2024-2025 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread.

[mk80]

I’ve always liked Faksa with the Stars so I’m interested to see him in a blue note. The Joseph trade is also a good one imo. And both could be trade chips at the deadline too.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Not the brothers I expected loo

 

[kimzey59]

I saw 1 year $950K from EF

Yeah, they just changed it.
And it's gone to a 1-way deal.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

Good length on the Buch contract. The re-tool wasnt dependent on selling him. I like it as it gets us back to contention sooner than later. I think we still need to hit on Jiricek and our pick next year to give us the best overall window moving forward. And now with the extension i REALLY wish we coulda found a way to move up for Dickinson/Buium. But with unknown variables, its impossible to truely play what if. Here's to hoping all our top prospects hit their celiling and we get to enjoy another decade of playoff hockey starting in 2026.

 

[tfriede2]

Good length on the Buch contract. The re-tool wasnt dependent on selling him. I like it as it gets us back to contention sooner than later. I think we still need to hit on Jiricek and our pick next year to give us the best overall window moving forward. And now with the extension i REALLY wish we coulda found a way to move up for Dickinson/Buium. But with unknown variables, its impossible to truely play what if. Here's to hoping all our top prospects hit their celiling and we get to enjoy another decade of playoff hockey starting in 2026.

I think our 2025 1st is absolutely trade bait for a top 4 D. Not until next off-season, though. DA wants to accelerate the retool, which can be done, just have to be careful.

 

[PocketNines]

Had a feeling Blues and Seattle have become season opening / closing partners. Game 1 and 81 in Seattle over 6 months apart

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I’ve always liked Faksa with the Stars so I’m interested to see him in a blue note. The Joseph trade is also a good one imo. And both could be trade chips at the deadline too.

Yep. Faksa is still a good player. He was just way overpaid for his role and scratched for better line combos.

 

[Celtic Note]

Yeah all things considered this definitely takes the sting out of the Hayes deal. If we could get a third for Faksa at the deadline even better

I would rather have a 2nd than 2 thirds, especially if that second is high in the round. You can get good players that slip out of the 1st round. The success rate is higher with seconds and also fairly higher values in trades.

 

[Celtic Note]

Dom at Athletic actually thinks it's a perfect extension for both sides, and he hates us.

Maybe that’s why he likes it then?

 

[TheDizee]

Blues have 10 bottom 6 forwards now

 

[DatDude44]

Blues have 10 bottom 6 forwards now

#Depth

 

[Celtic Note]

I'd have preferred a touch less (either 1 fewer year or an AAV in the mid-to-high 7s on a 6 year deal), but I have no problem with the finances of the deal. I'd absolutely, unambiguously prefer this deal to a ton of other deals given out yesterday. I see the argument for trading him instead if the return was massive, but without knowing a potential 'this haul was on the table' detail I can't say that was automatically the best move. A likely-late 1st and a B-tier prospect don't move the needle for me much compared to this extension.

He makes everyone he plays with better and even if he starts to decline before we've truly re-opened a window, I think that trait is a massive, tangible benefit to developing the young players who will be the next core. Years 1 and 2 of this deal are the years I think all of us expect Dvorsky, Snuggy, and Bolduc to really bully their ways into the middle and top 6. That's a lot of guys learning to defend and drive play at the NHL level at one time and Kyrou is not a guy who will help cover them defensively. Neither is Schenn. Saad may or may not be able to do it in 2025/26 and will almost certainly not be back after that. Without Buch, Thomas would have been the only top 6 caliber producer that could also help cover rookie mistakes.

I don't think I can overstate the value of having a guy like Buch to help cover for those rookies on whatever line Thomas isn't on as our wave of young forwards ease into the NHL. I think there is a real argument that Buch earns this money (and future tough cap considerations) simply by what he does to help the next wave of forwards in the first 2 years of the deal.

I'm not jumping up and down since trading him was a path to accumulate assets, but I'm pretty pumped that I can pull the trigger on the #89 I've been wanting to throw on the blank jersey sitting in my closet.

I think the assets that we could have acquired would be close to what you suggest. But I see additional opportunity cost. Remove Buch and you likely loose at least a handful of games that you would have otherwise. That’s not insignificant draft spots. And as we saw this draft, a few spots can make a sizable difference in who you have a chance to draft. If next year is supposed to be better than this years draft, you now have one less asset in that draft and also one lessor asset. You also cannot use the 1st acquired for a trade nor Buch.

Look, I like Buch. I will enjoy watching him play for as long as he is still good. But, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the long term competitiveness of the club. I hope to be proven wrong there.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Jiricek signs ELC

 

[WeWentBlues]

I'm good with the extension and Blues aren't totally backed into a corner. Kyrou's NTC doesn't kick in until next summer so if a move to be made for a D upgrade, Armstrong has flexibility.

