Skjei for a very late 1st, a 4th liner and an over the hill Boumeester !!! yeah no thanks, we will happily retain Skjei.
Skjei literally is Bouwmeester.
He can skate and uhhhhh.....well, he can skate.
So I don't see what this does for the Blues. A younger version of what you have isn't worth a 1st.
Skjei for a very late 1st, a 4th liner and an over the hill Boumeester !!! yeah no thanks, we will happily retain Skjei.
Staal, Smith and Lundqvist will give us this cap flexibility you speak of.cap space on an expiring vet
out from under long term contract
not immediately a concern, but this flexibility will be helpful in a couple of years if not before
A couple of point missing from the discussion:
1. Bouwmeester has a NTC and is not likely to waive it to go to a larger market. He signed a 1 year deal to stay here (for what most expect to be his final season) and I can't see him being interested in moving on to another team for a 5 month stay. He also has a performance bonus tied to playoff rounds, which would seem less likely to be met moving from the defending champs to a team that missed the playoffs the previous season. It's not much, but it's not nothing either.
2. As pointed out in #1, this is likely his final season which means his cap hit goes away next season and is likely replaced by a sub-$1M young player. This allows the Blues the flexibility to sign other players, not the least of which is Pietrangelo. I can't see the Blues being willing to discard this flexibility while having Parayko, Faulk and (presumably) Pietrangelo under contract.
For mental health reasons, I've tried to steer clear of these types of discussions, but I can't help but wonder why Skjei would even be available in such a deal with an aging Staal and unproven Hajek being the only LD under contract to the Rangers next season. If Skjei is valuable, why move him? If he's underperforming his contract, why would someone pay even a late 1st to acquire him? Maybe there is something more to the OP that I simply missed.