The NHL Draft is over and the free agent frenzy has frenzied. While there are still a few free agents waiting to sign with teams, most of the talk for the rest of the offseason will be around trade rumors and the upcoming season.
For the St. Louis Blues, Jordan Kyrou is a name that continues to pop up in trade rumors. The majority of these came before July 1, when his no-trade clause kicked in, and we're now hearing some things about what teams may have offered for the winger -- or what the Blues asked for.
In this week's episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman touched on every team around the league, and he had a few interesting things to say about the Blues.
Kyrou was one of the forwards being rumored to be traded around or at the NHL Draft last month, and the Blues may have been asking for a top-10 pick for the winger. In particular, Friedman speculated that the Seattle Kraken, who drafted center Jake O'Brien with the eighth overall pick, had talks with the Blues about Kyrou.
"I do think they thought about Kyrou, and they ultimately decided not to do it," Friedman said of the Kraken. "I don't know this but I suspect that would have cost them the pick that turned into O'Brien, the eighth overall pick, so I understand why they didn't do it. But a pure scorer like that? I can understand why they thought long and hard about it."
While there's nothing definitive from Friedman there, trading Kyrou for a top-10 pick would help the Blues in the long run. However, the Blues were a win away from the second round last year, with Kyrou nearly matching his career highs with 36 goals and 34 assists for 70 points in 82 games.
The Blues ended up getting a talented forward with their own pick in Justin Carbonneau, who looks like he could be a force for years to come.