Blues 2025-2026 Trade Proposal Thread

[Falco Lombardi]

The issue for a Larkin trade is you'd have to beat out Minnesota's offer, which is probably going to be substantial as he perfectly fits their needs. He is also likely to favor going to Minnesota over STL due to the Hughes connection and their current contender status.

Beating Minnesota’s offer won’t be hard to be fair. They sold the house for Hughes. I’ve no doubts we could make a better offer. Don’t think it would be close honestly.

The problem is selling Larkin.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

I agree with the drafting portion, I’m not sure about the trading for vets. In my opinion if you win the lottery twice in that short of a time frame you should start to move more towards acquisitions vs accumulation. I think some of their targets were a bit confusing. But in reality I don’t think their team is that far off from being competitive. They definitely need a bit more scoring upfront and a bit harder to play against depth. You can make it work with skill up front without much jam, if you have a pain in the ass great bottom 6 and good defense. Their defense UFA signings are a bit questionable and frankly neither Hughes or Nemec have panned out to be that great as of yet. I think you can shelter one guy but I’m not sure sheltering two can work out that well and I’m assuming that’s what their line of thought was adding Kovacevic, Pesce and Dillon. Independently I don’t think bad moves, but when you’re trying to juggle Hamilton, Nemec and Luke Hughes it kind of makes it a cluster of thunder and lightning pairs as opposed to just good balanced pairs that have strengths and shortcomings. Their goaltending also just has to be better if they want to succeed. They can definitely go a route of fixing most of their problems in one offseason theoretically, but it’s going to likely take some unpopular moves within the fans who are hyper active on prospects, and don’t put alot of value into what a bottom 6 like Vegas or Carolina’s can do for you. It’s also really easy to mess that up, Toronto last offseason tried doing something similar but they discounted how much slower they had gotten and how poorly constructed their backend was.

This hasn't really ever worked out for anybody though. Buffalo tried it when they had Reinhart and Eichel, and it failed. Toronto tried it when they had Matthews, Nylander, and Marner, and it failed. Jersey tried it, and they failed. Edmonton did this for years through the Yakupov, Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, etc years, and are doing it again now through the Drai/McDavid years. Adding highly talented but inexperienced players does not fix a basement-dwelling team overnight. Teams that behave like it does are the boomerang lottery teams that end up firing their GMs for "mismanaging" the roster. It puts too much weight on the shoulders of guys that aren't ready to carry it yet, and then they get blamed for not elevating a lottery team into a cup contender overnight when their GMs go all-in.

Who is NJ's core? Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and ... Mercer maybe? Beyond them I just see a bunch of mercenaries and JAGs. To me, they came out of a rebuild with some really good players, but no team, and no long-term security. Their prospect pool is pathetic right now. And they tossed Nemec and Hughes into the deep end, expected them to be all-stars right away, and potentially ruined their long-term career prospects.

If you are a team that bottoms out, your best bet is to stay the course, even if you get your franchise stars in the draft. Let them work it out. Keep your assets, fill holes cheaply when needed, and keep the runways clear for your young guns to take the mantle. Patience. It will take at least 5 years. It worked out for us, it worked out for Florida, it worked out for Tampa, and so on and so on.

 

[Frenzy31]

Larkin probably goes to Minnesota to play for Guerin and in his home state because of course he will. He's got a full NTC too so he's holding those cards.

Of course, in a fantasy world where he just wants out and doesn't care where, hell yeah I'd sell the farm for him. He's a great player, exactly what we need and while he's just a little older than I'd like he's signed through the decade.

I remember when Detroit Fans were insisting on Werenski was going leave Columbus to move to Detroit because he and Larkin are friends. How funny would it be for him to move to Columbus????

 

[Louie the Blue]

No doubt. Other moves would need to be made and maybe Kyrou or a Lindstein+ for defenseman etc.

I realize we set a path to get younger last year (and we did!) but if an opportunity presents itself, I don’t think we’re THAT far away is all to where acquiring a 30 year old center is something we should auto say no to.

