2021-2022 S Blues Multi-Purpose Thread Part 3

[LetsGoBLUES91]

Not sure if it was ever confirmed or not, but I though it was heavily speculated that we've never wanted that many early home games that would conflict with potential Cardinals playoff games. And I'd imagine the league tries to accommodate as many of those requests as possible for the sake of ratings and ticket sales.

Yea heard that before also and definitely understand it. I just figured maybe give us a big road trip to start or something. It's not really the home/away that pops out, it's the complete lack of games for the first 3-4 weeks of the year. I wish I could compare all teams to see if any other team's schedule looks like this but I don't have the time to manually do it.

I mean we don't start until the 15th for some reason (This may not bug anyone now, but trust me the week of October 9th it's going to drive you crazy), then for some reason we play ONE game the week after Halloween.

We will have played 9 games by November 7th. I can't wait to see how that looks in the standings on that day.

 

[The Note]

If he wants more money than they are paying him now or wants a contract over 5 years,

I don't feel like ROR asking for the market rate is really a reason to let the front office off the hook. He will certainly want one of those things without question, may likely want both, and will be well within his rights to do so. It can't really come as a surprise that a guy with a Selke and Smythe, has scored at a .87 pace during the regular season as a Blue and been one of the most consistent playoff performers will want a raise or more years even at 32 years old. He has no reason to take a discount or leave money on the table because if he hits UFA some team will 100% meet his asking price. Kadri just got 7x7 at 31 yrs old (32 next month) and, outside of this past season, has never had much of an argument for being a better player than ROR. You're either paying ROR a higher number over a shorter period of time (which has been counter to DA's strategy of giving guys contracts that will age like milk to keep the AAV down) or a similar number over 7-8 years. Offering him a $6.5x4 contract or something is an unserious effort to keep him around. We can disagree about whether they should add yet another contract that will take a guy well into his 30's, but that is what it is going to take.

 

[BlueDream]

I am very worried about losing ROR. Anytime the Blues sign a pending UFA, it has happened before the season. Anytime they start the season with a key UFA still unsigned (Backes, Petro, Perron, Schwartz, etc) that player ends up walking. So the clock is ticking on O'Reilly.

People can say Armstrong can trade this guy and trade that guy to make room, but so far that hasn't really been Armstrong's style to do that.

So yeah, if we lose ROR while we still have Krug and his contract on the team, I'll be pretty sick about that.

 

[bleedblue1223]

We don't really need to trade anyone to keep ROR, the big thing is simply down to what kind of contract he wants. Army probably didn't hold serious or any talks until Thomas and Kyrou were done, but I also doubt that ROR is open to a friendly deal of 3 years or 6-7M.

If ROR wants a NMC or long-term or a crazy high salary, all of which he could reasonably argue for, then I'm not sure he comes back.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

The team just announced Scandella had hip surgery and is out six months

 

[Bluesnatic27]

The team just announced Scandella had hip surgery and is out six months

And the Blues season has officially started.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Well now..... that's one way to get under Cap.

 

[bleedblue1223]

And it happened during the off-season, so that explains why we had 8 guys signed and no trades.

 

[Reality Czech]

I am very worried about losing ROR. Anytime the Blues sign a pending UFA, it has happened before the season. Anytime they start the season with a key UFA still unsigned (Backes, Petro, Perron, Schwartz, etc) that player ends up walking. So the clock is ticking on O'Reilly.

People can say Armstrong can trade this guy and trade that guy to make room, but so far that hasn't really been Armstrong's style to do that.

So yeah, if we lose ROR while we still have Krug and his contract on the team, I'll be pretty sick about that.

When all is said and done, I don't think the Blues will regret not signing any of the 4 guys you mentioned. Petro is already slowing down going into year 3 of his deal, love Schwartz but the guy can't stay healthy and the Blues have more than enough firepower to make up for Perron's absence. Let's not forget that at least 3 of those players rejected a Blues offer to seek more money elsewhere.

