Offseason Review: Aging Roster & Inner Turmoil Has Blues At Crossroads
The St. Louis Blues are a shell of the team that won the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup back in 2019.
As time has gone on, players have gotten older and less effective and some key players from that championship team have moved on. Most notably, the Blues failed to ink captain Alex Pietrangelo to a long-term deal and he wound up leaving the team in free agency to join the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Blues’ first Pietrangelo-less season was forgettable, as the team squeezed into the playoffs with a 27-20-9 record and got easily swept aside in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche. A big reason the Blues even made the playoffs was because of how weak the bottom teams in the division were.
St. Louis will move from the top-heavy West Division back to a deep Central Division and another playoff appearance is far from a guarantee.
What happened in 2021?
St. Louis not managing to get Pietrangelo inked to a long-term deal was a real shocker.
After captaining the team to its first-ever Stanley Cup, it seemed automatic that the Blues’ top priority would be ensuring he spent the rest of his career in St. Louis. While the Blues ensured that other players like Brayden Schenn and Jordan Binnington were locked up, they allowed Pietrangelo to reach free agency and he wound up leaving.
Perhaps the strangest part of the whole situation was that the Blues have spent $13,000,000 on Justin Faulk and Torey Krug, a pair of defenders who aren’t capable of taking on the role that Pietrangelo did.
Regardless, Pietrangelo is now a Golden Knight and the Blues felt the effects of losing their top defender last season. During their Stanley Cup season, the Blues boasted the fifth-best expected goals for percentage in the league, per Natural Stat Trick. Fast-forward to 2021, and St. Louis fell all the way to 26th.
The Blues overachieved their peripheral numbers last season and managed to make the playoffs in the West Division largely because the teams beneath them (Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Anaheim) were so awful.
What did they do in the offseason?
Notable Additions: Brandon Saad, Pavel Buchnevich, Logan Brown, James Neal.
Notable Subtractions: Jaden Schwartz, Vince Dunn, Sammy Blais, Zach Sanford, Mike Hoffman, Carl Gunnarsson, Alex Steen.
The Blues suffered a few more losses this offseason, though none as large as the Pietrangelo exodus.
They lost Vince Dunn to the Kraken in the Expansion Draft and Jaden Schwartz also joined Seattle in free agency. Mike Hoffman, who had a nice showing on a one-year deal in 2021, left to join the Montréal Canadiens. Alex Steen and Carl Gunnarsson both retired.
The Blues pulled the trigger on a couple of trades over the summer, sending Zach Sanford to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for former first-round draft pick Logan Brown, and they moved Sammy Blais and a second-round pick for a skilled winger in Pavel Buchnevich.
St. Louis’ big free-agent addition this offseason came when it inked Brandon Saad to a five-year dea,l with a very reasonable $4,500,000 annual cap hit. Saad had a solid year with the Avalanche in 2021, scoring 15 goals and 24 points over 44 games, but his 22.1 shooting percentage suggests some regression might be inevitable.
Still, Saad has been an effective forward for years and adding him along with Buchnevich will help deepen an offense that was in the middle of the pack in 2021. The Blues will need that offence to help compensate for their ho-hum blue line.
The biggest wild-card attached to the Blues’ hopes of success is Vladimir Tarasenko, who has been limited to just 34 games over the past two seasons due to injury.
There was word that Tarasenko wanted out of St. Louis because he wasn’t happy with how the team handled his injury. He was left exposed to Seattle in the Expansion Draft and wasn’t selected. The Blues also couldn’t find a suitor for a trade, so he’ll remain on the team (for now).
Word is that Tarasenko looks as good as new after having surgery done on his shoulder. Him coming back at 100 per cent would be a huge boost for the Blues.
“Vlad’s shoulder is very stable and strong,” Tarasenko’s agent said back in July. “He told me it is more stable and stronger than it has felt in a long while. To me, it feels rock solid. There is no doubt, Vlad will be 100 percent ready for the upcoming season. I am confident he will be ready to play and that he will make a big impact for his team.”
What to expect in 2021-22?
As I mentioned earlier, the Blues have a tougher task in 2021-22 now that they’re back in the competitive Central Division.
Last year, the goal was pretty simple: finish ahead of some bad teams from the desert and California and you’ll make the playoffs. This year won’t be so simple.
The Avs, who won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2021, will come back to the Central Division as the team to beat. The Wild, who enjoyed a breakout season behind Calder Trophy winner Kirill Kaprizov, will be another contender.
And then there’s the Predators and Jets, both of whom were playoff teams in 2021, along with the Blackhawks, who went all-in this summer by acquiring Seth Jones and Marc-Andre Fleury. The Stars might be the weakest team on paper here and they’re two years removed from a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
So, yeah. This won’t be an easy battle for the Blues.
One bold prediction…
Vlad Tarasenko has a big season and leads the Blues in goals and points but it isn’t enough to get the team into the playoffs in the loaded Central Division. He winds up getting traded next offseason.
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