St. Louis Blues “Open For Business”

Things have not gone right for the St. Louis Blues this season. The offseason darlings of many, the Blues are off to a terrible start to the season at 8-11-3 and find themselves firmly in last place in the Central Division. That poor performance has already cost their head coach his job, and could very well see even bigger changes in the near future. In Elliotte Friedman’s latest 31 Thoughts column for Sportsnet, the insider claims that the Blues are “open for business” with “few things they won’t consider.” That shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise, given the way they heavily invested in veteran talent in the offseason.

The Blues suffered a bitter fate last season when they missed the playoffs despite recording 94 points in the regular season, and must have felt as though they were good enough to compete this season. Summer brought big changes up front, as they brought in David Perron, Patrick Maroon and Tyler Bozak through free agency and landed Ryan O’Reilly in a massive trade with the Buffalo Sabres. Add in the idea that top prospects Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou might be able to contribute and a return to health for Robby Fabbri, and the Blues became the trendy pick for a dark horse Cup contender.

That contender simply hasn’t emerged, despite the excellent start for O’Reilly, who has been everything the team hoped and more with 26 points in 22 games and a league-leading 60.4% faceoff percentage. Star winger Vladimir Tarasenko hasn’t been the same destructive force with just three goals at even-strength, and Colton Parayko still hasn’t taken the huge step forward offensively that many have predicted.

Still, the offense isn’t the entire problem. If there was one thing that seemed poised to make-or-break the Blues in the offseason, it was the men between the pipes. Gone was reliable backup Carter Hutton to the Sabres in free agency, and in came Chad Johnson to backup the enigmatic Jake Allen. Allen, now 28, has been a complete mystery at times for the Blues, alternating between Vezina-caliber performances and minor league level struggles. This season he’s been as inconsistent as ever, resulting in an .896 save percentage through 17 games. Johnson meanwhile has continued the struggles he experienced last season, and has an .895 save percentage through his eight appearances.

It’s obvious that changes are coming in St. Louis if the team continues to perform poorly, but the situation is by no means simple. Allen carries a cap hit of $4.35MM for two more seasons and likely can’t be replaced very easily, and those free agent deals for Bozak and Perron locked them up for a combined $9MM through at least 2020-21. The Blues are right up against the cap thanks to their expensive forward group, and can’t really take on much more for this season without shipping salary out the other way. That makes it even tougher to make a move to turn things around right away, and puts even more pressure on this group to turn things around.

If the decision is ever made to sell though and focus on next season—when young players like Thomas and Kyrou should be able to do more—there will certainly be some interest in their roster. Brayden Schenn and captain Alex Pietrangelo each have just one year remaining on their current deals after this season and would desirable assets for nearly every team in the league given their versatility and pedigree. It’s hard to imagine them selling on either core piece, but as Friedman notes there are “few things they won’t consider” at this point.