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

Is he really better?

There’s not a lot of doubt that Chychrun is a very good NHL player. How good is mostly up to the eye of the beholder.

My question is really how much he would have improved the Blues. Would he improve them more than Nick Leddy? Based on talent alone, yes, but it’s not always about talent. It’s about what you bring to the team.

The Blues already have similar players. In terms of production, he’s not that much better than Faulk or Krug.

I can already hear the people balking at this, but the numbers bear it out.

Compare Chychrun’s first six seasons to Krug. Chychrun has actually played more games and more minutes, but has fewer points. Chychrun has more goals but not by a large margin. Power play goals are just about the same.

The same is true for Faulk compared to Chychrun. Even if you adjust the difference in amount of games played during their first six seasons, Faulk scored about 161 points and 55 goals in 337 games. Chychrun had 53 points and 142 actual points in those amount of games.

Proponents of the deal will point to him playing on a bad team. I’ll counter by saying his points should actually be higher on a bad team.

He’ll be asked to be more defensively responsible and play within a system on a team like the Blues. Arizona is pretty much letting him do whatever he wants because he’s probably their one of their best, or at least in their top three or four best players.

The Blues needed grit, size and defensive ability. Chychrun isn’t small at 6’2, but he’s not known for clearing out the front of the net.

He’s not a big time shot blocker, though he’s not bad. For comparison, his block totals are significantly lower than Alex Pietrangelo, he has a slightly higher average hit total than Petro did and nobody really confused Petro for Chris Pronger when it came to getting nasty.

The reality is the Blues need complimentary players. They need a ying to the yang they already have.

No matter what we want him to be, Colton Parayko is not going to transform into Chris Pronger, nor Al MacInnis. He is what he is.

Jay Bouwmeester worked well with him because they both had enormous reach and Bouwmeester covered while Parayko went forward. Chychrun is too much like Parayko, Faulk and Krug.

Even if you tell them to be defensive minded, they’ve based their game and their earning ability behind putting points on the board. They’ll try their hardest to fit roles and listen to advice from the coaches, but it’s about as likely as transforming Vladimir Tarasenko into a body checking machine.

Lumping it all together, you’re spending a boat load of money on talented players, but you’d still have the defensive issues you entered this trade deadline with.

None of this is bashing Chychrun either. He’s just not really what was going to fix this team’s problems.