A few areas the St. Louis Blues will look to address this offseason
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: The St. Louis Blues have been working with Pavel Buchnevich at center but he needs to improve on the draw if he’s going to stick there next season. If he does play center, they will save the salary cap space of having to go out and find one during free agency.
Forward Sammy Blais has had an offensive outburst since being re-acquired at the deadline while keeping up his physical game. The Blues could look to re-sign him around the $1 million mark.
NHL Rumors: Edmonton Oilers, Arizona Coyotes, and the St. Louis Blues
Alexey Toropchenko will be back and Nathan Walker is likely back. Re-signing UFA forward Tyler Pitlick would make sense, but if they sign a top-nine forward, it could push Blais to the fourth line and one of Toropchenko, Walker and Pitlick off the fourth line.
Will the Blues be able to remake some of their blue line? Battling for the 5-7 spots next could include Calle Rosen, Robert Bortuzzo, Marco Scandella, Tyler Tucker, Scott Perunovich, Matt Kessel and Dmitri Samorukov. Tucker, Rosen and Perunovich could be the early favorites.
Keys to the offseason for the St. Louis Blues
Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton of ESPN: Looking at some of the offseason decisions and priorities for the St. Louis Blues this offseason.
Projected 2023-24 cap space: $4,969,583
2023 draft picks: Three 1sts, two 3rds, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
Not including Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, the Blues have seven players making over $4 million and have two or more years left on their contracts.
Four of those seven are defensemen – Justin Faulk, Torey Krug, Nick Leddy and Colton Parayko.
NHL Rumors: Plenty of Questions for the Pittsburgh Penguins This Offseason
Free Agents and Cap Situation
