St Louis Blues 2021-22 offseason and season

[JCShutout]

If you can fit those two (saad and Schwartz) in at around 10-11m combined (I’d prefer 9-10, but I always underestimate fa contracts) then you are back to having a pretty deep top 9.

Bozak back at 2m or so really makes the team deep.

[Popeye_Card]

Deep, but without a Tank in the lineup, lacking an elite scorer. It was nice to be able to count on one likely “Tarasenko game” in each playoff series where he just took over.

With that said, I’m not sure if we’ll see that Tarasenko consistently again.

[cardsfantx]

Deep, but without a Tank in the lineup, lacking an elite scorer. It was nice to be able to count on one likely “Tarasenko game” in each playoff series where he just took over.

With that said, I’m not sure if we’ll see that Tarasenko consistently again.

We’ve been without him for basically 2 years and been ok. We were great in 2020 without him, but that Covid break seemed to screw us up and never could get on track.

He did have 17 points in the 2019 Stanley cup playoffs, so yeah. When he’s good, he’s really good (of course krug outscored him lol, so we got that going for us. Which is nice.)

[cardsfantx]

And with 3 shoulder surgeries, in a sport like hockey where you’re constantly getting checked (or checking someone else) in the boards, I agree that I think that guy is probably gone.

And at 7.5 mil cap hit, I’m ok with someone else taking that risk.

We won’t get anyone as good as tarasenko was when he was great, but I think that cap can be better used elsewhere.

[JCShutout]

Yeah, I think you have to look at it as, any legit scoring line player upgrades the blues to more than what they had these last two seasons. (I know we had Hoffman, but he didn’t fit the blues system) As tx said, the blues did very well in 2020 without tank (Schwartz had a solid year that year, which is why I’m coming back around to him - and another winger-saad, assuming landeskog is too expensive)

Also in 2020 they had petro, duh, but parayko was healthy (we basically lost our top 2 dmen last year. That’s a big deal), and sundqvist was healthy and rolling, and I think he’s a key player. Makes the third line hell to play against, but can also play on a scoring line as a supplementary piece.

I know there are always injuries, and losing Dunn makes us weaker depth wise on d, but a top9 of ror, Perron, schenn, Schwartz, saad, kyrou, Thomas, sunny, and blais (with Sanford, klostin Barbie, and bozak potentially able to jump up to the third line or maybe higher (blais, sometimes Sanford) … that’s really good. One of those lines will get a good matchup and cause havoc on any given night.

Or at least it’s likely as good as the blues have a reasonable chance to get, and with a smart reload, I still see a small window of 2-3 years. Maybe not THE top contender, but competitive and annoying to play against.

Edit: I’m assuming tkachuk is a pipe dream and too expensive, and that Calgary would match any offer when he is a rfa.

[Popeye_Card]

2-8 in the playoffs the last two years, without classic Tarasenko. That’s my concern.

Saad plus Schwartz would be fine. But I fear it would lead to same old Blues come playoff time. In the Cup playoffs, there was a Tank Game in both the Dallas (Game 1) and Sharks (game 5) series where he controlled the game.

It will be nearly impossible to replicate that, but it will be missed. Thankfully, ROR has the occasional game where he takes over, but that is more via guts than sheer skill.

[JCShutout]

I kinda wonder if Covid world is really bad for a team like the blues that relies on outworking opponents and playing a tight system. Less practice time and maybe less cardio/endurance training having an effect maybe.

[cardsfantx]

There’s a lot of decent FA forwards, so it looks like SEA is loading up on D and signing FA forwards

Which of course sucks for us

[Leroy]

I didn't see playoff losses as not scoring enough, I saw them as not stopping the other team.

Also:

NEVER FORGET

[st.lewis11]

I'd like for us to go after a big-bodied shut-down defenseman.