If we’re aggressive enough to pull off a double offer sheet, we’re aggressive enough to change course here while we have 3 first round picks plus some other attractive pieces

I think the wings are between 2-3 years away from making this team to be a solid contender, so not sure how close the team is to compete this year.

I also don’t think the cost is worth acquiring Larkin if there’s only a half assed upgrade at D.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I think the Blues could put together a solid package here. Not sure if Larkin sees the Blues as close to contending though.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I don’t see how Larkin makes us contenders. Maybe a playoff team, but not contenders. And given his age don’t think it makes sense for us.

 

[Reality Czech]

This is the moment we've all been waiting for. Are you ready to spend months fantasizing to just be disappointed that we didn't get him?

Yes

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Zero shot we get Larkin.

 

[Mike Liut]

Larkin won’t come here and we aren’t ready to put in the chips for a player like yet. Not yet.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Larkin is a great player, but I'd probably pass on him because there are a lot of warning lights already flashing on the dashboard.

The biggest issue for me is that he's lowkey bad at 5v5 - a LOT of his production the last couple of years comes from being one of the triggermen on the Wing's top 5 PP. He has been out-scored, out-chanced, and he's on the wrong side of the xGF side of the ledger at 5v5, while playing the vast majority of his minutes with Raymond as his primary winger and Seider as the primary D in his 5v5 minutes. Those years cover his age 27, 28, and 29 seasons. He will turn 30 by the start of next season. Now, there's an argument to be made that his role will be reduced here, and therefore his matchups might become easier, but there's also a very real possibility that the decline has started and we're only going to get 1-2 more really valuable years out of him.

I know I've harped on getting a 2C for months, but I simply don't think he's the right target at this juncture, unless he forces his way here and we give up a pittance to obtain him.

 

[Spektre]

Larkin is a good player, and it'd be nice to have him as a Blue, but he seems like he's slowing down a tad. He's turning 30 in little over a month from now. I think he continues to be a 60+ point player for a while. He's looking to win now which is understandable. That's not happening with the Blues. I don't think the cost to acquire him would be worth it either.

 

[Spektre]

Have to wonder how much everyone would be licking their chops now if the trade for Faulk would have netted Detroit's 2027 1st round pick instead of 2026.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

Been saying for three offseasons now that it's time to start criticizing the Yzer-plan. I imagine Red Wings fans will finally start to agree with me now that their captain is unable to buy into the long-term vision.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Trading for Larkin and having #15 be part of the package would be such a knife twist for Detroit fans.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

With Larkin asking for a trade that probably means Debrincat is also on his way out as well.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Been saying for three offseasons now that it's time to start criticizing the Yzer-plan. I imagine Red Wings fans will finally start to agree with me now that their captain is unable to buy into the long-term vision.

Yzerman has a lot to answer for. He's done mostly fine with his own early 1st round picks, but you can't play the, "We're going to draft and develop," card without coming up with some talent after your first pick in the draft. For instance, from 2019-2023, the Red Wings made 12 second round picks. Of those, only one has played even close to 150 games in the NHL, Albert Johanssen, and he graded out as one of the, if not THE WORST, Dmen in the league last year.

The revisionist history from Detroit fans is wild to me as well - a lot of fans will claim that Yzerman started with nothing. That is patently false - On the day he started the pipeline included a 9th overall in Rassmussen and a 6th overall in Zadina, as well as other recent first rounders in Cholowski, Evgeny Svechnikov, and Veleno, plus three other high 2nds in Berggren, McIssac, and Lindstrom. On the roster he had a budding Hronek, a 24 year old Mantha who had just put up back to back 20+ goal seasons where he paced for 50 points, a 23 year old Bertuzzi who just put up 20 goals and paced for 50 points, and then finally a 23 year old Larkin who was coming off a 30 goal 70 point performance.

