The Blues have had an eventful offseason bringing in forwards Connor McMichael, Mason McTavish, Ross Johnston, and Dillon Dube to add significant depth to their forward core.
However, with all their moves, the defensive part of their roster has stayed untouched outside of bringing in veteran defender Brandon Carlo. Additionally, with the resignings of Oskar Sundqvist and Jonatan Berggren, they now have 17 forward options with NHL experience and top prospect Justin Carbonneau waiting in the wings.
Though their defensive core last year wasn't terrible, they were middle of the pack in Expected Goals Allowed, High Danger Shots Against, as well as defensive points and defensive goals.
Though this would seemingly indicate a defense that doesn't need a major shift, this leaves out a major detail in the fact that Justin Faulk, who was debatably their best defender, was moved at the deadline and the season's stats are heavily inflated because of his time there. Because of this it's very plausible that this defensive core is the team's biggest weakness next season.
With Adam Jiricek being hyped up as a potential future first pair defenseman, as well as Phillip Broberg establishing himself as a top pairing guy, they're going to need to look into more of a depth option.
Seemingly, the only realistic candidate to fill that role right now would be Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin.
Issues with a move for Nikishin
The first major issue they'd need to overcome is the salary Nikishin would demand. With some reports suggesting he's looking for $7.5M or more a year on his next contract. With the Blues only having $2.6M in cap space right now that means they'd almost certainly have to include a roster player carrying a meaningful salary.
The easy answer would be to offer Colton Parayko to Carolina, however it's become very clear Parayko has a very select list of teams he'd be willing to go too so the Blues are going to need to get more creative.
The most realistic piece they could look to move would be winger Jake Neighbours. Neighbours is coming off a down year but has shown the potential to be an elite secondary scoring option and he's on the last year of his two year deal where he'll likely see a significant pay raise when he enters free agency next year.
Neighbours has a salary of $3.75M so it'd be rather simple to move him and then potentially dump Pius Suter to open up the money to pay Nikishin.
The second issue is the additional cost beyond Neighbours it'd take to bring in Nikishin. Nikishin put up 33 points and a +18 plus-minus at just 24 years old. He shows elite potential to be a first pair guy and is going to take more than a guy with a somewhat low ceiling in Jake Neighbours.
The Blues would likely need to attach a first round pick and/or a solid prospect like Theo Lindstein or Otto Stenberg. It's possible Carolina demands one of Carbonneau or Jiricek be included, in which case I can't really see the Blues entertaining that offer.
Why they need to overcome these issues
Despite these major issues, I believe the Blues should take the risk and send a package consisting of Neighbours, a first round pick, and another prospect, to bolster an aging defensive core.
Pairing Nikishin with Jiricek and Broberg would set up one of the most promising young defensive trios in the NHL and the Blues don't have a ton of need for low ceiling prospects or mid level draft picks.
Additionally, Suter and Neighbours were sort of replaced by McMichael and McTavish this offseason and it wouldn't be the worst thing to move them to open up space for younger guys coming up.
It seems unlikely at this point that the Blues could pull off a move like this, but they should give it their best shot and should absolutely be on the phone giving Carolina an offer.
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