overtime loss to New Jersey, and by all accounts, his offseason hip surgery is taking longer than anticipated to heal.
In the last two years, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights have exploited a loophole in the NHL salary cap rules in the postseason. This is to say, there is no salary cap in the postseason.
The Lightning used this to their advantage last season when some of their star players went down in the middle of the season, then they put their $8.5 million payroll on long-term injured reserve to trade for another star to fill the gap.
The Golden Knights are sure to use this to their advantage when they activate Mark Stone and his $9.5 million to their playoff roster. The Blues could use the same strategy here with Sundqvist.
The 27-year-old isn’t making what Stone, Nikita Kucherov, or Steven Stamkos make. The Sweden native is making $2.75 million for the next two seasons. However, with the Blues’ current cap situation, anything helps ahead of the trade deadline.
By freeing up the money that belongs to Sundqvist, the Blues have an additional $2 million to play with over the next few weeks. This will give them the opportunity to make a contract like Jeff Petry or Mark Giordano‘s work.
The question to ask Craig Berube and the Blues is, how much will you miss Sundqvist in the lineup over the next two months. We’ve seen so far this season that the Blues have an abundance of forward depth.
St. Louis has been able to call up guys like Nathan Walker and Dakota Joshua, who have been able to produce at the same rate that Sundqvist has so far this season. Not to mention James Neal, who could be waiting in Springfield for a redemption tour in the NHL.
When Sundqvist is healthy and playing well, his presence on the team is unmatched, and it’s why the Blues protected him in last summer’s expansion draft. There’s no doubt that he, along with Ivan Barbashev, were crucial pieces in the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup run.
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Unless Sundqvist can heal to the degree he needs to be more effective, the Blues should consider shutting him down and allowing him to get fully healthy. He has just 15 points in 38 games this season, and there might be a cheaper replacement for that level of play in Springfield.