Blues Open To Moving Some Forward Depth

We’ve seen an uptick in waiver activity around the NHL the last couple of days and that should only continue in the days leading up to the start of the regular season.  In the meantime, teams that don’t want to risk losing a player for no return are looking to the trade market.

It appears one of those teams is the Blues.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that the team has made it known that they have a surplus of depth veterans on their roster that they’d be willing to move.

It was a fairly busy summer for St. Louis, who traded Jordan Kyrou to Washington in a swap that netted them Connor McMichael, among other pieces.  They also moved two first-round picks to Anaheim for center Mason McTavish and brought in former Anaheim winger Ross Johnston in free agency.

Additionally, they re-signed winger Jonatan Berggren after non-tendering him, brought back center Oskar Sundqvist, and converted center Dillon Dube from an AHL deal to an NHL one.  Those three, center Jack Finley, and with winger Nathan Walker may be the pool that the Blues are trying to deal from.  If they’re willing to move a pricier player, winger Alexey Toropchenko ($2.5MM) and center Pius Suter ($4.125MM) could be fits as players whose projected role on the opening roster doesn’t necessarily fit their cost on the cap.

Beyond the last two players, the acquisition cost shouldn’t be overly high for any of the other five.  Berggren and Finley were waiver claims, Walker has cleared waivers during his time with the Blues, while Dube and Sundqvist were UFA signings.  But with the depth that they have, including youngsters like Otto Stenberg, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, and Zach Dean, they can afford to part with a veteran or two.  Whether that comes via trade or running them through waivers remains to be seen; GM Alex Steen has a few more days before needing to make a decision on that front.