As the NHL offseason is right around it’s midpoint, the Blues and General Manager Doug Armstrong still can find ways to improve the team. Pending arbitration hearings, most of the big signings and trades should be, for the most part, wrapped up. There is one major issue that still stands out to me with the way management handled their approach this summer. Improving overall team speed was clear as day in the playoffs and was publically admitted by Armstrong. Yet, he and his staff have done nothing to improve the speed whatsoever. This leads me to believe that at least one more deal will be made before September.
Armstrong could still move forward Patrik Berglund. There are a few ways he could try to get a return for the big Swede. Armstrong could trade Berglund in a deal for a player of the same perceived value and cap hit. A younger player with speed and less experience or a veteran with a relatively cheap cap hit and playoff experience. The other option the Blues have is to trade Berglund for future draft picks and/or prospects. This would clear the Blues of his $3.7 million cap hit and would bring the total cap space up to a little over $5 million. This, in my opinion, is the route Armstrong should take. It opens up ice time for either Robby Fabbri or Magnus Paajarvi to play some minutes and begin to prove themselves. This will inevitably keep David Backes at center and that is really the only downfall of this type of move. Sure, Berglund was pretty defensively responsible and that might be overlooked, but there are plenty of role players on the team that can effectively get the job done. Moving Berglund for picks or prospects would also give the Blues more leverage at the trade deadline to get that piece they need more easily without moving as much salary the other way.
Now on to David Backes. Another huge deal with the Ducks overpaying for Ryan Kesler is sure to drive the price up on Backes. Kesler and Backes play very similar games and are compared against one another often. I mean almost $6.9 million per year for a guy that hasn’t even hit 50 points sicne the 2010-2011 season. Granted, Kesler did have a very good playoffs scoring 13 points in 16 games. However, I believe this is skewed somewhat. They did play Calgary and Winnipeg. Not the best defensive teams without a ton of skill between the pipes. The question regarding Backes is whether to trade him for high value now or try to ink him to a new multi-year deal. He is heading into a contract year coming off a disappointing end to the playoffs yet again and many believe he be as hungry as ever. What would Backes want (in dollars) to sign an extension here? Is he willing to take a more cap friendly deal to stay home and try to finish what he has started here? These are the monumental issues on hand. There is not a chance that the Blues would pay Backes northwards of six million as Kesler received. I would be pretty surprised if the Blues offered him much of a raise from his $4.5 million dollar cap hit at all. Hopefully, Armstrong is finding out the answers to these questions and working towards a solution.
Trading Backes right now would probably fetch a pretty decent return. At the same time, this is the final year of his contract and that would bring the price down quite significantly. The Blues would then lack that power forward capably of being a shutdown defender and putting up 50-60 points. This would be the type of player that the Blues would need to have coming back in a deal to make it worth even thinking about a deal. It will be interesting to see how the Captain’s scenario will play out the rest of the offseason and for the next year.
The Blues still have options to improve the team. Are they content on the roster right now or are they still shopping to put the finishing touches on it? Only time will tell.
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