The St. Louis Blues made some big trades over the summer, and while they looked like potential steals early on, those new acquisitions have flatlined in recent weeks. A product of those trades (and the subsequent contract that Connor McMichael signed) limited the Blues' ability to dive into free agency. The Blues' most expensive free agent signing was, somewhat surprisingly, Ross Johnston, who inked a three-year, $2-million AAV contract.
That was probably a foolish thing to do.
Why sign Johnston at all?
The Blues are no strangers to ill-advised contract extensions for aging veteran players who are likely on the brink of decline, but the Johnston contract is different in that he was a free agent. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound winger has been in the NHL for over a decade, playing in 317 games. His point totals (14 goals, 33 assists) are underwhelming, but of course, that's not why teams have kept him around.
It's the 591 career penalty minutes, mostly from heavyweight fights, that make teams want the 32-year-old veteran on the ice.
Maybe in the old days, that was a valuable role player to have on a team; in the modern NHL, there's just no reason to spend the cap hit or roster spot on a player in Johnston's mold. Through ten games with the Blues, he has one point (an assist) and 17 penalty minutes. That's not a lot of fighting for a player brought in to do exactly that, but finding a dance partner in the NHL isn't as easy as it used to be--there are so few players left in that archetype.
Sure, the Blues wanted to be "harder to play against" coming into this season, but adding a brawler doesn't fix the team's biggest issue: scoring goals. Beyond that, the Blues have maybe half a dozen respectable fourth-line options at their disposal between the active roster and the Springfield Thunderbirds, plus a wave of prospects on the way. Signing Johnston made no sense.
Can anything be done about it now?
The Blues have played 19 games this season, and Johnston has laced up the skates for ten of them. That's way too many games for a player who likely isn't a part of a Stanley Cup-contending roster, and it makes the Blues look unserious about being a playoff contender.
In the short term, there's not much that can be done, other than keeping Johnston in the press box and giving that ice time to someone who can play more than 8:49 per game. Perhaps in the summer, the Blues can find a team that would take on that contract (because they believe in the same backward thinking).
The real concern is the broader roster-building philosophy of the front office, and why they thought a player like Johnston was worth dedicating the cap hit and roster spot to. One bad signing won't sink a team, but hopefully it doesn't represent a deeper issue that will rear its head again next summer.
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