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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I like Faulk because of his shooting ability. Parayko, of course, has the harder shot, but I like Faulk better as a distributor than Parayko. Leddy is a pretty good distributor, but I don't think he's the scoring threat that Faulk is in particular. I'd guess I'd rate them 1..) Faulk, 2.) Leddy; 3.) Parayko.
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Jim, The Athletic had an interesting article about all the teams and how their individual contracts grade out based on player performance. Colton Parayko was given a D-. The article said "Colton Parayko is sneaky old at 29 meaning his eight-year pact will cover his entire 30s — and he’s already declined from his peak. He was once one of the very best defensive defenders in the league, but he’s lost that element over the years and doesn’t have the offensive upside to deliver at his price tag. And that’s now. At age 37? Good luck". I've been beating the drum that we should trade him for younger talent. Or at least a defenseman who is almost identical (Nikita Zadorov) but far less expensive. If The Athletic can see this why can't everyone else?
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I agree with you not believing everything I read. You know better than we out here in fly over country, columnists have to write about something, and the edgier the better. Colt 55 goes against the top line every night, he didn't earlier in his career which shews his numbers.
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Now don't get me wrong. Having a player around from age 35 and up is very risky. And it usually doesn't end well. I get that. But I think Parayko played pretty well over the second half of last season overall. And as long as he's not getting much power play time, he's not going to hae great offensive numbers.
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Jim, do you read the Blues chats on weeks when Tom is doing them? Read BenFred and Gordo too? I would think many story ideas can come from the chats as well as keeping up with what us 'pleabs' are thinking. (Pleab is the word of the day for today's chat. I am trying to expand my 'skull full of mush'.)
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The Blues don't have the speed to match the Avs, particularly on the blueline. Leddy helps somewhat in that regard. If Perunovich made the top six, that would help as well.. I would say Neighbours has average speed; Bolduc looks like he's pretty quick. As for the rest of the Central, I think the Blues overall match up pretty well speed-wise.
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Jim, I don't know if you read last week's chat captained by Tom Timmermann, but I predicted Zachary "The Duke" Bolduk will make the team out of training camp. The Duke will be a high impact player for years to come, and Army needs high impact players who are cheap.
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I would say that's the hope for the Blues. But there are no guarantees. Theres no guarantee that he will even have the kind of strong camp he had a year ago. But Neighbours does seem to be the type of player who will do whatever he can to make it in the NHL and whatever he can to improve as a player.
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It's based on a formula agreed on by the players association and the teams. All of the major North American team sports have salary caps of one form or another. They are designed to promote parity, to prevent the large market, wealthier teams from buying up all the free agents that smaller markets couldn't necessarily afford without a cap.Financial losses from COVID, hit the NHL harder than other sports. Largely because the NHL depends on in-stadium attendance more than other sports. That has resulted in either no cap increases or minimal cap increases for several years. It has hurt teams that have spent to the cap every year trying to pursue a Cup - like the BLues - more than the bottom feeders of the league. If the cap had been going up it's normal $4, 5, 6 million a year, the BLues wouldn't be facing the cap issues they are now. Or at least, they wouldn't be nearly as severe.
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I love the Blues and would obviously always love to see a playoff run, but a part of me almost hopes that they are out of it approaching the trade deadline. It would give them the freedom to go ahead and trade Tarasenko (I think he walks after next year anyway) and maybe trade one of the high dollar defensemen and hopefully even trade Scandella. That would hopefully give us some draft capital to play with and get the books a little more in order to ROR and re-tool around the younger guys. What do you think?
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Good afternoon Jim!! I'd like your thoughts on Tarasenko.. Some folks say he will be gone when he is an UFA after the season.. And just play him to try to win this year. I'm not sure how you let a player like him walk with 0 compensation. Wouldn't it be smarter to get something for him while you can? Even if it's a young up and coming winger? We have to start thinking about the future now, in regards to V.T... Since it's pretty clear he is going to be out the door after this season... Can't let him go for nothing but 'Cap Space' right?
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What if you're competing for a good playoff position and Tarasenko is on pace for another 30-goal season? Could you still make the move at the trade deadline, even if it meant you would have to write off what looks like a promising season? And even if it meant you would get less than hoped for in retrun for Tarasenko. Is it worth it just to say: 'Well, at east we got something for Tarasenko.' That's the tough part of this.
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I’m still bitter over the Tkachuk trade. People say Florida overpaid but they got rid of two great players in extension years and they couldn’t sign both. Instead the blues have a huge problem next year with (maybe not as) great players contracts expiring. So Florida solved the same problem for themselves as we’re gonna face plus got a franchise player for 8 years. Not to mention we locked in Thomas for not much less than Tkachuk and Tkachuk has a much more proven track record. Help me understand what Army was thinking…
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The idea of a trade is to make your team better. Give me a trade with Calgary that 1.) Makes your team better; and 2.) fits in the cap.Will see what happens, but if Huberdeau and Weegar re-sign with the Flames, on paper Calagry got the best of that deal. In fact, if even just Huberdeau re-signs with Calgary I think you can say Calgary got the best of the deal. There are some around the league who like Huberdeua more than Tkachuk.
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Jim -- Good afternoon. I hope you are having a good summer and I enjoyed the Dick Vermeil story. I'll get right to the point with my two questions.1) Will you be attending the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony in Canton this year? 2) What salary cap system was easier to understand and why: The NHL or the NFL? Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.
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I'm heading to Conton tomorrow,for the Hall of Fame festitivies.The NHL system seems very complicated to me. Some of the rules seem overly vague,. And there seems to be much more minutiae in the NHL verson. Five years into my time as a an NFL beat writer, I had a very good grasp on the system. (Rams VP Jay Zygmunt was very helpful here.) Five years into being an NHL beat writer, I don't feel as comfortable in terms of cap knowledge.
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Jim, last question from me today. In hindsight, do you think Pietranagelo signed with Vegas simply because him and his wife wanted to live out there?I know that is not the answer Blues fans want to hear but it seems to make the most sense. The Blues' offer was equal -- and even better when you throw on the extra year -- and Pietrangelo was beloved in St. Louis. As I think about it, that's the only thing that makes sense to me. He simply wanted to live in Las Vegas. Is it possible the answer is as simple as that? Alex obviously didn't want to say that so he wouldn't burn any bridges.
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Army should have offered O'rielly a number 1 pick and Scandella for MT. Hockey is just getting younger very quickly. Too many games players are worn out in their early 30's. Tkachuck, Kyrou and Thomas are all around 24 years old that's the age you sign guys long term nowadays!
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