St. Louis Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich recently took part in a long-ranging interview with Daria Tuboltseva of RG.org where the two discussed topics such as his recent contract extension negotiations to the near future of the Blues organization. Buchnevich recently signed a six-year, $48MM extension with St. Louis on the second day of free agency this summer after seeing his name mired in trade rumors for much of the regular season.
The trade speculation was brought up in the interview and it doesn’t seem that anything was particularly close. Buchnevich referenced a conversation with general manager Doug Armstrong shortly after the trade deadline where he quoted Armstrong as saying, “I didn’t plan to trade you. The price for you was very high. But I couldn’t tell you that we definitely wouldn’t trade you, because if someone had agreed to that price, I couldn’t help but take advantage of it“.
Armstrong moved quickly on extending Buchnevich after other teams failed to meet a lofty asking price with the two sides agreeing on a salary near the draft according to Buchnevich. The two sides agreed relatively quickly allowing the Blues to have their core forwards including Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou locked up until the 2030-31 NHL season. The Russian forward’s only main concern was the franchise’s direction moving forward; especially after the team fired head coach Craig Berube during the regular season.
His concerns were assuaged during the negotiations as Armstrong highlighted that the organization was not interested in rebuilding. Armstrong’s credibility in the negotiations was solidified this summer as the Blues got aggressive on the trade market and with offer sheets to round out their depth. Not only did they look outside the organization for help but Buchnevich himself brought up the young talent coming up when he said, “They told me there would be no long rebuild; they want to make a strong team here and now. No one is interested in a long rebuild. They said that they would try to strengthen the team in the market. They also outlined the situation with young players: many good hockey players are coming“.
St. Louis finished six points back of a wild-card spot in the 2023-24 NHL season and life will not get any easier in a tough Central Division this year. The Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars still serve as some of the better teams in the Western Conference while the Nashville Predators got much better this offseason. The Blues will have to start better out of the gates this year as they look to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2022.