As we’ve discussed for weeks, the St. Louis Blues aren’t really looking at a rebuild. The team has committed too much to the young core already in place, and was just using an opportunistic approach at the deadline. This isn’t their year, and instead of committing more money to expiring veteran contracts, they flipped them to grab some extra assets.
St. Louis may not end up using those draft picks to select young players though. Instead, they could leverage them to land some NHL help to load up for next year. Today, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported as much, noting that the Blues have now emerged as a player in the Timo Meier sweepstakes. Meier has plenty of interested parties, though some—like the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers—have already made substantial additions and may have fallen out of the race.
The Blues have essentially weakened the market for Meier by making those trades, and now could use the extra picks acquired by dealing Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Noel Acciari, and Niko Mikkola to land the big winger themselves. The New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes remain in the mix, along with other teams that could benefit from Meier’s top-end talent.
It’s most interesting because the Blues don’t have a ton of wiggle room for next season, when the extensions for Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou kick in. The $10MM qualifying offer Meier is owed would still be difficult to swallow for a team that already has $70.8MM committed to 14 players. Perhaps a long-term extension at a lower AAV would work, but if St. Louis did acquire Meier, they might end up shipping some other pieces out the door before next season starts.
With every new team interested, the Sharks have more due diligence to do, slowing down any potential movement. We’re now ten days away from the deadline and San Jose still holds the biggest chip on the market.