Blues 2024 Off-Season Trade Proposals Thread

[Reality Czech]

Personally I am not a fan of using IR to get out of contract you don't want, whether its for cap circumvention, cap space or whatever. I have been critical of other teams doing it so it would hypocritical of me to like this move for the Blues if that's what they are doing. If what Pagnotta is saying is true that Krug nixed another trade I could see Army signing all these 1 way defense contracts and telling Krug he is going to have to compete for ice time this year and possibly be waived. Then boom suddenly Krug has a mysterious injury that could keep him out for a long time.

The timing is going to arouse suspicion no doubt, although I really wonder if a player would willingly go on LTIR unless he had some fairly serious health issues. These guys are too much of competitors to just stop playing hockey if they are fit enough to play. Maybe guys at the end of their career would agree to it if they're near retirement, but I bet that most of these guys have legit reasons to go on LTIR.

I was extremely suspicious of the Hossa thing until I heard him interviewed on Spittin Chiclets and unless he's a very convincing actor and liar then I have to believe what he said about his skin condition and how debilitating it was. He wouldn't stop playing just to bail the Hawks out of cap hell despite how much I believed it at the time. I don't know that any NHL player would unless he simply lost his desire to play or was actually injured.

That being said, if Krug's got a nagging ankle injury then it could explain why his play has been worse these past two years. It could be a situation where he could technically play on it, but if a guy is only at 50-75% of his potential then it makes sense to put him on the shelf. Regardless the timing is very interesting, and it makes a lot more sense why Army was shopping for d-men this summer.

 

[Shwabeal]

The timing is going to arouse suspicion no doubt

Why though? It’s not like they made a signing or trade that put them over the cap and then announced this. They have over $7million in cap space currently. I don’t even know why they would put Krug on LTIR, they aren’t going to use the space.

 

[BlueDream]

Trying to trade a player that could possibly miss the entire season. Not a good look.

Highly doubt that’s the case. We don’t even know any details about potential trade talks that happened and if they did happen, I would bet that it was before the Blues knew about this injury.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Not really any cap relief. At least not with where they’re currently at with the Cap. LTIR allows you to replace the cap by the amount you go over the Cap. The Blues were around $7M under the cap so this wouldn’t even take them over the cap.

This would really only help them with cap space if they were pressed up against the cap limit as is.

However, if they were able to make some sort of trade that’d add about $7M to the cap (somehow trading for a ~ $8M AAV player who would then replace someone at the bottom making $775k to around $1M) then they would be able to take advantage of additional cap space.

Does it change who is paying for the actual contract? (Does insurance pay him?)

 

[STL fan in MN]

Does it change who is paying for the actual contract? (Does insurance pay him?)

YES.

If he goes on LTIR that is. The Blues would almost certainly have his contract insured. I forget the exact details but the last I saw, most NHL contracts are insured that after they miss X number of games, insurance pays 80% of the remaining portion. I forget how many games the player has to miss. Maybe 20ish? So insurance wouldn’t cover all of it but it’d cover a very large portion, saving the team real money, even if it doesn’t really help in terms of the Cap.

 

[SirPaste]

Trying to trade a player that could possibly miss the entire season. Not a good look.

Not necessarily, we don’t really know any details. It’s entirely possible that the Blues weren’t aware yet of the severity. Even more likely is that until just last week the Ducks were under the salary floor so they probably just didn’t care and wanted to get him to get to the floor. We probably won’t ever know the exact details as JR didn’t even seem to be aware of it happening

 

[Meatwagon]

I don’t think there’s any malice or some sort Hossa comparison. It’s probably nagged him for awhile and now that he’s probably skating hard as players are ramping up for camp, he realized there was something significantly wrong and went to the docs and this was the diagnosis.

 

[MissouriMook]

This is interesting, it’s Pagnotta but still

https://x.com/i/web/status/1813321251407933534

I wonder if there isn’t some truth to this. I could see a scenario where Army contacted Krug to see if he would waive for Anaheim and Krug let him know that he likely wouldn’t pass the physical to shut down the discussion.

 

[Drubilly]

I wonder if there isn’t some truth to this. I could see a scenario where Army contacted Krug to see if he would waive for Anaheim and Krug let him know that he likely wouldn’t pass the physical to shut down the discussion.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

@BlueDream & @SirPaste totally fair (and similar) points.

I just find it hard to believe that everyone in the FO was unaware of an ankle issue with Krug.

 

[Celtic Note]

I would be pretty surprised if that was the case. In JR's article he said the Blues announced "The club said in a statement that the injury is “a cumulative result of a bone fracture suffered earlier in his playing career.” So it seems its an actual injury.

I do think there is a good chance he misses this season but I doubt he is going to go the LRIRetired route.

I feel like you could find something in most players if you looked. I went to a pretty renowned spinal surgeon who told me I have some spinal degeneration in my spine. He noted it’s pretty common for people and most spines by mid thirties have some form of degenerative damage.

