The St. Louis Blues are 7-10-6 after dropping another game, this time to the New York Rangers, who never win at home. With 20 standings points, the Blues are seventh in the Central Division, four points ahead of only the miserable Nashville Predators; they're tied with the Vancouver Canucks and one point ahead of the Calgary Flames over in the Pacific Division. As the gap widens between the contenders and the pretenders, it's becoming abundantly clear what the Blues should do when the trade deadline rolls around in March: sell, baby, sell.
The Blues could, in theory, make a trade or two to revitalize the roster--the team's core players are in their primes right now, and this is the time to try and win. That said, three players turned up on Nick Kypreos's first trade board of the season; the Blues could try and make a go of it with what they have, but, ultimately, they'd just be spinning their wheels. They'd be much better off parting with some veteran players in exchange for future assets, whether it's early-round draft picks or premium prospects that could be in the NHL sooner rather than later.
Trades aren't likely to happen in the near future and, with the new CBA rules in effect regarding a playoff cap and limitations on the number of times a salary can be retained on, might not be as common this year. However, the Blues have all three of their retention slots available to them, so if a trade were to materialize with the stipulation that some of the salary be retained, the Blues have that option.
Maybe the Blues go on a run--we've seen it before--but hoping a team gets hot at the right time to go on a run is no way to build a perennial contender. The Blues need to recalibrate themselves and, to do that, should position themselves to be sellers at the trade deadline.