St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

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GeddyWrox
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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by GeddyWrox »

mikechamp wrote:
April 27 21, 11:47 am
TheoSqua wrote:
April 27 21, 11:22 am
Each team can retain 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie. OR 8 skaters and 1 goalie.

For seattle (from The Athletic):
By rule, the Kraken must select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goalies, for a total of 26 mandatory selections. The remaining four are up to them.
So, who gets protected? Having not followed the Blues closely this season, I'll throw out my uncertain guess:

O'Reilly
Schwartz
Schenn
Tarasenko
Thomas?
Barbashev?
Perron?

Parayko
Faulk
Krug

Binnington
Thanks guys!

I wonder if Army might not just expose some of the higher dollar contracts, daring Seattle to take one of 'em. Someone like Krug perhaps. If I'm Seattle, I would take Thomas in a nano-second if he's not protected. I'd think long and hard about taking Kyrou or Oscar Sunqvist too. Goodness this is going to suck.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by Popeye_Card »

GeddyWrox wrote:
April 29 21, 12:29 pm
mikechamp wrote:
April 27 21, 11:47 am
TheoSqua wrote:
April 27 21, 11:22 am
Each team can retain 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie. OR 8 skaters and 1 goalie.

For seattle (from The Athletic):
By rule, the Kraken must select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goalies, for a total of 26 mandatory selections. The remaining four are up to them.
So, who gets protected? Having not followed the Blues closely this season, I'll throw out my uncertain guess:

O'Reilly
Schwartz
Schenn
Tarasenko
Thomas?
Barbashev?
Perron?

Parayko
Faulk
Krug

Binnington
Thanks guys!

I wonder if Army might not just expose some of the higher dollar contracts, daring Seattle to take one of 'em. Someone like Krug perhaps. If I'm Seattle, I would take Thomas in a nano-second if he's not protected. I'd think long and hard about taking Kyrou or Oscar Sunqvist too. Goodness this is going to suck.
Diving deeper into the rules, here are the skaters that are eligible to be exposed to the expansion draft, and where I would likely draw the line.

Forwards:
O'Reilly
Tarasenko (needs 4 more games played this year to be exposed)
Schenn
Perron
Sundqvist
Blais
Clifford
---------------
MacEachern (flip a coin between he and Clifford, really)


Defense:
Parayko
Faulk
Scandella
------------
Krug (I'd risk exposing him to keep Scandella who has been really solid, and hope that Seattle doesn't bite on Krug's salary)
Bortuzzo

The tougher choices are on defense. Even if the Blues were to extend Schwartz before the expansion draft, you have room to protect him while only exposing Clifford and MacEachern.

For purposes of the expansion draft, we are lucky that Barbashev, Thomas, Kyrou, Sanford, and Dunn are RFA's this offseason. For purposes of trying to fit our roster under the cap, perhaps not as fortunate.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by GeddyWrox »

More good info. Thanks Pop! Sanford and Dunn could have been nice to dangle out there to see if Seattle would take some of that salary off our hands. I bet we let Sanford walk anywho. Dunn will be interesting. Gotta keep Barby, though. And Thomas and Kyrou go without saying. You keep them 100%.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by Popeye_Card »

GeddyWrox wrote:
April 29 21, 1:57 pm
More good info. Thanks Pop! Sanford and Dunn could have been nice to dangle out there to see if Seattle would take some of that salary off our hands. I bet we let Sanford walk anywho. Dunn will be interesting. Gotta keep Barby, though. And Thomas and Kyrou go without saying. You keep them 100%.
Yeah, I think in order of importance this offseason it goes:

1.) Re-sign Schwartz
2.) Get Thomas and Kyrou's RFA deals figured out
3.) Free agent deal if #1 doesn't pan out
4.) Get Dunn done.
5.) See if there's money left for Sanford, or look for potential replacements.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by GeddyWrox »

Frustrating to give up the lead in the 3rd like that, but holeeeesh!t what a gorgeous OT goal from ROR!!

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by albertmvpujols »

Popeye_Card wrote:
April 29 21, 1:45 pm
GeddyWrox wrote:
April 29 21, 12:29 pm
mikechamp wrote:
April 27 21, 11:47 am
TheoSqua wrote:
April 27 21, 11:22 am
Each team can retain 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goalie. OR 8 skaters and 1 goalie.

For seattle (from The Athletic):
By rule, the Kraken must select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goalies, for a total of 26 mandatory selections. The remaining four are up to them.
So, who gets protected? Having not followed the Blues closely this season, I'll throw out my uncertain guess:

O'Reilly
Schwartz
Schenn
Tarasenko
Thomas?
Barbashev?
Perron?

