2024-2025 Blues Multi-Purpose Thread.

[TheOrganist]

Pretty dumb signing to begin with as most of us said at the time...good riddance.

 

[sfvega]

Yeah, could have just not bothered with him at all this year. But better late than never.

 

[Majorityof1]

Pretty dumb signing to begin with as most of us said at the time...good riddance.

Eh, it's a completely buriable contract. We are able to send him down with zero cap cost. We actually needed him. With Saad, Texier, Joseph and Thomas all missing time at various points. He's better than our call up options at the time.

I don't get the vitriol about a $1m 13th-15th forward when healthy. I get it from @Memento standpoint, re: his personal history. But from a pure hockey management view, what he brings vs what he costs, its in line with expectations. I don't think you can make an argument that not signing him would have materially affected our season for the better.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

To add onto what @Majorityof1 said, he was signed before we got deals done with Holloway, Texier, Joseph, and Faksa as well.

On July 1st, we needed bottom six depth. His contract for what he brings isn’t bad either.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

To add onto what @Majorityof1 said, he was signed before we got deals done with Holloway, Texier, Joseph, and Faksa as well.

Exactly. There was no opportunity cost. He literally didn't prevent us from acquiring better players.

 

[bleedblue1223]

And even in the long-run, I doubt his cash salary prevented Army from doing something else.

 

[BlueMed]

If Thomas is ready I'm very very very worried he was rushed

I don't think anyone really needs to be. When a player is injured, there is a process where the team physician re-evaluates the player and clears him to play again. Often times, the initial timeline is very conservative so players do come back sooner, but they have to pass certain tests before they can be allowed to return to full activity.

 

[TheOrganist]

Eh, it's a completely buriable contract. We are able to send him down with zero cap cost. We actually needed him. With Saad, Texier, Joseph and Thomas all missing time at various points. He's better than our call up options at the time.

I don't get the vitriol about a $1m 13th-15th forward when healthy. I get it from @Memento standpoint, re: his personal history. But from a pure hockey management view, what he brings vs what he costs, its in line with expectations. I don't think you can make an argument that not signing him would have materially affected our season for the better.

Vitriol? Nothing about this season would rise to the level of vitriol. He's a useless player who brings nothing of substance to a hockey team but vitriol? No.

 

[Frenzy31]

GMs don't set the lineups, but they can certainly try a force a coach's hand into playing certain players more. I do wonder if that was part of Army's rationale here other than, you know, Kapanen not being a very good hockey player.

Armstrong will try to work for deals that help players - Fabbri comes to mind. Kap wasn't getting any playing time and that really isn't good for a guy on a 1 year contract. There was no market for him via trade, and the Blues wouldn't have wanted to add an asset to help him move - so. Waiver makes sense.

If he isn't claim, he plays in the AHL and hopefully is able to add some scoring to the Tbirds.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I don't think anyone really needs to be. When a player is injured, there is a process where the team physician re-evaluates the player and clears him to play again. Often times, the initial timeline is very conservative so players do come back sooner, but they have to pass certain tests before they can be allowed to return to full activity.

And Hockey players are known to force themselves to play through injuries they shouldnt play through.

 

[SirPaste]

Armstrong will try to work for deals that help players - Fabbri comes to mind. Kap wasn't getting any playing time and that really isn't good for a guy on a 1 year contract. There was no market for him via trade, and the Blues wouldn't have wanted to add an asset to help him move - so. Waiver makes sense.

If he isn't claim, he plays in the AHL and hopefully is able to add some scoring to the Tbirds.

Bortuzzo last year to the Isles is another good example of this.

 

[BlueDream]

Eh, it's a completely buriable contract. We are able to send him down with zero cap cost. We actually needed him. With Saad, Texier, Joseph and Thomas all missing time at various points. He's better than our call up options at the time.

I don't get the vitriol about a $1m 13th-15th forward when healthy. I get it from @Memento standpoint, re: his personal history. But from a pure hockey management view, what he brings vs what he costs, its in line with expectations. I don't think you can make an argument that not signing him would have materially affected our season for the better.

Nobody is saying that not bringing him back means we would have been a playoff team or something.