Sucks for Krug if it would indeed be a career ender, but in terms of salary cap relief it would open a nice chunk of change up for us moving forward.

Does it suck? He gets to collect a paycheck and do nothing. There are many of us that have some form of pain that have to put up with it on the daily just to work and get paid almost nothing in comparison.

He may very well have said I know I have some arthritis so I am going to use that chip and spend time with my family.

 

[Xerloris]

I feel like you could find something in most players if you looked. I went to a pretty renowned spinal surgeon who told me I have some spinal degeneration in my spine. He noted it’s pretty common for people and most spines by mid thirties have some form of degenerative damage.


Does it suck? He gets to collect a paycheck and do nothing. There are many of us that have some form of pain that we have to put up on the he daily to work and get paid almost nothing in comparison.

He may very said I know I have some arthritis so I am going to use that chip and spend time with my family.

I think for any athlete it sucks. They dedicated their entire life to something that has a limited time frame to do.

 

[TurgPavs]

What professional hockey player his age doesn’t have this??

Seems like he’ll be LTIRd, possibly LTIRetired, because his ankle might one day develop arthritis…maybe.

This is hilarious.

It depends on what symptoms he has. Dale Hawerchuk was warned about his arthritic condition early in his 30's, and eventually progressed pretty quickly. You look at some athletes who "Battled" thru those early warnings, Joe Nameth, Mario, Gretz, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron. Those guys continued to play, and paid for it after their playing career.
I would imagine if he needs surgery, its might be to remove bones spurs, and if that is the case, those are extremely painful, from my experience at least.

 

[TurgPavs]

I mean, it is Krug, he was going to get injured at some point this season

I think you might have mis-spelled Perunovich.....

 

[Ranksu]

Do we have to attach a draft pick to move Krug or take back another bad contract?

Im fine with Krug now. Hold on draft picks. Our picks will get better If we have bad players like Krug or Faulk.

 

[TheOrganist]

Krug never had a chance from the start due to the perception among fans that he was Petro's "replacement." The fans were against him from the start and he didn't deserve all the hate he has received. Sure, he has his flaws like most players but he's a gamer and he clearly wanted to be here and be a St. Louis Blue. I feel bad for the guy, but hope whatever happens that it works out for him. Either he plays hockey or gets to spend a lot of quality time with his family.

I have nothing against the guy personally. I admire his story and he worked his balls off to make it to the show as an undersized guy who never had remotely close to elite mobility for his size. Kudos to him. He set his family up for a nice life…but it was a horrible contract. A boat anchor contract. And it’s good that we’re most likely turning the page.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Im fine with Krug now. Hold on draft picks. Our picks will get better If we have bad players like Krug or Faulk.

Wow! You've come full.....ahem......square.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I do wonder if we use any of Krug's LTIR cap space to gain assets for a cap dump.

 

[Eldon Reid]

I do wonder if we use any of Krug's LTIR cap space to gain assets for a cap dump.

I am really hoping Army uses all 3 retain salary slots this trade deadline. Get a few extra picks.

 

[Celtic Note]

I do wonder if we use any of Krug's LTIR cap space to gain assets for a cap dump.

Honestly, given the moves this off-season I would rather he do nothing. We are not improving enough to matter and we not getting bad enough to matter. Tinkering to gain a couple extra points with mediocre players and aging vets isn’t helping anything. And signing vets in hopes of dumping them at the deadline isn’t helping if it means our top picks are moving down in the draft order.

 

[HighNote]

I dont disagree with this at all.
I like Sanheim as well, but that contract could be rough.
Krug's NTC goes to a MTC next July 1st, so there could be a way to get out of it. Here's hoping he has a solid season this year.

Not more than 4 hours before the Krug tweet.

 

[Xerloris]

Honestly, given the moves this off-season I would rather he do nothing. We are not improving enough to matter and we not getting bad enough to matter. Tinkering to gain a couple extra points with mediocre players and aging vets isn’t helping anything. And signing vets in hopes of dumping them at the deadline isn’t helping if it means our top picks are moving down in the draft order.

I think he meant helping other teams out by using our cap space in exchange for assets like picks at the deadline.

 

[Celtic Note]

I think he meant helping other teams out by using our cap space in exchange for assets like picks at the deadline.

If we pick up these players, where do they fit on the roster and who do they displace? We have plenty of guys that need playing time to develop. If we hadn’t filled up the roster with such a significant amount of filler, I would have agreed. But given where we are, I think that boat passed for this season.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Even at a minimum, being a club that acts as a 3rd party to retain salary for the team ultimately acquiring the player and getting a pick as compensation. This is our first season where cap space is truly an asset for us.

 

[Majorityof1]

If we pick up these players, where do they fit on the roster and who do they displace? We have plenty of guys that need playing time to develop. If we hadn’t filled up the roster with such a significant amount of filler, I would have agreed. But given where we are, I think that boat passed for this season.

We don't necessarily have to play whoever we acquire. We could have them sit in the presbox or ride the bus. I think it is more about getting assets for the cap space then the player.