Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
The first domino for the St. Louis Blues took place on Thursday evening. They sent their star winger – Vladimir Tarasenko to the New York Rangers in exchange for a conditional first-round pick in 2023, a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024, Sammy Blais, and prospect Hunter Skinner. This is likely the first of a series of trades that the Blues will be making leading up to the trade deadline. They still have multiple free agents in Ryan O’Reilly, Ivan Barbashev, and Noel Acciari that are drawing interest from contending teams as reported by NHL Rumours.
General Manager Doug Armstrong has a lot of decisions to make with the future of his team. It is clear the St. Louis Blues are focused on the future with their playoff hopes dwindling with every loss. This will lead the Blues to either rebuild or re-tool their team for next season.
Why They Should Re-Tool
The St. Louis Blues are having a down season. Just last season they were second in the Central Division and were two wins away from making the Western Conference Finals. The Blues have a good team and have many of their core pieces locked up. Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou both received eight-year extensions this past off-season. Jake Neighbours is getting a good look this season as well. Neighbours has the potential to become a top-nine winger power forward. They also have strong veterans in Brayden Schenn and Brandon Saad locked up.
On the backend, the Blues are veteran-heavy as they have Torey Krug, Justin Faulk, Nick Leddy, and Colton Parayko all on long-term contracts. They also have Jordan Binnington manning the crease for the next few years. Plus, they have netminder Joel Hofer up and coming. Hofer was recently signed to a two-year extension during the season and is the Blues future between the pipes. The core of the Blues is locked up for the future. They also have fourteen million in cap space to add to their core. This is why the St. Louis Blues must re-tool, instead of looking at a rebuild.
Why the St. Louis Blues Should Avoid a Rebuild
Trading your star winger and looking at potentially trading your captain makes it seem like a full rebuild is in order. However, the St. Louis Blues have good up-and-coming prospects that will keep the team competitive. They also have two first-round picks for the 2023 draft, which is expected to be a deep draft as reported by Sam Cosentino of Sportsnet. With multiple picks, the St. Louis Blues will draft a couple of players who can contribute in a couple of years or sooner. They could also flip those picks in a trade to obtain a talented player or two. Either option allows the Blues to bounce back quickly and compete again.
Lastly, we have seen that rebuilds do not always work and seem to take longer than expected. Just look at the Buffalo Sabres, who have missed the playoffs for eleven straight seasons. The Sabres are currently in their second rebuild after an unsuccessful first one. The Edmonton Oilers are another good example. They went through ten years of missing the playoffs and it took getting Connor McDavid for them to get out of their rebuild in 2017. Rebuilds do not always work, which is why the St. Louis Blues should be looking to re-tool.
