St. Louis Blues: 3 Reasons Not Acquiring Jakob Chychrun Was Good

Holding on to assets

In today’s society, really just in human nature, we want things now and we want them how we want them. When it comes to sports, we want that shiny new toy and we want the Stanley Cup.

The future be damned, get us what we want right now. That’s not smart for the long term.

It worked for the Chicago Blackhawks, who won three Cups in six years and their fans may think it’s worth it. You’ll have to ask them in two or three years when they’re just starting to sniff the playoffs again.

For every Chicago or early to mid-2000’s Detroit, there’s a Vegas. Vegas has spent and spent and spent and put themselves in cap hell where they have to trade off good, young pieces and acquire dead contracts just to afford the overpriced talent they’ve stockpiled. Frankly, they’re further away from a championship right now than they were when they were a bunch of motivated second and third liners that nobody wanted.

Honestly, the Blues were smart to hold on to their assets. Who knows how draft picks turn out, so I’m not even talking about that since the Blues have made their franchise based on mid-round guys.

However, there’s talent in the pipeline that may not be NHL ready right away, but not everyone is. Jordan Kyrou went from looking like the next Robby Fabbri to someone who could be a top-10 scorer if he reaches his full potential.

Jake Neighbours earned a spot on this team right out of camp. Really, the only reason he didn’t stay with the Blues is because it made more financial sense to not let his pro contract kick in yet and have him under control an extra year.

Zachary Bolduc has 11 goals and 18 points in his last 10 games. EliteProspects projects him to finish with 40-plus goals and over 90 points in this junior season.

I’m not ready to give up on that for an offensive defenseman.