The St. Louis Blues could be one of the most active teams at this year’s trade deadline. If the club chooses to sell, a flurry of trades could hit the wire. However, standing pat may be a preferable path forward this season.
In a December 27 piece in The Athletic, Blues insider Jeremy Rutherford urged the club to stand up if it doesn’t plan to sell.
Rutherford wrote:
“CJ’s trade board is full of Blues, so the options are limited. Of the 32 players, the Blues have Justin Faulk at No. 7, Jordan Binnington at No. 8 and Brayden Schenn at No. 13. After that, there are some good names on the list, but the Blues just aren’t in a position where many of them make much sense. If anybody, they should make a deal for Blues killer Kiefer Sherwood (seven goals, five assists against St. Louis in 12 career games), or Nazem Kadri, so that Binnington can throw water bottles at him in the locker room.”
The ”CJ” reference is a shoutout to fellow insider Chris Johnston. Johnston published his trade board a couple of weeks ago, in which Justin Faulk, Jordan Binnington, and Brayden Schenn made the list.
The inclusion of Faulk, Binnington, and Schenn has been more the result of chatter than solid trade rumors. As a result, the Blues don’t seem like a team that could be in a position to add big-name players.
Sure, bringing in someone like Alex Tuch or Artemi Panarin could seem enticing. But in the grander scheme of things, how much good would that do?
The fact is that the Blues would do well to stand pat. Unless there is an overwhelmingly good offer on the table, St. Louis should push back from the table and resume soul-searching during the summer.
Kadri or Sherwood could be decent options for Blues
As Rutherford noted in the tail end of his thought, adding Kiefer Sherwood or Nazem Kadri could make sense. However, the cost of acquiring those players may not be sensible for the Blues.
Sherwood is an impending UFA. So, adding him could be purely as a rental. That’s not a position the Blues are in at this point. Plus, the Canucks will want to recoup even more futures for Sherwood. That’s why swapping veterans really wouldn’t pique the Canucks’ interest at this point.
As for Kadri, perhaps a Schenn-for-Kadri swap might make sense. But that’s something that neither the Blues nor the Flames really benefits from. The Flames would want to get a bunch of futures to build around star goalie Dustin Wolf.
Meanwhile, the Blues would like to get a king’s ransom for their captain. So, unless the Flames capitulate and trade Kadri for magic beans, the Blues just wouldn’t be the best option to move the highly sought-after veteran forward.
As lame as it may sound, the Blues could benefit more by sidestepping the carnage at this year’s trade deadline. Giving incoming GM Alex Steen a full roster would be a better jump-off point than gutting the team at this year’s deadline.