St. Louis Blues in need of some defensive reinforcement?

The St. Louis Blues are nearly at the quarter mark of the 2024-25 NHL season, and things have not gone as swimmingly as some might have hoped. It did not start great with Torey Krug was placed on injury reserve (IR) for likely the entire season while he recovers from ankle surgery, which will hopefully fix his pre-arthritic condition that he is suffering from, which happened before the season began.

The injury bug did not stop there, with Nick Leddy getting placed on IR with a lower-body injury four games into the season. St. Louis' top offseason acquisition, Philip Broberg, started the season amazingly but, like the others, ended up on IR with a lower-body injury.

Not to mention, Robert Thomas is also on IR with a fractured ankle. At the start of the season, it seemed as though the blue line was going to be the area of weakness for the team, and as of right now, the team sits as the seventh-worst goals against in the league. While the blame is not solely on the defence, it might be time for the team to look at some reinforcements for the St. Louis Blues to have a shot at making the playoffs.

Rasmus Andersson

The biggest name on this list the St. Louis Blues could inquire about is Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames. Andersson has proven that he can provide an offensive spark on the blueline, which is someone the Blues need with Krug out for the season, and quite honestly, something they have not gotten since he signed in St. Louis. Andersson has a 49 and 50-point season under his belt, with 11 goals to go along with that 49-point season. His current contract has a cap hit of 4.55 million running until the end of 2025-26, which is more than reasonable considering his production.

He would not be a rental piece and could help the team now and in the future, with him being 28 years old. The trade is probably the hardest one on the list to get done because I doubt the Blues would be willing to give away one of their top prospects, and if by the time Thomas and Broberg return to the lineup, the team has not turned it around, the team probably would not want to move their first-round pick if they are near the bottom of the league.

David Savard

It seems as though David Savard will most likely be traded by deadline day, with the Montreal Canadiens being near the bottom of the standings as it stands today. The Canadiens have a ton of defenceman prospects that they hope to get into the lineup sooner rather than later, which makes Savard expandable. He is also in the last year of his four-year 3.5 million dollar per-year deal that he signed with the Canadiens before the 2021-22 season and is unlikely to re-sign at the end of his contract.

Savard is a reliable defensive defenceman but contributes very little offensively, but could help the Blues' bottom defenceman pairing. The Blues could probably get the Canadiens to eat some of his salary, considering his deal expires at the end of the season, making it a low-risk deal because he would probably be just a rental player.

Ivan Provorov

Ivan Provorov is another one of those guys where it could be a low-risk, high-reward type deal in terms of compensation for the St. Louis Blues. Provorov is in his last year of a six-year, with a 6.75 million dollars per year cap hit.

Considering the drop-off in his play since signing the contract and the fact that his season has not started like Provorov would have liked, Columbus may be trying to move on from the player, who has only produced five points in 17 games this season. Provorov could be in desperate need of a fresh start, at one point in his career, he looked to be on his way to being an excellent offensive defenceman, having scored double-digit goals twice in a season and a high of 17 goals in the 2017-18 season.

As long as the trade compensation is not too high, and it should not be considering his contract and his production so far this season, Provorov could be a risk the Blues are willing to take to attempt to bolster their blueline.