Over the course of the retool, the St. Louis Blues have had to navigate their way out of some of the toughest contracts in the NHL. With the number of trade clauses former General Manager Doug Armstrong handed out during his tenure to keep the team competitive, shaking up the core by moving on from older veterans who no longer fit the Blues' timeline became more complicated because of those trade protections.
While Armstrong secured very generous returns for players like Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn, and Justin Faulk, the risk of giving up trade protection has also proven to be an obstacle that the team cannot overcome. How could the Blues have avoided the issue? By taking a page out of the Carolina Hurricanes playbook on contract and trade protection structure, which could change the game for player movement clauses in the future.
The Taylor Hall contract
The Hurricanes' front office has been among the NHL's most innovative and adaptable, using player development and analytics to build a roster that has reached three conference finals and won a Stanley Cup in the last four years. When taking a deep dive into their contracts, they have a lot of cost-controlled young players within the core of their franchise, but one contract stands out as an innovative wrinkle to maximize the team's ability to make trades and improve their roster, while still protecting their players and holding them to their standard of play.
On the surface, Taylor Hall's $3.1 million 3-year contract with a no-move clause looks like a standard proven-veteran deal a player takes for stability late in their career, giving them the best chance to win a Stanley Cup. However, when you dig deeper into the contract language, the Hurricanes created the first-ever statistical incentive-based movement clause. On the PuckPedia Hockey Show, Hurricanes assistant general manager Tyler Dellow revealed an interesting wrinkle in the Hall contract that could become more common in the league now that the first has been done. Hall has a full no-movement clause in his contract; however, he must have 35 points this season to keep it for next season. If Hall fails to reach 35 points, his full no-movement clause becomes a 10-team no-trade clause for the following year.
This gives the Hurricanes the flexibility to move the player if he fails to meet their expectations and standards, while still allowing the player to control his fate by continuing to perform at the level that earned him trade protection in the first place. Being the first of its kind in the NHL, the trickle-down effect to other teams in the league has not taken effect, but looking back on several of the Blues' contracts, a clause like this could have been very beneficial for the team's ability to shake up the core.
How does this impact the Blues?
The Blues have several players whose contracts they will need to renew over the next offseason or two, such as Jake Neighbours, Jimmy Snuggerud, and Joel Hofer. With none of them eligible for trade protection for several more seasons, this contract element won't be useful to Blues general manager Alexander Steen for a few years. However, looking back at the retooling the team has undergone and the current contract landscape, there are several contracts where the Blues might wish they had added a statistical incentive for trade protection.
With the previous trades, the Blues have been able to make high-level assets for players like Schenn and Faulk. It is easy to think this contract structure wouldn't affect their asset management strategy, but with several players still underperforming, the statistical element of trade protection could have been valuable to the Blues on a few occasions to maintain full flexibility. The name that immediately comes to mind is defenseman Cam Fowler, who is in year one of a three-year extension with an average annual value of $6.1 million. Fowler was a player who produced at a 57-point pace when he was acquired by the Blues in 2024. Because of that production, he was rewarded with a contract extension that included a full no-trade clause for the first two years of the deal. Following the contract, Fowler immediately regressed to 30 points in 82 games the following season. With a backlog of young defensemen such as Adam Jiricek, Logan Mailloux, and Theo Lindstein, along with the emergence of Justin Barron, Fowler has become expendable due to his age and continued decline on the ice. Moving him would open up space for the young players to shine and develop while also freeing up cap space. If the Blues had tied statistical requirements to Fowler's no-trade clause, as the Hurricanes did with Hall, moving on from him would be much easier.
While there is nothing Steen can do about the contract situation now besides work with the players who have trade protection if he wants to shake up the roster, the statistical incentive to players' trade protection could be a fascinating tool for Steen and other NHL front offices to begin to use to allow them more flexibility when trying to change their roster moving forward.
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