The St. Louis Blues had a great season in 2021-22. They were among the highest scoring Blues teams of all time and set franchise records for most consecutive games with a point.
However, no matter how good a season is, if you don’t win a championship, it’s a form of failure. Failure might sound harsh, but that is the ultimate goal after all.
Similar notions can be said of players. Every team finds guys they know they cannot do without in the coming seasons. You also have players that fall off the pace and become expendable.
The Blues definitely have a few names that have entered that territory. Of course, that does not mean they are guaranteed to no longer be wearing a St. Louis sweater when the 2022-23 season rolls around.
However, their lack of production or lack of maturity, or lack of whatever might seem negative, has given the team options. From a job perspective, it stinks to think the team or fans might not want a certain person around any longer.
That is the pitfall of making a living in a performance-based job. You can be the greatest person in the world, but if you’re not getting it done on the ice, you’re expendable.
Just look at David Backes. He is a fantastic human being and was a very good captain and representative of the Blues, but he was not worth the money he wanted and that showed rather quickly. He became expendable to the Blues and they made the right choice.
Choices might be harder going forward. Backes had reached his peak was on the other side of the hill. Some potentially expandable players this summer might still have a bounce back. It will be up to Doug Armstrong whether these guys stick around.