Join Blues beat writer Jim Thomas for his live chat at 1 p.m. Wednesday
Get your questions ready and join in at 1 p.m. Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
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Barring a major injury or some horrible miscue, is there a legitimate reason RO'R would not re-sign withthe Blues before/once his contract ends here? I mean, does he seem like someone who would chase money rather than legacy (Pietrangelo) or might he have found a place to mentor and be appreciated? -
All indications are that Ryan O'Reilly loves it here and wants to stay here. But there are some harsh realties facing the Blues for the 2023-24 cap year. Mainly, they have like $23-24 million of cap space and only 12 players currently under contract for that season. It doesn't look like they will be able to re-sign O'Reilly, Tarasenko and Kyrou. Barbashev and Mikkola also are scheduled for unrestricted free agency that season. Plus, you've got to add enough additonal contracts to reach a 23-man limit. That's a tight, tight squeeze. I would say either O'Reilly or Tarasenko won't be back. Maybe both.
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The main thing that's messed up the salary cap is COVID. Because of the big drop in revenues for 2 seasons, the cap stayed flat in 2020-21, went up by only $1 million this year, and is exected to go up by only $1 million in 2023-24 and 2024-25. If the cap had gone up it's usual $4-5 million each year, many teams - Blues included - wouldn't be in this cap mess. Or at least not to this degree. And I think it has punished the Cup-contending teams that spend to the cap every year like the Blues. The bottom feeders, who annually have lots of cap space avaialbe haven't been affected that much by the flat cap. We've seen teams with lots of cap space such as Ottawa and Detroit be major players in free agency this year. I think it will lead to more parity this year. If you look at the regular-season standings from this past season, there were really a lot of haves and have nots. The distane between the two should shrink this year.
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Good question. But I think it applies more to the offense. Maybe the defense is better this season with Leddy around for a full year, Mikkola having a little experience, and Perunovich staying healthy. Granted the goaltending could be problematical, but perhaps Greiss' perfmrance last year was the outlier playing for a bad Detroit team. (His career numbers are pretty good and very consistent.)But nine 20-goal scorers? We may not see that again for a long while.
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Hi Jim,
Thanks for doing this.
What’s the status of Klim Kostin? The Blues made him a qualifying offer and there is no arbitration, so is he considered signed at the qualifying price or does he have to agree? If the latter, he presumably can’t go to another NHL team but could he return to the KHL? -
I'm not sure Kostin can go to the KHL since he has a qualifying offer from the Blues. The deadline for players to accept qualifying offers is Friday. After which, the Blues would still control his rights but Kostin would have to sign by Dec. 1 in order to play at all this season in the NHL.With Joshua gone Bozak likely gone, and Toropchenko out unti l around December, Kostin could have an opening to get back in the picutre with the Blues.
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OK, I was just joking. I'm sure there's more than just rumors out there. And I'm sure Armstrong is at least looking into a Tkachuk trade. It seems pretty clear that Calgary is looking more and more like it has to trade Tkachuk. But man, the rumored asking price sure seems high. And personaly, I wouldn't be that anxious to get rid of Kyrou. Keep in mind also that the Blues would have to free up somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 milion in cap space to make room for Tkachuk - much easier said than done.
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Jim, I know a lot of the chat is going to be directed towards the possible acquisition of Matthew Tkachuk. I would certainly love to have him but not at all costs. I certainly don't mind letting Kyrou go, maybe throw in Bolduc and a 2nd round pick, but not much more than that. You would have to move Tarasenko and maybe Krug. Your thoughts?
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As I just mentioned, I'm not so anxious to get rid of Kyrou. I think he's only going to get better as time goes on. With his speed and finishing ability he can be a difference-maker. His defense and puck management will only get better. I'm just not sure about Kyrou, Boldcu and a second-rounder as you proposed. Bolduc could be something special in a couple of years.Plus, as you alluded to, you'd still have to free up cap space if you were dealing Kyrou, Bolduc and a second - at least $7 million. So how is your team better if you've moved Tarasenko, Kyrou, Bolduc and a 2nd-rounder for Tkachuk?
