Maybe I'm wrong (which is a distinct posibility) but it just seems that after every playoff exit the Blues decide to fashion their team like whoever beats them and/or makes it to the Cup final. First it was heave hockey, like the Kings. Then it was the speed game like the Hawks. When do the Blues become the Blues and not a less successful copy of another team? The Blues won't accomplish much until they become the Blues. They won't have the success of the Kings or the Hawks or the Predators because they aren't those teams. Sure. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but for the Blues, just like imitation crab, the imitation is just not as good as the real thing.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 0c244.html
Blues fans are suffering from a severe case of Predators Envy these days, and understandably so.
Nashville dismissed the Blues in six games while making its first deep playoff run. The Predators built a dynamic top line and a top four defensive corps that is the envy of the league.
Never mind the Los Angeles Kings, who missed the playoffs entirely this year while getting coach Darryl Sutter fired. Forget the salary cap-strapped Chicago Blackhawks, who couldn’t advance past the first round during the last two years.
Those perennial Western Conference powerhouses have slipped. The Predators now loom as the official Blues nemesis on this side of the league.
How did this happen? And how will Blues general manager Doug Armstrong respond?
Predators GM David Poile has been in Nashville since 1997, building and rebuilding teams in that expansion market. The Predators have reached the postseason 10 times in the last 13 years, but this is their first foray past the second round.
Many smart moves led to this breakout. In 2013 Poile sent the Ghost of Martin Erat to Washington for prospect Filip Forsberg, who blossomed into a 30-goal scorer and playoff terror. This was nearly as ridiculous as the Blues sending defensive prospect David Rundblad to Ottawa in 2010 for the right to draft Vladimir Tarasenko.
Midway through last season, Poile dealt offensive defenseman Seth Jones, the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft, to Columbus for big center Ryan Johansen, the fourth overall pick in 2010. This was a rare “hockey trade” as the GMs say, talent for talent without salary cap considerations.
Armstrong notes that finding an available big center these days is like finding Sasquatch, but Columbus was willing to trade Sasquatch, er, Johansen because he clashed with coach John Tortorella.
The Blues need a center like Johansen to anchor their top line, but Armstrong knows pickings will be slim in the trade market. Other teams (like Colorado) will want defenseman Colton Parayko (with his Seth Jones-like potential) in exchange for a disgruntled center (like Matt Duchene).
And Armstrong won’t want to go there. The free agent market looks thin, which is why he bucked up to regain Vladimir Sobotka from Russia. Gambling on another team’s salary dump won’t work, since Parayko is due a new contract that will push the Blues up against the salary cap for next season.
Poile’s boldest move in his Nashville career was sending franchise mainstay Shea Weber to Montreal for P.K. Subban in a blockbuster, allowing the Predators to add a lower-mileage defenseman to their nucleus. His most sensible move was sitting back and letting Predators draft picks Roman Josi, Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm and Colin Wilson yield huge returns over time.
Armstrong hopes the Blues can continue emulating that draft-and-develop strategy to enjoy similar growth. Tarasenko, Parayko, Jaden Schwartz, Alex Pietrangelo and Jake Allen have emerged as the new Blues nucleus. Forward Robby Fabbri should join that group after recovering from knee surgery and learning from last season’s slow start.
Maybe Zach Sanford could eventually emerge as a big center after coming from Washington with a first-round pick in the Kevin Shattenkirk trade. Perhaps top 2016 pick Tage Thompson could be that guy, but he will need a year or two in the AHL.
Forward Ivan Barbashev will fit in somewhere next season and young defensemen Jordan Schmaltz, Vince Dunn and Jake Walman will push for work, giving Armstrong leverage. “We are really excited about some of these young players that we have coming,” he noted. “But that doesn’t mean anything unless they start to reach their potential, too.”
Armstrong hopes that replacing Ken Hitchock with Mike Yeo in midseason will accelerate their development. Back in 2014, Poile fired coach Barry Trotz, ending an epic 15-years run, and hired Peter Laviolette to hit the refresh button.
Now the Predators are a force. Armstrong is hoping for the same long-term payoff with his change, but first he must clean up his roster, starting with the expansion draft.
If he can’t strike a deal with Las Vegas to take an asset of his choosing, he should protect human bulldozer Ryan Reaves and expose David Perron (a depth scorer who vanished in the playoffs) along with expendable forwards Dmitrij Jaskin and Jori Lehtera.
This team carried too much dead weight last season. Jaskin disappeared again. Lehtera looked like he was skating at the beach. Nail Yakupov was a waste of time and fellow winger Magnus Paajarvi, another restricted free agent, didn’t spring to life until March.
Assuming Armstrong won’t be able to dump Lehtera and his $4.7 million cap hit for the next two years, the Blues must revive him next season while simultaneously giving Sanford and Barbashev their opportunity to grow.
Looking forward, Armstrong will decide how to use the salary cap space he could gain during the next two years. Center Paul Stastny has one year left on his contract with a $7 million hit and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has two years left at $5.4 million.
“My responsibility to the ownership group is to give them a one-, three- and five-year plan and then make short-, medium- and long-term decisions based on that,” Armstrong said.
But right now Blues fans are interested in that one-year plan with the Predators celebrating their long-awaited breakout.