Blues Could Sell Off Players If They Are Not in the Playoff Picture
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Power Play Segment with Steve Kouleas and Andrew Raycroft on Monday and was asked what is the current direction of the St. Louis Blues and do they consider themselves in a retool or rebuild.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
NHL Rumors: New York Rangers And The St. Louis Blues
Andrew Raycroft: “Jeremy, can you first see any more moves happening like how urgent is this now that Montgomery is in St Louis to find that identity, and if you need to take pieces off the roster and move them around, is it? Is it that urgent there to do that?”
Jeremy Rutherford: “I think that it’s no. It’s no secret Doug Armstrong wants to make the playoffs. Like they’re spending to the cap, and they’re actually spending beyond the cap because they’ve had the injuries, like with Torey Krug $6.5 million and others that they’re in LTIR and so they’re spending a lot of money not to make the playoffs.
NHL Rumors: Did the St. Louis Blues Want Jim Montgomery All Along?
So that’s, I think, one of the reasons, in part, you want to get the coach that you believe is the guy to be the coach here in St Louis, Jim Montgomery. But you also want to make the playoffs. And I think that’s why we saw this thing happen so quickly while Montgomery was still available.
But also, because it’s late November, early December, you still have time to get back into that, that playoff picture. So I think we’re going to have to wait and see how the next couple months unfold before we can tell which direction this goes. But I think Doug Armstrong is going to continue to make moves that are with kind of the future in mind.
So if you get to a situation where the Blues don’t look like they’re that playoff team that he hopes, I think he’s going to have to sell off whatever players can draw some interest. Whether a team is looking for a Brandon Saad to be a third-line guy for them, or, you know, if a Nick Leddy comes back healthy and there’s any potential to move him, I don’t think they’re going to get a lot in return for the parts they have.
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It’s nothing like a few years ago when they had a Ryan O’Reilly, (Vladimir) Tarasenko those types of players. But I do think that he’s going to move forward and he’s not going to give away assets. He’s not going to give away picks. They’re still retooling this thing, but I think if they have some players that draw some interest around that they could probably move that if they aren’t in that playoff picture.”
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