It is no secret the St. Louis Blues powerplay is horrendous. They cannot get it together, and if things continue this way, they will not get over this hump of playing .500 hockey. If this year is supposed to be written as the year they shock everyone and make a playoff appearance amidst being a "rebuild", they can't do it with this abysmal powerplay performance.
With the current roster, it may take some outside influence to make this near-bottom-of-the-league powerplay percentage jump a few points. So let's have some fun with this, who can the Blues unrealistically get that would help switch things up and improve the longevity of this season? Let's take a look.
Dallas Stars Center Matt Duchene
This one may be a tough one, for the simple fact that the Dallas Stars are division rivals. Why would they want to give up a solid player that specializes in playing with the man-advantage, to a team in their division? Well, it's because the Blues have something to give up for him. Plus, Duchene is the go-to man in Dallas, with Tyler Seguin on the IR for a lengthy period.
Matt Duchene is the player in question, and he could be dynamite for the Blues. In 16 years of NHL hockey, he has 89 goals with the man-advantage. That includes this current year, in which he already has three goals on the year. Back in 2021-22, as a part of the Nashville Predators, he hit a career-high with an astonishing 16 goals on the powerplay. Those are some great numbers and certainly better than everything the Blues have going for them right now.
Currently, Robert Thomas is manning the center position for the first power-play unit, but there is still room for Duchene if he is not at the face-off dot. Pavel Buchnevich seemingly could be the odd man out in regards to bringing over Duchene. This season, Buchnevich has seemed lost on the man advantage, and it reflects in his stats with only having one goal so far.
At this time, the Blues have an excess of players in the farm system to move over to Dallas for Duchene. For the Stars, they have a young team full of talent, and Duchene may be on his way out after signing just a one-year, $3 million deal before this season. At 34, he can still compete with the best of them, but father-time will become apparent eventually. The Blues could get him for cheap at the end of the season.
This is a pipe dream trade, and something could happen, though not very likely. The point is that the Blues need to do something drastic to get themselves better in extra-strength situations. That is where the game is won, and the Blues are losing because of it.