Part of being a GM is drafting well, but another part is assessing your assets and ensuring that they are progressing as you expect them to, and moving on from them quickly if you see developmental hurdles they cannot overcome. Army has his faults, but he has always been -really- good about moving guys he doesn't believe quickly - Runblad and Bokk are two great examples. Yzerman took a reasonably decent pipeline and cratered it b/c he couldn't make quality assessments of those assets.

 

[AyeBah]

Trading for Larkin doesnt fix our aging bad d core

 

[BleedBlue14]

This hasn't really ever worked out for anybody though. Buffalo tried it when they had Reinhart and Eichel, and it failed. Toronto tried it when they had Matthews, Nylander, and Marner, and it failed. Jersey tried it, and they failed. Edmonton did this for years through the Yakupov, Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, etc years, and are doing it again now through the Drai/McDavid years. Adding highly talented but inexperienced players does not fix a basement-dwelling team overnight. Teams that behave like it does are the boomerang lottery teams that end up firing their GMs for "mismanaging" the roster. It puts too much weight on the shoulders of guys that aren't ready to carry it yet, and then they get blamed for not elevating a lottery team into a cup contender overnight when their GMs go all-in.

Who is NJ's core? Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and ... Mercer maybe? Beyond them I just see a bunch of mercenaries and JAGs. To me, they came out of a rebuild with some really good players, but no team, and no long-term security. Their prospect pool is pathetic right now. And they tossed Nemec and Hughes into the deep end, expected them to be all-stars right away, and potentially ruined their long-term career prospects.

If you are a team that bottoms out, your best bet is to stay the course, even if you get your franchise stars in the draft. Let them work it out. Keep your assets, fill holes cheaply when needed, and keep the runways clear for your young guns to take the mantle. Patience. It will take at least 5 years. It worked out for us, it worked out for Florida, it worked out for Tampa, and so on and so on.

I guess it's not fair just to put it all in a box and say one way fits best for all. 3 of those 4 teams you had listed did a terrible job of filling out the bottom 6 and the backend/goaltending.

Toronto thought it was prudent to blow a massive percentage of the cap on a Tavares in free agency instead of building below Matthews/ Marner/ Nylander and heavily neglected filling out their defense with any sort of push back, and the goaltending was pretty pedestrian up until recently where I feel like it's passable. But they also neglected their bottom 6 or formed it poorly.

Edmonton had a bit of other issues mainly in the net and then also with unfortunate injuries to Klefbom + Nurse really cratering, goaltending was terrible they really tried to piece it together with Campbell, Koskinen, Skinner and Talbot. I don't think they had any say in missing the playoffs though once McDavid arrived, but I guess they could've focused more on their backend instead of chasing Puljujaarvi and Yamamoto, but still they kept their draft picks or at least had 1st rounders all but 2 years since getting McDavid and those are recent years. Most of their mistakes were contractual, which they shouldn't have been when they have Connor McDavid even if it isn't a great market. They really haven't much solid of a bottom 6, shut down ability, or goaltending. I think those are 3 things are things you can fill through free agency or deadline trades (aside from a top defenseman) pretty easily.

Jersey's kind of in the same boat but they have less up front than the other two teams, and a better backend. But still lack a bottom 6 with some sort of identity and good goaltending.

Buffalo had some other issues pop up with ROR wanting out essentially, Eichel's injury issue causing a rift, etc. But they pretty much didn't have developed defense until they did, and have never had a good bottom 6 until recently where they made the playoffs which was in large part to a noted "overpay" for Ryan McLeod and bringing in guys like Malenstyn, Carrick, etc. It also helps that they finally let their defenseman develop a bit more and insulated them.

I think while going through most of those teams they all lack 2 or 3 of the following: Developed defense that can actually play tough competition and isn't just out putting up points, an identity within the bottom 6 that you can rely on, average to above average goaltending. That's kind of what I was pointing towards. I worry about a team like San Jose running down the same course because they are built from the front out. Now they have good prospects in net. They have a couple of ok prospects on defense. They probably should look to solidify the backend above accumulating more talent. I know it's really early in a Celebrini's career or a Smith or a Chernyshov etc. but you're going to get to a point where it's much much harder to fill in those holes because guys are going to get contract.

