On the St. Louis Blues and Kevin Shattenkirk …
Pierre LeBrun: Pierre LeBrun on TSN 1290 on the Blues and Shattenkirk: “They’re not going to sign Kevin Shattenkirk. They’re going to trade Kevin Shattenkirk.”
Frank Seravalli: The Blues are expected to give Shattenkirk’s agent permission to talk about a contract extension before a trade is made, but GM Doug Armstrong needs to find a trade partner first.
Jeremy Rutherford: There are lots of potential trade partners, but as of last night, there had been no talks with Shattenkirk about a possible extension with another team.
Pierre LeBrun: You can add the Coyotes to the list of teams that are interested in Kevin Shattenkirk.
Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Kevin Shattenkirk’s time with the Blues could be coming to an end. The Blues may not be able to have the cap space to sign RFA Jaden Schwartz and UFA David Backes without opening up some cap space.
“It’s been really quiet,” Armstrong said of the trade front. “I think people would rather add without giving up assets if they can.”
That can quickly change at the draft with them interested a first round pick in a Shattenkirk deal.
Armstrong adds:
“I’d rather extend all the time possible to sign the guys that we know that are here,” he said. “That’s why there’s not a lot of trades right now. No one wants to get to trades or other UFAs until they’ve exhausted the attempt to sign their own guys. But we’re going to get to a realization that that’s going to happen or not going to happen, and you go to Phase 2.
“The NHL is such a predictable deadline league: agents, teams, ‘they’re not giving us their best offer yet, we’re not going to give them ours.’ But when you get to the period that (free agents) can talk to other teams, you’ve got to think that most likely the guy is going to leave and then you better be ready.”