The St. Louis Blues are among the collateral damage from the Quinn Hughes trade. The Blues were never in on Hughes (not that we know of), so the trade doesn’t really seem to affect them, right?
Well, that’s where the collateral damage part comes into play. As Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic pointed out, the Blues will now have to contend with three elite defensemen in the Central Division.
Specifically, we’re talking about Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars, and now Hughes with the Minnesota Wild.
That’s nothing to sneeze at. That’s 12 potential games the Blues could be facing the game’s best blueliners.
Sigh.
Rutherford wrote the following:
“Now that Hughes is in the Central Division, the Blues could see the star defenseman two more times per season (four total). Based on his history against them, that’s not great news. In 17 games, he has five goals, tied for the second-most against any team, and 12 points. Also, along with Colorado’s Cale Makar and Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen, the division now boasts three of the most dynamic defensemen in the league, and the Blues could see one of them in 12 of their 82 games.”
So, there’s nothing more to add. The Blues will have nothing more to do than bring out their best stuff against Makar, Heiskanen, and Hughes. St. Louis has shown it can hang with top-tier teams in the past. That’s why facing Hughes and the Wild should not be the end of the world.
If anything, facing elite D-men more frequently provides an opportunity for the club to become more battle-ready. Sure, every other team in the Central Division would have liked Hughes to land in another division.
But that’s life. The NHL is one of the hardest leagues in the world. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s this: Playing in the hardest division in the league gives the Blues a unique advantage. If they can make it out of the Central, every other division will seem easy.
There’s nowhere to go but up from here.