I think a team like Chicago is honestly best set up to make a run in the next 1-2 years if they add some firepower up front. They aren't going to get more out of a 4th overall pick than they would out of a top 6 forward right now with how their pool is.

I don't think either of these philosophies are wrong, but I'd rather not wait until the superstars are paid like superstars to start being a bit more aggressive. The main consistency of almost every cup team is hot goaltending, a bottom 6 that makes things miserable on other teams (Florida is more of a collective effort on this one).

 

[BrokenFace]

Looking back over the last several years, we overall are competing like a mushy middle team. I think we have enough intriguing youth to get out of it, but our younger-than-Thomas group needs to show they're more than just intriguing. They need to show they can at least make the playoffs better we start trading for 30 year olds.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

Larkin is rejecting any trade that isn't to a current contender. He's not leaving Detroit for another Detroit, he's going to want a team that is in it right now.

Surprised the conversation got this far before someone pointed out the obvious.

 

[PeoriaBlues309]

Detroit loses a lot of their leverage with the request now being public, and the fact that he has a full NTC.

People could question why he’d choose STL, but he has spent plenty of time around Perron/Tarasenko/Faulk/Fabbri/Walman/Leddy/Sundqvist over the last handful of years. I can almost guarantee he knows how wonderful it is to play in STL. There are a lot of players who rave about the city on that list.

I’d offer

Suter
Fowler (he’s from the area and previous interest from Yzerman iirc)
Fischer (family history w DET)
15th pick (you know he wants it back lol)
29th pick


Holloway-Thomas-Snuggerud
Buchnevich-Larkin-Kyrou
Stenberg-Dvorsky-Neighbours
Toropchenko-Finley/Dean-Kaskimaki/Peterson
Berggren, Walker

Broberg-Mailloux
Lindstein-Parayko
Oleskiak(or someone similar)-Jiricek
Tucker

Hofer
Binner


This is one of the rare scenarios where I keep Kyrou this summer. I’m tantalized at seeing him play with a center who can keep up with him, while still having the Thomas line take the hardest minutes.

Let him and Buch build their trade value back up.

If Carbonneau impresses enough in camp to make the roster, you push Otto down to the 4th line, and keep whoever would’ve won the roster spot between Kaski and Peterson down in Springfield.

 

[Fez Whatley]

I think the wings are between 2-3 years away from making this team to be a solid contender, so not sure how close the team is to compete this year.

I also don’t think the cost is worth acquiring Larkin if there’s only a half assed upgrade at D.

This isn't fully directed at you as I've seen a few posts about the defense. That being said, I'm not all that sure that the Blues d is the biggest issue. It's definitely below what I'd like to see and what we were used to from 2016-2020, but looking at the past cup winners this decade, they're clearly behind a stacked avs team and a bit behind the lightning. After those teams however, I think the current d is close enough with vgk and fla. I don't think d pairs are as important lately.

A 2c is this teams glaring weakness. Getting Larkin or someone similar would open the contention window imo. This current team with an above average 2c is a playoff team that could be poised to do damage in a weak western conference. I'm not saying that the Blues are a Dylan Larkin away from a cup, but if they acquired him, all that needs to be done is adding depth to the 4th line and 5/6 dman.

Buch - Thomas - snuggy
Holloway - Larkin - kyrou
Neighbors - dvorsky - (berg?)
Stenberg (?) - suter - xxx

Fowler - cp55
Bro - lm
Lidstein (?) - xxx

Yeah that d and the bottom 6 needs some shoring up, but nothing as significant as Larkin.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

This isn't fully directed at you as I've seen a few posts about the defense. That being said, I'm not all that sure that the Blues d is the biggest issue. It's definitely below what I'd like to see and what we were used to from 2016-2020, but looking at the past cup winners this decade, they're clearly behind a stacked avs team and a bit behind the lightning. After those teams however, I think the current d is close enough with vgk and fla. I don't think d pairs are as important lately.

