While progress on a long-term deal between the Blues and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo wasn’t being made, some still expected that the two sides would find a way to get a deal done in spite of their salary cap situation. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case now as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that talks have broken off between the two sides and that the team has advised their captain to test free agency next month.
The 30-year-old is coming off of another fine year that saw him collect 16 goals (a career high) and 36 assists in 70 games before the pandemic shut down the rest of the regular season. Had the season played out, he easily would have set a new benchmark in points as well as he was two shy of his 54-point campaign in 2017-18. He logged over 24 minutes a game for the ninth straight year and was a fixture on both special teams units. In a league where there aren’t many all-around number one defensemen, Pietrangelo is one of them.
It’s that fact that still makes it surprising that he’s set to head to the open market. While the Blues don’t have the cap space to keep him without making other moves first, they’re the ones that put themselves in that situation after handing Justin Faulk a seven-year, $45.5MM extension upon acquiring him last September while Marco Scandella received a four-year, $13.1MM deal in the early weeks of the pandemic. Had they not made those moves, they would have had more flexibility in talks with Pietrangelo, albeit with multiple important roster spots to fill. Now, they have more than $76MM in commitments for 2020-21 already.
While the salary cap will remain flat next season at $81.5MM, it shouldn’t affect Pietrangelo’s market all that much. Top players are still expected to receive big-ticket contracts and defensemen of his caliber rarely make it to the open market. Accordingly, there will be plenty of suitors for his services (even if puts them into cap trouble) and he’ll be well-positioned to get significantly more than the $6.5MM he has played under for the last seven years. Earlier this week, it was reported that Toronto, Vegas, and Florida could all be in the mix although each of those teams would be hard-pressed to make a deal work under their respective salary cap situations.
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the last offer from St. Louis to Pietrangelo’s camp carried a $7.7MM AAV but did not provide any breakdown with regards to salary/signing bonus structure. While that’s still a decent-sized raise and would make him the highest-paid player on the team, it’s seemingly well below what he could get in free agency. That price tag wouldn’t even put him among the top ten in cap hits for blueliners league-wide. It’s safe to assume that whatever deal he signs will put him among that group.
For St. Louis, their focus will now have to turn to the trade market. While there can be no conditions attached to a trade contingent on them signing a contract, a team can still trade something for Pietrangelo’s negotiating rights, similar to what Montreal did for Joel Edmundson last weekend. While a draft pick or prospect is far below his actual value, it’s still better than nothing which is where things appear to be headed now following this news. In the meantime, other teams will be very intrigued as it looks like a number one defender is set to reach the open market next month.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He walks, I’m not watching blues hockey anymore. Well unless it’s against the lightning.
From the day they sign Faulk. It meant either Pietrangelo or Parayko was going to leave .Both are superior to Faulk.would not trade either for faulk but guess Armstrong would.
Unless he gave him a full NTC, why not just trade Faulk?
Then again, it’s unlikely this was leaked by the team, so it came from Alex P’s camp. Maybe Armstrong knew he was going to Toronto since last summer and proceeded accordingly and this is just spin by the agent to make the player look better when he leaves.
After the year Faulk had who’s taking that contract
If the Blues took Pietrangelo off the market, the pickings are slim for the teams hoping to be in on him. It wouldn’t be easy and they wouldn’t get a lot, but they could still move it. Leafs. Jets.
They might get 1 or 2 mid rounds picks for him if they traded him.Just to get something. Jets and Leafs would be in the running for him no doubt.
@forwhomjoshbelltolls – Faulk- FULL NTC until 2025-2026, which turns into a 15-team no-trade list for the final two years. That was a sabotage job from the get-go. That contract is almost untradeable, even with 50% retention, especially in flat-cap-land.
I didn’t know that!. Agent earned his 10% for that alone. No Faulk won’t be moved. Later Peter
@shawn baber – I hope you shed a tear, like the rest of us! :)
Alex is a Christian Gent who I have followed off the ice. Being a Stars fan it will weaken St Louis. No tears shed yet Somebody will give him a bad contract. He is a class act either way. Niether you or I would turn down the $ he is about to get.
Toronto has no cap space either & also have several roster spots to fill. They don’t have the cap room to sign Pietrangelo. I doubt it is a forgone conclusion that he goes to Toronto. It doesn’t work cap wise. It will be interesting to see what Pietrangelo wants. There are teams that can offer him a huge contract, but most of them aren’t contenders. The Devils or the Sabres could flash big cash at him, but he isn’t likely to win at either of those places for a few years. Does he want to contend right away or is he willing to wait a few years and take the big pay day?
As I have watched the talk about this Just a backhanded guess is he might go to Winnipeg.He has his ring. Can go for a $ contract. No idea of Jets cap space.Just saying their begging for d men. Close enough to be a darkhorse cup team. Might be a good overall fit for him.Just thinking out loud Boston& Philly might look at him as well.
link to spotrac.com
Shawn Barber, Here is website to help you in the salary cap for each team. Click on this according to this Winnipeg is 12th in NHL $15,577,809 in cap space. you can do all sports with this website.
Thank you for the help.My shock just basic looking ia Yotes and Ducks are the most cash strapped teams.Some teams have lot’s of $ but won’t use it. Some can’t MGR it.Nice Stars have a decent cap #.
Here is a MUCH BETTER website:
http://www.capfriendly.com
NHL teams use this site.
@shawn barber: LTIR will factor in for some teams, there by giving them a little more cap room once they bury the contract. Though for the Ducks, they have Corey Perry’s buyout penalty for 2020-2022, which is 6.33 million against the cap, so that stings (though, they can also put Kesler on LTIR, so that helps mitigate Pers’s buyout some). The Ducks window won’t open for a another few years unfortunately.
The Yotes have no buyout penalties and have Hossa who they get to bury. But, the Yotes also have an internal cap of 70 million (as do the Sabers and another team I can’t recall right now), thanks to the financial impact of the pandemic, so I wouldn’t expect them to be adding big ticket FAs this offseason. Depending on what happens this season though, they will have a nice amount of cap room (projected to be 37.5 million, so depending on how many RFA’s they have to pay (and how much money) and if they have an internal cap, the Yotes might try and spend a bit next offseason. But all of this depends on the financials of the team and the league and THAT depends on what happens with the pandemic over the next 10 ish months (assuming they plan to get back to a normal offseason schedule, next year).
If I missed anything or got things wrong I apologise and I’m sure I’ll hear about it. :)
Thank you for the help cap wise.Just not ready to get into $ right now.I am on cloud 9 this week.
FA here we come. Wonder if STL trades his rights?
I love AP. He isn’t going to be worth $10 mil or more for 7 years. Faulk was a mistake for sure. We still got a Cup and can be competitive without him if the young defensemen develop.
Winnipeg makes a lot of sense. I don’t really understand the Toronto speculation. It would give them almost all of their cap # committed to 4 or 5 players.
I don’t blame them for not going that high. He’s elite right now and possibly a top 5 defenceman but I don’t think there’s anyway he’ll be worth what he’ll be paid over the length of that deal. Almost every large deal given out to a top tier defenceman has not turned out well.
Canadiens make sense. They picked up his friends edmunson and Allen already to draw him there.
He’s a professional, his best friend is Benjamin. And professionals prefer as many as they can get.