I certainly hope we can find a way to bring ROR back, but the player has a lot of say in that decision as well. Does he want to remain a leader of this group, or try to get as much as he can from another team? Army prioritizes guys who want to be here and doesn't sit on his hands if a player wants to wait til the last minute. Krug is a heart and soul guy and wants to be here...he doesn't deserve most of the criticism he gets from fans but I guess people need a scapegoat.

 

[ValHaller]

Scandella getting hip surgery and will be re-evaluated in 6 months. The timing is so transparently tuned to be helpful for the team that I can't bring myself to believe this is not by design.

 

[bleedblue1223]

 

[PeoriaBlues309]

I have a feeling we’re gonna trade for Puljujarvi for that 3RW spot. Edmonton is desperate for cap space to sign McLeod, and to fill out more than a 21 man roster.

 

[PocketNines]

I don't feel like ROR asking for the market rate is really a reason to let the front office off the hook. He will certainly want one of those things without question, may likely want both, and will be well within his rights to do so. It can't really come as a surprise that a guy with a Selke and Smythe, has scored at a .87 pace during the regular season as a Blue and been one of the most consistent playoff performers will want a raise or more years even at 32 years old. He has no reason to take a discount or leave money on the table because if he hits UFA some team will 100% meet his asking price. Kadri just got 7x7 at 31 yrs old (32 next month) and, outside of this past season, has never had much of an argument for being a better player than ROR. You're either paying ROR a higher number over a shorter period of time (which has been counter to DA's strategy of giving guys contracts that will age like milk to keep the AAV down) or a similar number over 7-8 years. Offering him a $6.5x4 contract or something is an unserious effort to keep him around. We can disagree about whether they should add yet another contract that will take a guy well into his 30's, but that is what it is going to take.

This is exactly it. There are multiple players whose contract can be defended. Thomas' contract is defensible relative to the market. Kyrou, well, we all hope he grows up and becomes a big boy because they gave him the money before he is. But let's assume that a person thinks Kyrou's contract is a good one. The bottom line is the architect is preferring and choosing the valid contracts for certain players over the valid contracts for other players.

The cap is supposed to be going up again in the not-distant future. Players who actually truly earn their money like ROR have an absolute right to be aware they earn their money based on production instead of projection.

 

[AVictoryDive]

Looks like scandella is having hip surgery and will be reevaluated in 6 months.

 

[PocketNines]

PK (Scandella) and PP (Perron) taking a huge hit in the offseason.

Going to see a lot of Perunovich. Mikkola can establish his value as a PK player.

 

[TK 421]

I feel bad for Marco and bad for us as fans, was really looking forward to having him healthy to start the year. We now have at least one guy in as a regular that I don't trust whether it's Mikkola or Perunovich.

 

[PocketNines]

I feel bad for Marco and bad for us as fans, was really looking forward to having him healthy to start the year. We now have at least one guy in as a regular that I don't trust whether it's Mikkola or Perunovich.

From a fan standpoint, we would really like to know ASAP whether Perunovich can supplant Krug, freeing up $$ that could allow the team to remain competitive after this season

 

[BlueDream]

When all is said and done, I don't think the Blues will regret not signing any of the 4 guys you mentioned. Petro is already slowing down going into year 3 of his deal, love Schwartz but the guy can't stay healthy and the Blues have more than enough firepower to make up for Perron's absence. Let's not forget that at least 3 of those players rejected a Blues offer to seek more money elsewhere.

I certainly hope we can find a way to bring ROR back, but the player has a lot of say in that decision as well. Does he want to remain a leader of this group, or try to get as much as he can from another team? Army prioritizes guys who want to be here and doesn't sit on his hands if a player wants to wait til the last minute. Krug is a heart and soul guy and wants to be here...he doesn't deserve most of the criticism he gets from fans but I guess people need a scapegoat.

I'm not saying the Blues will regret not signing any of them. My main point is that I'm not quite sure this current model of letting all of our players walk is sustainable at all. When you factor in that O'Reilly, Tarasenko and Barbashev could be joining that group next Summer, that is becoming a shit ton of talent that we are losing in free agency, and I don't think we have the pipeline to efficiently replace all of it. It's not a very good model to continue doing.

Next, O'Reilly is clearly more valuable to the team than Krug, and much harder to replace. I'm not making anyone a scapegoat, that's just a fact.

