3 Blues Most Likely Slated for the Trade Block

Just over a week and a half from now, the 2024 NHL trade deadline is set to commence, with all 32 teams having to make their respective moves before then. For the Blues, which players are most likely to be sent to the auction block? Here are 3 offers for other teams the Blues can afford to shake this season without any lasting damage.

Kasperi Kapanen

The 27-year-old Finnish winger has just not had the same amount of success in St. Louis as he did during stints with Toronto and Pittsburgh, with just 4 goals and 11 assists for the Blues this season. A $117k fine for driving under the influence in his native Finland didn't help either, but that's beside the point.

With Pittsburgh and Toronto, Kapanen had double-digit goal totals, something he couldn't quite replicate in St. Louis. He's also due to become an unrestricted free agent after this season anyway, so it wouldn't be totally out of the Blue for St. Louis to send him elsewhere, where he could maybe once again get some good goal counts.

Sammy Blais

This one is probably the 2nd most likely, after Kapanen, if not the most likely. Blais has spent 6 of his 8 NHL years with the Blues and just hasn't been productive all that much. If the Blues are looking to shed some cap space, giving Blais the boot would be a good choice.

He's missed 13 games this season, only logging 44 of the current 57 by the rest of the team due to upper body injuries at the beginning of the season and just about a week and a half ago with another upper body hampering. Blais has 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points on the season, so sending him away wouldn't make any Blues fan even bat an eye.

Kevin Hayes

Sometimes, gambles with other teams, especially when they involve star players for said other teams, work, and sometimes they don't. Kevin Hayes was brought to St. Louis from Philadelphia in the hopes that the Blues could snag another big-time goal scorer. Now, he's done alright in his first season in St. Louis (10 goals, 12 assists for 22 points), but at age 31, he may only have a few years left in his whole career.

Of course, he's under contract with St. Louis through 2026/27, so it might be a little early to judge the guy. Still, he could at least up his numbers to get them more like what he did in Philly, which was basically the reason the Blues snagged him from a trade last June.

Yes, these takes may seem a little harsh or unwarranted. But then again, most teams don't keep the guys who don't do much around for that long. And if their contract expires soon, that's even more reason to send them packing. It's just how the league's business works.

And one more thing - you could even argue Pavel Buchenvich gets put on the block, given all the talk about him potentially going to Edmonton as the primary candidate for the 28-year-old Russian. But the Blues likely won't budge on him, given he's fresh off a hat trick and the fact that St. Louis has a no-trade clause on him till 2025/26. Edmonton couldn't strictly buy on Buchnevich either since it would cost them $5.8 million, and they don't even remotely have the cap space for that.