Diving into the Alex Pietrangelo rumor pool
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: No one is sure how much of a stalemate there really is between Pietrangelo and the St. Louis Blues currently. The St. Louis offer stands at eight years with an AAV of $8 million. Whether there is some flexibility remains to be seen.
St. Louis currently has $5.1 million in cap space and only Vince Dunn to sign. Everything changes IF they re-sign Pietrangelo. The Blues will not buy out Alexander Steen so how to free up the cap space.
The obvious is to LTIR Vladimir Tarasenko who is coming off yet another left shoulder surgery. Tarasenko’s return would not be until February at the earliest and it could be much longer than that. There is the trade route which could include the aforementioned Dunn along with Marco Scandella or even Justin Faulk.
Faulk would be a tough sell and several other options out there include Tyler Bozak. Bozak might require a sweetener (pick, retention, etc.). Doug Armstrong will have his work cut out for him if the Pietrangelo deal exceeds $8 million AAV. However, maneuvering the cap is not as difficult here as it would appear.
So if Torey Krug actually leaves Boston…
Logan Mullen of NESN: The exit plan if Krug goes elsewhere is one Boston probably does not want to explore but should. One of the options is Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($8.25 million x 7) but there involves salary retention. This is along with the possibility that Ekman-Larsson’s offensive skills have diminished considerably.
Then there is Matt Dumba, Brady Skjei, or even Shayne Gostisbehere. All of these involve considerable risks — particularly the latter two. Also, the trade route exists and a player like Tony DeAngelo might still be available. However, New York’s newfound cap space makes that less likely.
Signing a UFA defenseman does not appear to be that appealing either. The options are sparse to say the least. Tyson Barrie is a possibility along with Kevin Shattenkirk. Both are somewhat lower cost options or maybe Boston leans on its depth. This depends too on what Boston’s actual internal cap. That number is in dispute at press time.