Under the ownership of Tom Stillman and his partners, the St. Louis Blues have consistently been a team that spent near the NHL's salary cap. They've been rewarded with this boldness, given that they've had some of the highest winning percentages in team history and the longest prolonged success rate.
Beyond winning the 2019 Stanley Cup, the Blues reestablished themselves as perennial playoff contenders. Even in the few years when the playoffs were missed, there has only been one season where St. Louis finished under .500 since 2008.
Focusing on the present and the near future, some are on social media and more national media channels that are painting the picture that it could be a quiet offseason for the St. Louis Blues. While this could potentially be true, it's not for the reason they're giving.
Those who don't follow the team on a day-to-day basis are focusing mainly on the idea that the Blues won't have very much cap space to spend in the summer. This is only true on a technical basis.
If you look at the current version of Puckpedia, as of June 2025, St. Louis only has roughly $5 million in cap space. Given the upward trend in salaries, you're looking at an aging out veteran or a low-end third-line player to fit that salary space. If you're spending that much on two players, you're thinning the herd even further in terms of what's available.
However, that $5 million isn't accurate. The Blues are likely to have approximately $11.5 to $11.6 million in space.
The reason for this is that it's all but guaranteed that Torey Krug doesn't play this season. It's extremely likely that he never plays in the NHL again due to the nature of his injury.
So, it all depends on how you look at things. Puckpedia is not incorrect because Krug's contract is still on the Blues' books in terms of how much management will have to spend on salaries.
But once the new league calendar starts in the Fall, the Blues will be able to place Krug on LTIR again and gain that space. You're allowed to be over the cap in the offseason by 10%, give or take, so the Blues could use up $10-11 million in the summer, knowing that they'll get the relief once the season begins.
This opens up more possibilities for the team going into 2025-26. If they think they're ready for a jump similar to the one they made from 2017-18 to 2018-19, they could be pretty active in the offseason.
That brings up the bigger question of whether they will be. That is far less clear than the amount of money they have.
While Doug Armstrong has the money to spend, his entire Blues career has been to set the team up for seasons to come, not just the one season ahead. So, he's not likely to make a huge financial splash by signing someone like Mitch Marner, who could put Alex Steen in cap hell once he takes over.
The current Blues are also in an interesting transition phase. Clearly, they're playoff contenders and, frankly, should have beaten the Winnipeg Jets in the playoffs. But, they have exciting prospects, such as Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky, who need spots available for them to get playing time.
You don't want to go into win-now mode too early, sign a big name or a couple mid/high-level names, and end up blocking guys like Dylan Holloway, as the Edmonton Oilers were forced to do. Speaking of which, the Blues also have to keep space available in the cap for their future free agents.
While Joel Hofer is the only must-keep free agent for the Blues this season, the summer of 2026 is a bigger issue. St. Louis will have Holloway and Philip Broberg as restricted free agents, as well as Oskar Sundqvist, Alexey Toropchenko, Mathieu Joseph, Nathan Walker, Cam Fowler, and Nick Leddy as their main group of UFAs.
Say what you will about any one individual, but the Blues are not likely to want to replace each and every one of them. You will therefore need in-house money available to keep some of them. Fowler and Toropchenko are probably still of enough value that they may want raises, too.
This all makes the 2025 offseason unpredictable. Fans who want the Blues to make a splash are likely to be upset with the result, but it's not completely outside the realm of possibility since the Blues do have over $10 million they could spend.
Personally, I think signing Holloway and Broberg to extensions before anyone even has the opportunity to think about offer-sheeting them is the priority. Then, Armstrong and Steen should sit down, evaluate what the cap situation would be in 2026 and 2027, and then figure out how to attack the summer of 2025.
Frankly, given their track record, I'd like to see the Blues make a trade as opposed to dipping into free agency. No matter what they do, the offseason will probably be fairly dull, and then a sudden blip of a surprise.
Ultimately, always keep the Krug situation in the back of your head. I've seen YouTubers and even some on NHL channels talk about the Blues lack of space, but they're only looking at the surface. The Blues will have more space to spend if they choose. Whether Armstrong does or not is the actual question.