The St. Louis Blues did very well for themselves this season in terms of trading away UFAs and acquiring pieces to form their team for next season. Their work isn’t done as they are still using too much cap space on certain players and they have far too many defencemen. Let’s take a look at three trades that should be attempted in the offseason.
Torey Krug
Of the top-four defencemen on the Blues, none of them have particularly good contracts. They are all signed for too long and for arguably too much money per year. Of the four, Colton Parayko, Torey Krug, Justin Faulk, and Nick Leddy, Krug has been the most disappointing. He is expected to be the best offensively, but has lost top power play duties and was playing on the third pairing quite a bit this season.
Krug is a $6.5 million AAV player and has seven goals and 32 points in 60 games. While he averages 18:34 per game, Parayko and Faulk average over 23 minutes per game and Leddy logs over 21. Krug isn’t far gone from being a highly productive top-four offensive defenceman. If the Blues can find a partner for him, they should absolutely execute a trade. There’s more than enough defenders on the roster and in the organization while Krug would be open to a fresh start after the disappointment and lack of playing time. With a no-trade clause, a deal would have to go through him.
Marco Scandella
Marco Scandella will be an easier player to move for the Blues this offseason as he only has one more year left on his contract and has a much lower cap hit ($3.725 million AAV). He also hasn’t been a big disappointment this season when healthy and only has a seven-team no-trade clause.
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The left side of the defence is crowded and he had even played higher up in the lineup than Krug this season. Unfortunately, Scandella has only gotten into 20 games for the Blues and is out for the season. He’s not counted on for offence, but is solid in his own end. He has the ability to handle second on third line duties and minutes, but could be an easier move to free up space on the left side. Calle Rosen has earned his spot on the team, while Dmitry Samorukov, Tyler Tucker, and Scott Perunovich are also on the rise and looking for a role in the NHL.
Robert Bortuzzo
We’ll now shift over to the other side as Robert Bortuzzo has fallen out of the lineup when healthy in favour of other defencemen. He’s gotten into just 43 games this season and is averaging just 12:34 of ice time per game. He has been a healthy scratch at times, and as mentioned above, there are a number of young players vying for very few spots in the NHL, Matthew Kessel and Hunter Skinner being two of them while the Blues have played some of their lefties on their off side to get into more games.
Bortuzzo has one year left on his contract at at $950,00 which would be very easy to move and better for both parties if he could get playing time elsewhere rather than taking up a roster spot/opportunity or playing in the AHL in Springfield.