 

[Blanick]

Honestly one of my biggest concerns going into the season now is having Schenn penciled in as our 2C. Last year he struggled to effective at the 2C spot, that is why we tried shifting Buch there. Unless he has a resurgence I would prefer to see him as the 3C or middle six wing. Sadly it looks like the only way that happens is if Dvorsky makes the team as 2C or someone like Texier explodes on the scene and takes the spot away. As of right now I see the lineup penciled as such.

Buchnevich - Thomas -Kyrou
Neighbours - Schenn - Saad
XXXX1 - Texier - XXXX2
Toropchenko - Faksa - XXXX3

The XXXX indicate a spot to be determined in camp made up: Joseph, Kapanen, Sundqvist (injury), Dvorsky, Bolduc, Sylvegard and Walker.

On defense it is a little more straight forward, honestly I still expect another trade off the back end.

Leddy - Parayko
Krug - Faulk
Joseph/Peru - Kessel
Tucker

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I'm hoping Tex and POJ can hit the next level here next year. Both are still 25 or younger so if they can force their way into being good complimentary pieces that would go a long way.

 

[izzy]

I actually think the forward group is great with young replacements coming as well. I think the depth and top players can help mask Schenn as 2C

goaltending can be good, and Hofer will hopefully become a stud

but… defence is shaky and no fix. Jiricek and Lindstein are 3 years away if they pan out. There is no hope.

 

[Mike Liut]

Honestly one of my biggest concerns going into the season now is having Schenn penciled in as our 2C. Last year he struggled to effective at the 2C spot, that is why we tried shifting Buch there. Unless he has a resurgence I would prefer to see him as the 3C or middle six wing. Sadly it looks like the only way that happens is if Dvorsky makes the team as 2C or someone like Texier explodes on the scene and takes the spot away. As of right now I see the lineup penciled as such.

Buchnevich - Thomas -Kyrou
Neighbours - Schenn - Saad
XXXX1 - Texier - XXXX2
Toropchenko - Faksa - XXXX3

The XXXX indicate a spot to be determined in camp made up: Joseph, Kapanen, Sundqvist (injury), Dvorsky, Bolduc, Sylvegard and Walker.

On defense it is a little more straight forward, honestly I still expect another trade off the back end.

Leddy - Parayko
Krug - Faulk
Joseph/Peru - Kessel
Tucker

Bolduc is the one I want to see play every night. Im not sure Dvorsky is ready, but who knows, maybe he is. The others I don’t really care either way.

 

[Blanick]

I actually think the forward group is great with young replacements coming as well. I think the depth and top players can help mask Schenn as 2C

goaltending can be good, and Hofer will hopefully become a stud

but… defence is shaky and no fix. Jiricek and Lindstein are 3 years away if they pan out. There is no hope.

Honestly I think Lindstein could be closer.

 

[izzy]

Honestly I think Lindstein could be closer.

Maybe, be interesting to see how he does in the AHL first

 

[Mike Liut]

They interviewed a 6’4 blues center prospect on the radio. Never got to hear who he was.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Not a half bad contract for Buch

 

[bleedblue1223]

They interviewed a 6’4 blues center prospect on the radio. Never got to hear who he was.

Probably Peterson.

 

[Majorityof1]

I think the assets that we could have acquired would be close to what you suggest. But I see additional opportunity cost. Remove Buch and you likely loose at least a handful of games that you would have otherwise. That’s not insignificant draft spots. And as we saw this draft, a few spots can make a sizable difference in who you have a chance to draft. If next year is supposed to be better than this years draft, you now have one less asset in that draft and also one lessor asset. You also cannot use the 1st acquired for a trade nor Buch.

Look, I like Buch. I will enjoy watching him play for as long as he is still good. But, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the long term competitiveness of the club. I hope to be proven wrong there.

I'm with you on this. I like Buch a lot. But I wanted to trade him. I think he'll be on the down side of his peak when we are competitive gain. We made a few nice dpeth pick ups, a few could have some upside. But we still do not have any truly elite talent. I hope Lindstein, Dvorak, Jiricek etc can take an extra step and become that, but its not guaranteed. I think a few more bites at the top 10 draft pick apple would be helpful.

Re-signing Buch seems a pathway to mediocrity, maybe playoff level mediocrity, but mediocrity all the same. Until we fix our D, we aren't ever going to be more. The D we drafted will be half way through Buch's contract before they are middle pair capable, much less top pair.

 

[Blueston]

Don't like the Buch deal at all

When was the last significant Blues deal you did? I'm not trying to be a jerk, but you have been pretty negative on every move for a while. What would you have liked us to do this summer?