Can the St. Louis Blues trade Torey Krug and his contract in-season? Some pending UFAs who could be dealt
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: Making some bold predictions involving the St. Louis Blues for this season.
Torey Krug nixed an offseason trade to the Philadelphia Flyers, and there is some belief that if he’s not dealt before the start of the season, a trade won’t happen until after the season.
Moving someone in-season with four years left on their contracts at $6.5 million isn’t easy. It’s a move that typically happens leading into the draft. does predict that Krug trade is possible in-season – if Krug is willing to waive his no-trade clause – for three reasons.
- “Even though he has handled the Philadelphia situation professionally, it’s a potentially awkward and distracting situation.
- The Blues have a lot of defensive depth and will want to get Scott Perunovich in the lineup.
- The team’s payroll is near the NHL’s $83.5 million salary cap, and moving out Krug’s cap hit would go a long way in giving them some cushion.”
If Jakub Vrana and Kasperi Kapanen play well this season, could see them being moved at the traded deadline. Both will be UFAs after the season. Oskar Sundqvist is a UFA after the season and believe that he could be re-signed.
Bill Daly when asked if they still need to know mid-season about the Arizona Coyotes arena plan
Michael Russo of The Athletic: NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly when asked about Gary Bettman said that basically by mid-season that they need to have a decision on where the Arizona Coyotes will play in the future or that they’ll need to look at other options.
“I don’t think the timeline has changed. We get regularly updated by (president and CEO) Xavier Gutierrez with respect to the status of their discussions on various things, and (owner) Alex Meruelo. They’re committed to finding a place in Arizona and making it work there. They continue to be optimistic about their ability to do so.
I think what you saw last week or the week before, whenever, it was part of that overall plan. And I think there’ll be other things that come down the road that will tell you whether they’re making real progress or whether they’re not. But I expect that to continue to be an evolving situation. All I can say is they remain optimistic and confident, and so we get our information from the Coyotes.”