 

[TK 421]

From a fan standpoint, we would really like to know ASAP whether Perunovich can supplant Krug, freeing up $$ that could allow the team to remain competitive after this season

Message to Perunovich

 

[BlueDream]

I feel bad for Marco and bad for us as fans, was really looking forward to having him healthy to start the year. We now have at least one guy in as a regular that I don't trust whether it's Mikkola or Perunovich.

But we need to see what those guys have.

You never root for injuries but this actually isn't a bad thing at all so I don't feel bad for anyone. Perunovich and Mikkola need NHL minutes so that we can finally figure out if they are good or not. Scandella was not doing anything but blocking them.

He's still an NHL player, but Scandella is literally a cap dump that we weren't able to dump. This completely solves our cap and roster issues. Blessing in disguise.

 

[joe galiba]

Yea heard that before also and definitely understand it. I just figured maybe give us a big road trip to start or something. It's not really the home/away that pops out, it's the complete lack of games for the first 3-4 weeks of the year. I wish I could compare all teams to see if any other team's schedule looks like this but I don't have the time to manually do it.

I mean we don't start until the 15th for some reason (This may not bug anyone now, but trust me the week of October 9th it's going to drive you crazy), then for some reason we play ONE game the week after Halloween.

We will have played 9 games by November 7th. I can't wait to see how that looks in the standings on that day.

That is 9 games in 27 days, or every third day on average
Ducks 9 games in the same time frame
Arizona 8 games
Bruins 10 games by the 1st, then 9 days off, same for Buffalo and Carolina
Calgary 7 games
Hawks 9 games

I stopped there

 

[Reality Czech]

I'm not saying the Blues will regret not signing any of them. My main point is that I'm not quite sure this current model of letting all of our players walk is sustainable at all. When you factor in that O'Reilly, Tarasenko and Barbashev could be joining that group next Summer, that is becoming a shit ton of talent that we are losing in free agency, and I don't think we have the pipeline to efficiently replace all of it. It's not a very good model to continue doing.

Next, O'Reilly is clearly more valuable to the team than Krug, and much harder to replace. I'm not making anyone a scapegoat, that's just a fact.

That's why I said part of it is up to the player. It's not simply a case of the Blues "letting players walk." Perron, Backes and Petro received fair offers from the Blues and chose to seek better offers. If the alternative is overpaying for talent, then I'm ok with letting them cash in elsewhere.

As for replacing the talent, Thomas and Kyrou have evolved into first line players. We've added Saad and Buchnevich. We have gotten more than our money's worth out of Barbashev, who I never expected to be a 20-goal scorer. There aren't many teams who've had more depth than us in recent years, so we've done a good job of replacing talent that left up to this point. Whatever happens with Barby, Tarasenko and even O'Reilly, the Blues have gotten a lot of value out of these players up to this point. Even if they walk for nothing, it doesn't cancel out all of the value they have brought to the team up so far.

We will see what happens with O'Reilly, but each situation is different. There is no way to keep all of these players while also giving raises to young up-and-coming talent. And it's not realistic to trade every single UFA to-be before they walk. If you don't like the current model, then what model would you like to see instead?

 

[STL fan in MN]

6 months from now would be late March. I would be shocked if he didn’t have a small complication that would delay his return to…oh, let’s say April 14th. And then have him on hand as an option in the playoffs.

I wouldn’t bother adding a guy now. Just bank the cap space and use it at the trade deadline for something better. Go with what we have now and add if a need shows itself.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

Six months would be a pretty quick recovery from hip surgery, but given the cap ramifications, I think it's highly unlikely we're going to see a "miracle recovery" here. He won't see the ice during the regular season.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

6 months from now would be late March. I would be shocked if he didn’t have a small complication that would delay his return to…oh, let’s say April 14th. And then have him on hand as an option in the playoffs.

I wouldn’t bother adding a guy now. Just bank the cap space and use it at the trade deadline for something better. Go with what we have now and add if a need shows itself.

It's also worth waiting a bit into the season to see who might be put on the block from teams falling out of the playoff picture.