Parayko
Faulk
Krug

Binnington
Thanks guys!

I wonder if Army might not just expose some of the higher dollar contracts, daring Seattle to take one of 'em. Someone like Krug perhaps. If I'm Seattle, I would take Thomas in a nano-second if he's not protected. I'd think long and hard about taking Kyrou or Oscar Sunqvist too. Goodness this is going to suck.
Diving deeper into the rules, here are the skaters that are eligible to be exposed to the expansion draft, and where I would likely draw the line.

Forwards:
O'Reilly
Tarasenko (needs 4 more games played this year to be exposed)
Schenn
Perron
Sundqvist
Blais
Clifford
---------------
MacEachern (flip a coin between he and Clifford, really)


Defense:
Parayko
Faulk
Scandella
------------
Krug (I'd risk exposing him to keep Scandella who has been really solid, and hope that Seattle doesn't bite on Krug's salary)
Bortuzzo

The tougher choices are on defense. Even if the Blues were to extend Schwartz before the expansion draft, you have room to protect him while only exposing Clifford and MacEachern.

For purposes of the expansion draft, we are lucky that Barbashev, Thomas, Kyrou, Sanford, and Dunn are RFA's this offseason. For purposes of trying to fit our roster under the cap, perhaps not as fortunate.
All of those RFA's are, unfortunately, eligible to be drafted in the expansion draft. I don't think the Blues have anybody who has played much time this year at all that wouldn't be eligible to be drafted.

Capfriendly has a good tool to use for the expansion draft: https://www.capfriendly.com/expansion-draft/seattle
Just click on the Blues logo and either go 7f/3d/1g or 8 skaters + 1 goalie.

I think for the Blues at this point I'd go 7/3/1 with:
Forward:
ROR
Tank
Schenn
Perron
Sundqvist
Thomas
Kyrou
-------------
Barbashev
Sanford
Blais
Clifford
MacEachern

Defense:
Parayko
Faulk
Dunn
-----------
Krug (I think he'll be better, but I didn't like that contract when it was signed and I really doubt it ages well. I also would be shocked if they took him)
Scandella
Walman
Bortuzzo

Goalie:
Binnington
----------
Husso


With that have a handshake agreement with Schwartz to resign after the expansion draft is done.

I would guess Armstrong will protect Krug over Dunn and Seattle will most likely take Dunn.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by Leroy »

GeddyWrox wrote:
April 29 21, 8:47 pm
Frustrating to give up the lead in the 3rd like that, but holeeeesh!t what a gorgeous OT goal from ROR!!
I have watched the last two games closely. This is close to the best that Ryan has played that I have seen. I am open minded because I felt early in the cup run he wasn't playing that great. Obviously got better. It just seems like he is trying to carry the team with him right now.

Blowing the lead sucked, but it was the backup goalie, so things happen. 9 goals against Talbot in two games makes me happy.

Can we just give up Perron again? He will get back eventually.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by GeddyWrox »

IIRC, O'Reilly had a broken rib or something he was playing through early in the playoffs of the cup run, and he started feeling better into the San Jose series. But yeah, he is playing great right now!!

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by Popeye_Card »

albertmvpujols wrote:
April 30 21, 3:19 am

All of those RFA's are, unfortunately, eligible to be drafted in the expansion draft. I don't think the Blues have anybody who has played much time this year at all that wouldn't be eligible to be drafted.

Capfriendly has a good tool to use for the expansion draft: https://www.capfriendly.com/expansion-draft/seattle
Just click on the Blues logo and either go 7f/3d/1g or 8 skaters + 1 goalie.
That's the site I was working off of. It notes "Players who meet or are projected to meet the exposure requirements are highlighted in green", and none of the 2021 RFA's are in green, so I assumed they do not meet the exposure requirements.

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Re: St. Louis Blues 2020-21 Offseason and Season

Post by GeddyWrox »

Found this article that does some speculation on who we will protect and who the Kraken might wind up poaching from us:

https://thehockeywriters.com/blues-prot ... ion-draft/
The Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft is set to take place on July 21, 2021, and the St. Louis Blues will likely lose a quality player, similar to when they lost David Perron to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. With the amount of money that expansion franchises spend to enter the NHL these days, they have a better chance to start with a quality club, as Vegas did.

The Expansion Draft Rules
First of all, players with no-movement clauses within their contracts must be protected if they don’t waive the clause, fortunately, the Blues don’t have any. To add onto that, all first and second-year players don’t have to be protected, as well as unsigned draft choices.

