One of the narratives surrounding the St. Louis Blues is that the team is ready to blow things up. That situation could mean selling off most, if not all, veteran players, while retaining the pieces the team believes could be useful as part of a retool/rebuild.
However, that may not be the case.
Marco D’Amico of RG Media published an interesting piece on November 19 in which he cites an anonymous league source. The source discusses the potential trade market this season. The source focused on how would-be sellers are waiting for one team to overpay for players amid a panic situation.
Teams like the Minnesota Wild, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, and Montreal Canadiens have been on the radar as such desperate clubs. But as for the sellers, the obvious teams have been the San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, and Calgary Flames.
But what about the Blues? St. Louis may not necessarily be too keen on selling off players. At least not right now. The aforementioned source had this to say about the Blues’ plans:
“St. Louis and Nashville are two other teams that are struggling right now and fielding calls from other teams. I hear St. Louis wants to work their way out of this funk like they’ve done before, but Nashville is in a bit of a predicament with all these older players with No-Trade clauses.”
If the source is correct, the Blues might not clean house after all. The hope is that the club can somehow turn things around this season before it’s too late.
Blues GM’s warnings just rhetoric
The comments in D’Amico’s piece seem to echo something I’ve discussed previously. Doug Armstrong’s warnings of cleaning house and being “open for business” are just rhetoric. These dire predictions intend to light a fire under the team and spur a turnaround.
But the team has to take them seriously. Otherwise, why would it make any sense? Until Doug Armstrong actually makes a real move, it won’t spark any concern among players. If anything, the club might be content to coast for the rest of the season and see where the chips fall in the offseason.
As such, Armstrong may be in a position where he has to make a move to prod his team into competing. As for what that trade might be, it largely depends on the prevailing animal spirits in the trade market. While forwards like Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou have been the long-rumored players to go, someone like Justin Faulk could be a good place to start.
Moving Faulk, especially after notching his 1,000th game, could be a means of spurring the club back into contention.
Although, truth be told, the real issue lies with goaltending. The Blues must address that situation before the season gets out of hand. Until then, there may be no other way around it. The Blues’ course of action may be to pray that things somehow magically improve.