Blues will keep one of their best defenseman for six more years

The St. Louis Blues made a great announcement on Saturday night, in which they agreed to a six year contract extension with one of their best young defenseman. Philip Broberg , who has been a consistent and effective player this season, will get paid an AAV of $8 million.

With so much uncertainty about the future of the Blues, locking up Broberg was going to happen sooner or later. He is already establishing himself as the next core piece to build around, and he hasn’t even reached his full potential. There is definitely another level to his game.

Next month, he will be representing the Blues at the Olympic Games in Italy, as a part of a very talented group of defenseman for Team Sweden. Hopefully he can use his time in the best-on-best tournament to elevate his game even further.

The Blues have a number of upcoming free agents left to sign now that Broberg is locked up, but that also means that a key piece or two of the core group right now might not be there. There is now an argument to be made for both Colton Parayko and Justin Faulk to be expendable, as it is clear that Broberg is the next man up.

This move is a bit of a shock in terms of timing, as the emphasis on this team hitting the panic button right now is high. These last two losses to Chicago and Utah have painted a really bad picture of the outcome for this season.