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Hi Jim,
Thanks for doing this.
With the Blues having to shed some salary by the season opener to be cap compliant, does that tell you Doug Armstrong has a trade or two brewing? Or do you think he’ll wait to see how things stand concerning injuries, roster cuts, etc., before trimming the excess? -
FIrst off, you never say never with Armstrong. I learned that very quickly on the beat. But right now the Blues are only about $125K over the cap - based on a 23-man roster. That's not a problem. If Armstrong does nothing else with this roster before opening day - you can remedy that by placing Alexey Toropchenko on the season-opening LTIR and carrying only 22 players at the start of the year.And by the way: it's Alexey and not Alexei. Toropchenko has let it be known that's how he wants his first name to be spelled.
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I thought Snuggerud skated pretty well at prosects camp, both in terms of overall speed and change-of-direction/maneuverability. If you look at my Snuggerud piece from the draft, those skating concerns were mainly from a year ago - his U17 year. He started working with a well-known skating coach last summer and has improved greatly to the point where I saw at least one report which stated that scouts no longer askabout his skating. Heres a link to the story:
Hockey a family affair for Blues' first-rounder Snuggerud
STLtoday.comFor the player known as "Snugs," both his father and grandfather played for U.S. Olympic team. -
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To no one's surprise, Bolduc and Snuggerud. A lot of the other top prospects - Jake Neighbours, Colten Ellis, Tanner Dickinson, Matthew Kessel - either didn't participate or were very limited. Among the camp invites, director of player personnel Tim Taylor said he was impressed by the improved footwork of defenseman Anton Malmstrom. Forward Brayden Guy scored a few goals. It's hard to read too much into just a few days of camp, especially since they did no 5-on-5 scimmrage work. (The scrimmages were either 4-on-4 or 3-on-3).
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Fourth-line center. He was a core penalty kill guy in Florida. Just average on faceoffs - he was at 50.6 percent last year and 52.4 percent the year beofre. A shoulder injury kept him out of the Florida lineup until mid-February of last year, so he played only 20 regular-season games.
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Buch is a lefty who played mainly on the right side with the rangers but left with the Blues. Do they move him back to the right? Is he likely to be even more successful gobbling up some of Perron’s old ice time? With Thomas and Kyrou he seems to have the skills and be of the age to take another step.
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The access with Berube isn't as good as it was with Martz or most of the other Rams' coaches. But in all fairness, COVID has put a major dent in that the past 2-plus seasons. There are times, though, in non-podium settings at Centene were we get some of that give-and-take with Berube. And looking forward to more of it this year when access should be better.
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Should the Blues just put Brown and Kostin on the third line or in higher roles than fourth line just to see if their game translates up the line up. It doesn’t look like either are 4 th line players, crash and bang specialists, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be contributors higher up.
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They got some chances doing so last season. Berube has said in the past that he thoought Brown had the style of game suited to playing the fourth line, although I thought he did better in that role late in the season.Although I get your point, I don't think they should play up at the expense of others.
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From the Athletic:
Matthew Tkachuk has notified the Calgary Flames that he won’t be re-signing with the club, multiple sources tell The Athletic, making a trade of the 24-year-old All-Star forward likely to happen soon.
Tkachuk has not officially asked for a trade, but the fact that the restricted free agent is unwilling to make a long-term commitment to Calgary would be the driving force behind the decision to move him now.
In addition to making the Flames aware that he won’t be re-signing with the organization that picked him at No. 6 in the 2016 NHL Draft, Tkachuk has supplied them with a list of teams with whom he would agree to a long-term contract, according to multiple sources. Tkachuk does have some power over where he might land, given that teams likely won't want to pay as large of a trade price for him as a rental.
One source familiar with Tkachuk’s list said that St. Louis, Vegas, Florida, Nashville and Dallas are options. New Jersey and the New York Rangers are also among the other teams that have expressed interest in the past. -
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