People just don’t like him because he’s a useless player that does not provide anything more than an AHL player at this point (so no, we didn’t need him), and bringing him back was stupid because we already knew he sucked. Could have just tried someone new with that contract spot.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

DA finally took a Krapanen.

 

[Majorityof1]

Vitriol? Nothing about this season would rise to the level of vitriol. He's a useless player who brings nothing of substance to a hockey team but vitriol? No.

Vitriol may have been overstating it. But multiple people saying good riddance for a guy who has played in half our games and averaged 11 minutes seems excessive. Saying it was dumb to sign him for a nothing contract as a 13th forward seems excessive.

He was a depth signing. We were able to add other, better depth players. It pushed him down the chart, and now we are waiving him. I hope he clears so we have cheap depth fo rmore injuries, just in case, and aren't forced to call up young guys who aren't ready.

 

[Majorityof1]

Nobody is saying that not bringing him back means we would have been a playoff team or something.

People just don’t like him because he’s a useless player that does not provide anything more than an AHL player at this point (so no, we didn’t need him), and bringing him back was stupid because we already knew he sucked. Could have just tried someone new with that contract spot.

We have a contract spot open we didn't use, so that argument is moot. I'm not sure we could get a 20+ point guy who can PK for $1M. That's what Kap was last year and historically he was more of a 30 point guy.

He's worse this year, but so is the whole team. People were more than fine paying Toropchenko $1.7M and he has 4 points in 17 games, a far less pace than Kapanen had last year.

Look, I wanted Kap scratched to start the season. I wanted Bolduc playing over him. But when we got injuries, he's a better call up than Alexandrov, Sylvegard, McGing or Peca. Now he's going down. OK, it's the right call, but hardly worth celebrating.

 

[Brockon]

Could the Kapanen waive also be a paper transaction for cap savings gymnastics?

Not that we need the cap space currently, but if Army is already in a sell mindset, he could be attempting to maximize our available cap space for the TDL to allow us to retain a contract as a 3rd party or gain additional flexibility to take a bad contract in exchange for assets?

 

[BlueMed]

And Hockey players are known to force themselves to play through injuries they shouldnt play through.

So one minute we are talking about the Blues front office rushing Thomas back and the next minute we're talking about Robert Thomas forcing himself to play through an injury that hasn't fully healed? Those are two different things. Maybe have some faith in the professionals here.

 

[stl76]

Odd move. Maybe Thomas is back early…suppose that’s possible. Pure speculation, but I can't help but wonder if it’s something off ice related.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Odd move. Maybe Thomas is back early…suppose that’s possible. Pure speculation, but I can't help but wonder if it’s something off ice related.

Thomas was reported back practicing, so I’d think he’s close. I take this to mean Bolduc is staying up all year. I expected him to be the guy sent down when all the forwards were healthy.

Ooh another thought I had was that Dvorsky gets a call up taste. I don’t expect that, but it could be seen as a reward for his good play in the AHL, and a way to show him what he needs to work on.

 

[TheOrganist]

I didn't get to read the entire Dvorsky article in the PD but what does a callup 15 games into a pro career accomplish for a team mired in mediocrity? Let him follow the Conner McMichael trajectory and do his thing in the minors for most of the year and then hopefully he'll be ready to be a meaningful contributor in 2025-26 when the Blues finally look poised to take a step. Cup of coffee at the end of the year? Fine. But not even a quarter into the season? Makes zero sense.

 

[TheOrganist]

Vitriol may have been overstating it. But multiple people saying good riddance for a guy who has played in half our games and averaged 11 minutes seems excessive. Saying it was dumb to sign him for a nothing contract as a 13th forward seems excessive.

He was a depth signing. We were able to add other, better depth players. It pushed him down the chart, and now we are waiving him. I hope he clears so we have cheap depth fo rmore injuries, just in case, and aren't forced to call up young guys who aren't ready.

Perhaps the reaction is because were 3+ years into a rough era of Blues hockey and there are a lot of players that have filtered through the roster that I don't care for and don't enjoy watching as a fan. Kapanen is an embodiment. I would much rather watch a young guy like Bolduc try to develop at the NHL level. Does it REALLY matter significantly to the Blues plight, long-term or short? No. But I'm quite happy he's gone for the reasons mentioned.