In Trading Schenn To Islanders, Faulk To Red Wings, Blues Have Turned over Leaf To Younger Core
Doug Armstrong, who's turning over GM duties to Alexander Steen after this season, leaving behind a younger cast ready to be next generation of Blues players
Video Transcript
Is it another retool or is this more along the lines of being closer to a rebuild?
now that we know since the trade deadline has come and gone, the Blues have subtracted, two of their, veteran core players off the roster and restocked it with a plethora of picks, let's put it that way.
gone are Captain Brayden Schenn, sent to the New York Islanders for a first, a third in twenty twenty-six.
winger Jonathan Drouin, who's got another year left in his contract at four million dollars.
Basically a stopgap, I would say, and goalie prospect as well.
And then they turn around and flip Justin Faulk to the Detroit Red Wings for a first and a third-round pick, and veteran minor league defenseman Justin Holl, along with a second-round prospect from twenty twenty-two, Russian player playing over in the KHL.
I don't know, are we gonna call him Buch too?
That's the way, Buchelnikov, I believe that's how you say the last.
Dmitri Buchelnikov or Bushelnikov, don't know.
But all I know is the first four letters are B-U-C-H.
So Pavel Buchnevich, you got another Buch here.
So listen, I see this a couple of different ways.
And number one, to me, I would tend to think if I know the way Doug Armstrong's gonna leave this off to Alex Steen going into this draft, who knows?
Maybe the Blues will keep all of these picks and just continue to stockpile good young prospects.
My sense is that, now they've got some, capital to use to make trades at the draft.
And if you're able to do that and you're able to do it successfully, you might be able to expedite things a little bit more quickly 'cause I honestly don't think this team is all that far off from being in contention for a playoff position again.
and that even comes with, what happened with, the whole Colton P- Colton Parayko trade leak earlier this week.
we'll get into that, in, in another take here.
But, as far as Brayden Schenn, I hate to see him go.
I think the guy is an alpha in that room.
He helped develop a lot of those young players.
Terrific captain, always spoke, very professional.
Spoke when the team won, spoke when the team lost.
Very candid, held people accountable.
A lot of those young players in that locker room looked up to this guy.
He led on the ice and off the ice.
those, those things are hard to obtain.
That means you lose another captain here.
I, that, that's the one thing-- I, I honestly thought going into this that they were gonna keep Brayden Schenn just because of those intangibles alone.
Listen, is he a six-and-a-half million dollar player anymore, numbers-wise?
Probably not, not at, not at this stage in his career.
But he brings all those intangibles that are gonna be really hard to replace.
They're hard to replicate.
It's gonna be missed.
The Islanders are getting, they're getting a lot of great qualities in a player.
Yes, he's got two years left on his contract after this one.
I know what some of you guys are saying that it's a lot of money to be paying for a guy playing on the third line, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada.
But even in a year where things have gone sideways or spiraled downhill or however you wanna call it, this guy was still bringing it.
he was putting forth the effort.
He was holding people accountable.
He was leading by example, doing all the right things the right way.
And you have to appreciate those qualities.
And whatever you-- I know you guys have had mixed feelings about Justin Faulk, but this one I felt like was gonna happen.
Another year left on his contract.
His trade value probably was not gonna be any higher than it is now.
So, and even in losing a Brayden Schenn, I have to look at what the Blues got in both returns are very good.
These are good returns that they got.
Schenn actually had to waive his, modified no-trade clause.
He had a fifteen-team no trade, so the Islanders must have been on it.
He must have been convinced that this is, a good situation for him to go in.
The Islanders are in third place in the Metro Divi- Metropolitan division right now, fighting for a playoff spot.
And good for him, man.
Go try to win again.
He's at that stage in his career where he deserves it, and Justin Faulk is still chasing his first Stanley Cup.
Detroit's gonna be an exciting team to watch.
Good for him.
He's gonna be a good addition for them.
But I think the haul that the Blues got for these two players is pretty darn good.
It's a turning over of a new leaf.
Even though you've still got Jordan Binnington, you've got Jake Neighbours now.
You've got Jimmy Snuggerud now.
You still have Colton Parayko in the fold, but you've also Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg, Dalabor Dvorak, Logan Mailloux, younger players that are now gonna be thrust and elevated into more prominent roles in the next wave of the St. Louis Blues movie.