A 2c is this teams glaring weakness. Getting Larkin or someone similar would open the contention window imo. This current team with an above average 2c is a playoff team that could be poised to do damage in a weak western conference. I'm not saying that the Blues are a Dylan Larkin away from a cup, but if they acquired him, all that needs to be done is adding depth to the 4th line and 5/6 dman.

Buch - Thomas - snuggy
Holloway - Larkin - kyrou
Neighbors - dvorsky - (berg?)
Stenberg (?) - suter - xxx

Fowler - cp55
Bro - lm
Lidstein (?) - xxx

Yeah that d and the bottom 6 needs some shoring up, but nothing as significant as Larkin.

Fowler isn’t top pair quality, mailleux isn’t 2nd pair quality, and your 3rd pairing is 2 question marks. If all goes well they could all step up. there is some talent, but we still likely need 2 top 4 quality d going forward, one of which needs to be top pair quality as Parayko ages.

I’m optimistic that Jiricek can be one of those guys, and we have some interesting kids on left side too, but kids tend to be mistake-prone. Look how bad on d buffalo was for years with their talented young guys. You need to line up your big forward acquisitions with your development timeline on d.

 

[Louie the Blue]

This isn't fully directed at you as I've seen a few posts about the defense. That being said, I'm not all that sure that the Blues d is the biggest issue. It's definitely below what I'd like to see and what we were used to from 2016-2020, but looking at the past cup winners this decade, they're clearly behind a stacked avs team and a bit behind the lightning. After those teams however, I think the current d is close enough with vgk and fla. I don't think d pairs are as important lately.

A 2c is this teams glaring weakness. Getting Larkin or someone similar would open the contention window imo. This current team with an above average 2c is a playoff team that could be poised to do damage in a weak western conference. I'm not saying that the Blues are a Dylan Larkin away from a cup, but if they acquired him, all that needs to be done is adding depth to the 4th line and 5/6 dman.

Buch - Thomas - snuggy
Holloway - Larkin - kyrou
Neighbors - dvorsky - (berg?)
Stenberg (?) - suter - xxx

Fowler - cp55
Bro - lm
Lidstein (?) - xxx

Yeah that d and the bottom 6 needs some shoring up, but nothing as significant as Larkin.

I respectfully disagree.

While I am encouraged by Mailloux's development, I don't think it's wise to pencil him in for top 4 minutes. Additionally, while Fowler had a down year, he is 35, so I don't think it's wise to think he can handle top 4 minutes either.

Re: 2C, I think it's less glaring than top 4 D. Yes, it is a current void, but Dvorsky is at least on the roster and I think he's closer to hitting 2C than LM is top 4.

 

[Xanadude]

I respectfully disagree.

While I am encouraged by Mailloux's development, I don't think it's wise to pencil him in for top 4 minutes. Additionally, while Fowler had a down year, he is 35, so I don't think it's wise to think he can handle top 4 minutes either.

Re: 2C, I think it's less glaring than top 4 D. Yes, it is a current void, but Dvorsky is at least on the roster and I think he's closer to hitting 2C than LM is top 4.

A lot depends on if the post-Olympics Mailloux was a sign of who he is going to be as a player, a temporary hot streak or the result of being partnered with Broberg.

Same thing with Lindstein, just swap in Parayko for Broberg.

If the answer is they are both who they looked like, that's a perfectly fine top four. If it was an illusion, I agree, we're in trouble.

I think we're a 2C (whether Dvorsky or through trade) and a year-long breakout from Lindstein/Mailloux/Jiricek (or aquiring a top 4 dude in UFA or trade) from actual, non first-round fodder contention if we're being realistic.