Grade Our Trade Deadline

[Snubbed4Vezina]

A. Only thing that could've realistically made this deadline better is if Army was able to move Krug but that feels like a draft day trade with a team that falls in love with a late Round 1 prospect anyway.

Getting the ball rolling early probably preserved a first rounder for us. I have my doubts that if they Rangers grabbed Kane first that anyone would've valued Tarasenko at the price that we actually got for him.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

There is no reason to pay to deal krug. If we could deal him for someone else’s problem that has less term, great. Otherwise we aren’t contenders anyway so slot him into 3rd pairing pp role, hope he stays healthy, and maybe he rehabilitates enough value that we can give him away a year from now. At some point remaining term is low enough won’t scare folks so much.

 

[EastVillageBlues]

There is no reason to pay to deal krug. If we could deal him for someone else’s problem that has less term, great. Otherwise we aren’t contenders anyway so slot him into 3rd pairing pp role, hope he stays healthy, and maybe he rehabilitates enough value that we can give him away a year from now. At some point remaining term is low enough won’t scare folks so much.

Yeah, that's the hope.

If his play rebounds to his level during his last years in Boston, he could easily net some assets.

I guess we will know if we need to pay to get rid of him at the end of next season.

 

[BlueSeal]

I want to see what we do with our windfall first before I really put a grade on anything but from where we were standing, we cashed out for value even though it may ultimately leave some holes.

I like our pickups and how we can take players who are damn near given up on and breathe new life into them. Vrana is the one that really excites me about this.

This may become more rebuild than retool and I’m not really excited for that.

It’s clear that Army feels confident in our blueline for whatever the reason. This is definitely a work in progress.

There is no reason to pay to deal krug. If we could deal him for someone else’s problem that has less term, great. Otherwise we aren’t contenders anyway so slot him into 3rd pairing pp role, hope he stays healthy, and maybe he rehabilitates enough value that we can give him away a year from now. At some point remaining term is low enough won’t scare folks so much.

I’ve been pretty harsh on Krug but the guy generates points and if we had a Dman who can shelter him we’d love him abit more. That’s the kind of Dman Army needs to target.

 

[Bluesish]

The thing that impressed me the most about this trade deadline is that Armstong clearly had a plan and executed it. None of the moves are individually excellent but they all work well together.

Overall I give it an A-. I couldn't give an A because there wasn't a trade I was blown away by. I can understand some not being quite as high as I am on DA's deadline but glad to see no one voted for a D or F.

 

[Frenzy31]

A. Only thing that could've realistically made this deadline better is if Army was able to move Krug but that feels like a draft day trade with a team that falls in love with a late Round 1 prospect anyway.

Getting the ball rolling early probably preserved a first rounder for us. I have my doubts that if they Rangers grabbed Kane first that anyone would've valued Tarasenko at the price that we actually got for him.

This is one of the reasons I gave it an A. We blocked Kane’s move x2 and their return was smaller then is should have been.

I understand the concept of using the cap space in the summer, but we get 2 top 6 wingers, which we need for about 5 million total. I don’t feel we could do better. Now does that address D or does that allow us to weaponize our cap space? Clearly no, but I think Armstrong has layed some ground work for a deal or two in the off-season.

Sure seems like he is planning on using the picks at the draft. After the ROR trade, it seemed like he was more focused on moving those picks. So……

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

When people spout off about wanting to fire Armstrong , please direct them to the Canuck’s situation.

 

[kimzey59]

B+

Did what we needed to do.
Got what we needed to get.
+ for agitating Kane.

Would have been an A if we had done something on defense.

 

[TK 421]

There is no reason to pay to deal krug. If we could deal him for someone else’s problem that has less term, great. Otherwise we aren’t contenders anyway so slot him into 3rd pairing pp role, hope he stays healthy, and maybe he rehabilitates enough value that we can give him away a year from now. At some point remaining term is low enough won’t scare folks so much.

Yeah I don't think even Chuck Fletcher is trying to trade for Krug until we've burned the next two seasons off his contract.

Sure it's possible he rehabs his value a bit next year but he will still be owed 8.5, 6.5 and 4 mil in real money the last three years and I can't see any GM being interested at next years deadline. It's not just the money still owed either, the other big factor is that because of suppressed revenue over the last few years the cap hasn't risen at the rate it was expected to pre-Covid. Once it does go up 3-4 mil from where it currently is there will be more teams that have atrocious PP issues that might find Krug's deal attractive and again, we'll have burned two years and 17 mil off his deal making a two year gamble at a combined 10.5 mil over the final two years much more palatable. In my opinion the cap rising significantly aligns perfectly with when his contract can be more easily moved so we don't have much of a choice but to rehab his value.

 

[Robb_K]

I'd give Army a B+ to A-. He really had no chance to help rectify the defence (no chance to ship off Krug, and would have had to really sweeten any trade giving up Parayko to where it would be too detrimental to The Blues. But it will be better judged after we see what he does at The Draft. In the meantime, we have to hope that Vrana will bing in a new attitude, and work hard to stay clean and do everything possible to resurrect his career, and Kapanen will thrive in his new situation with The Blues. Not being able to revamp the defence on a big scale means that it won't be as short a re-tooling situation as we'd have liked. Let's hope Army does positively fantastic things with the draft choices this Draft, and the Blues' young players, like Hofer, Toropchenko, Perunovich, Neighbours, Bolduc, and Snuggerud break out big-time.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

B+

Did what we needed to do.
Got what we needed to get.
+ for agitating Kane.

Would have been an A if we had done something on defense.

I like it. Succinct.

After sitting with this TDL for a few days, I’ve adjusted my grade slightly downward.

Was more of an A-, but now a B+. Similar reasons as you stated.

Moving Krug OR Parayko was more than difficult. Shedding Mikkola was good.

But we got a secret free agent on D in the one and only Marco Scandella.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

"A" in my mind.

The Blues traded away all UFAs, snagged two 1sts, a darn good prospect, and still pivoted into two potential middle-6 options, with one having potential for the top-6, while giving up nothing of value.

I never thought the defense could be fixed by the deadline. Too much term and too much money is involved for a deal like that to occur. I think using that against the Blues is just unfair given the time frame.

While this season has been a huge let-down, I think Armstrong did a good job in player movement.

 

[TurgPavs]

Like many of you, I really would have liked to have seen one of the defenders moved out.
Hope to see at least one of Scandy or Krug moved at the Draft or in the offseason.