It comes down to the fact that teams can protect either eight skaters and a goaltender, or seven forwards, three defensemen and a goaltender.

If you look at notable players and prospects that the Blues won’t have to protect, there are F Klim Kostin, F Jake Neighbours, F Nikita Alexandrov, F Alexei Toropchenko, D Scott Perunovich, G Joel Hofer, G Colten Ellis.


Kraken Expansion Draft: Blues Protection List

F – Ryan O’Reilly
This is an obvious choice, O’Reilly has done nothing but succeed since being dealt to the Blues by the Buffalo Sabres. He’s won a Selke Trophy, a Conn Smythe, and a Stanley Cup – not too shabby in three seasons of work. To cap it off, he’s having his best point-per-game season at 0.98, his previous best was 0.94 in his first season with the Blues in 2018-19.

F – Vladimir Tarasenko
I did go back and forth with this one, I will admit. Tarasenko has not looked the same since the Cup win in 2019 and his shoulder injuries have definitely affected him greatly, but I don’t see the Blues not protecting one of the franchise’s biggest names, whether they’re right or not.

F – Brayden Schenn
Schenn has had his fair share of struggles in the last couple of seasons, but he’s remained the second-best center on the club after they traded for him in 2017 from the Philadelphia Flyers. He signed an eight-year extension early into last season. He isn’t going anywhere.

F – David Perron
The Blues won’t make this mistake again – they left Perron exposed in the 2017 Vegas Expansion Draft, and he played one season there. He helped lead them to an appearance in the Cup Final before signing a free-agent deal to return to St. Louis. He’s a key forward for the Blues, finishing second on the team in points in 2019-20 with 60.

F – Oskar Sundqvist
This is an important one – while he’s missed a lot of this season due to a torn ACL, Sundqvist is a key player to the Blues’ success over the last few seasons. He kills penalties and he produces, he plays a 200-foot game and is one of the better overall forwards that the Blues have.

F – Robert Thomas
Another obvious one – Thomas is one of the bright, young stars on the Blues roster. His playmaking ability is off the charts, the only question is health. He hasn’t stayed healthy in any of his first few NHL seasons, but if he can be healthy, he is easily a top-six forward for the Blues going forward.

He tallied over 30 assists in his first two seasons, and I’m expecting him to bounce back during a full season that we should see in 2021-22.

F – Jordan Kyrou
Kyrou is another budding young star in the Blues organization – he got off to a tremendous start to this season but has fallen off since. He still has the skill and talent to be a constant top-six forward for the club going forward, he’ll be fine.

Once he finds chemistry with a line, he’ll begin to be a consistent scorer – he’s got 26 points in 45 games this season and that is after a brutal stretch recently.

D – Colton Parayko
Parayko was supposed to become the No. 1 defenseman for the Blues with Pietrangelo’s departure, but health has held him back this season. He can still be that and he remains an important part of the Blues’ future. His current contract ends after the 2021-22 season, his current cap hit of $5.5 million is reasonable.

D – Torey Krug
Although Krug hasn’t produced to the best of his ability in his first season with the Blues, he is still a big piece on the back-end. I have to think the Blues wouldn’t give him a long-term deal if he wasn’t in their future plans. He is here to stay unless something crazy happens.

D – Justin Faulk
This is a tough one – Faulk has vastly improved from last season to this season, and you could argue he’s been the best overall blueliner for the Blues in 2020-21. The narrative going into this season was Blues fans hoping that the Kraken would take him and his contract in the Expansion Draft, but I don’t think he’ll even be exposed.

I went back and forth between him and Vince Dunn, but I went with Faulk with the amount of term he has and his bounce-back season has proven he is reliable in all three zones. He has played tons of minutes and has proven to be worth keeping, I expect that to happen.

G – Jordan Binnington
Not much explaining to do here, the Blues extended Binnington during the 2020-21 season, the extension runs through the 2026-27 season. No doubt he is the goaltender of the future in St. Louis. He hasn’t reached his 2018-19 level of his rookie season where he took the league by storm with a .927 save percentage (SV%).



Who Does Seattle take?
The notably exposed players: D Vince Dunn, F Jaden Schwartz, D Marco Scandella, F Sammy Blais, F Ivan Barbashev, D Niko Mikkola, D Jake Walman, F Mike Hoffman.

The Kraken have some great options to poach a player from the Blues – I expect them to look at a younger player that is a win-now type, and the perfect fit for that is Dunn. He is set to be a restricted free agent (RFA) this summer and will make some money on that new deal.

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