2021 Off Season Discussion Thread

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

As I remember it, both Oshie and Bergland missed the same practice. it happened several years before Oshie was traded.

That is not true. They missed different practices. Since all we can do is speculate I’ll just say that I would bet the blues FO had a different evaluation of each of their characters. The point is, a columnist did not run Oshie out of town.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Berglund reportedly forgot to charge his phone/alarm and overslept. I have no memory of Oshie missing practice, but he did go on a North Dakota broadcast visibly drunk. Perron was suspended for being late returning from the holiday break when severe weather caused his flight to be canceled. I thought it was harsh at the time, and that they wouldn’t have done that if it happened to a veteran player.

 

[Oberyn]

I really thought Walman progressed a lot in his stint with the Blues and am intrigued to see how he performs this upcoming season. His skating and offensive abilities will be needed with the loss of Dunn, just needs to make better decisions in the defensive zone.

 

[Celtic Note]

I really thought Walman progressed a lot in his stint with the Blues and am intrigued to see how he performs this upcoming season. His skating and offensive abilities will be needed with the loss of Dunn, just needs to make better decisions in the defensive zone.

He looked better than I though he would defensively, but for a guy historically known for his offensive game, it wasn’t terribly advanced.

 

[WeWentBlues]

He looked better than I though he would defensively, but for a guy historically known for his offensive game, it wasn’t terribly advanced.

His skating and transition game stood out the most to me. Didn't get to see him unload that bomb of a shot he has too many times. Hopefully with more ice and more confidence, we will see some more results.

 

[simon IC]

He looked better than I though he would defensively, but for a guy historically known for his offensive game, it wasn’t terribly advanced.

I saw him make some terrible decisions in his own end. He definitely needs to work on his defensive game. I was impressed by his skating and offensive instincts, however.

 

[Celtic Note]

His skating and transition game stood out the most to me. Didn't get to see him unload that bomb of a shot he has too many times. Hopefully with more ice and more confidence, we will see some more results.

Agreed on all accounts, but he hasn’t shown it much at the AHL level. I think he is a guy where his physical tool looked better against less developed competition. He has sort of had to reinvent his game, becoming more well rounded to position himself for an NHL career. In comparison to Dunn, he didn’t have the hockey sense that makes Vince so potent offensively. I could see the difference all the way back in juniors. Vince just read the play with a very dynamic eye. Jake never really seemed to show the same.

I really do think Losing Vince is going to hurt more than his pundits suggest, especially 5v5.

 

[Celtic Note]

I saw him make some terrible decisions in his own end. He definitely needs to work on his defensive game. I was impressed by his skating and offensive instincts, however.

Many defensemen do that under pressure. Scandella is terrible about it. Parayko was bad at it this year. Krug makes some terrible reads and Faulk is no stranger to them either. Petro was the only one that was consistently good on his breakouts of our recent D. Dunn would make some plays that he had no business making both on the positive and negative sides of that coin.

 

[Ibleedlou]

Many defensemen do that under pressure. Scandella is terrible about it. Parayko was bad at it this year. Krug makes some terrible reads and Faulk is no stranger to them either. Petro was the only one that was consistently good on his breakouts of our recent D. Dunn would make some plays that he had no business making both on the positive and negative sides of that coin.

Agreed, which gives me hope for Mikkola, who appeared to make much better decisions in the final games of this past year. I thought he played well in the playoffs, considering, and believe the game may have started slowing down for him.
Keeping a possible Tarasenko trade in mind, if we make no further additions on D, it's telling. If we have an addition on D, it too, will be telling.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Agreed, which gives me hope for Mikkola, who appeared to make much better decisions in the final games of this past year. I thought he played well in the playoffs, considering, and believe the game may have started slowing down for him.
Keeping a possible Tarasenko trade in mind, if we make no further additions on D, it's telling. If we have an addition on D, it too, will be telling.

Yes. Slowing things down is key for him.

 

[Ranksu]

Agreed, which gives me hope for Mikkola, who appeared to make much better decisions in the final games of this past year. I thought he played well in the playoffs, considering, and believe the game may have started slowing down for him.
Keeping a possible Tarasenko trade in mind, if we make no further additions on D, it's telling. If we have an addition on D, it too, will be telling.

Sir, you have very good eye test. Mikkola did improve his overall game late of regular season and playoffs.

 

[Renard]

That is not true. They missed different practices. Since all we can do is speculate I’ll just say that I would bet the blues FO had a different evaluation of each of their characters. The point is, a columnist did not run Oshie out of town.

I looked it up. They did miss different practices, about a year apart. Oshie's miss was in 2011, and he was traded in 2015.

 

[Celtic Note]

Agreed, which gives me hope for Mikkola, who appeared to make much better decisions in the final games of this past year. I thought he played well in the playoffs, considering, and believe the game may have started slowing down for him.
Keeping a possible Tarasenko trade in mind, if we make no further additions on D, it's telling. If we have an addition on D, it too, will be telling.

Mikkola might have been our worst offender. He gets somewhat of a pass from me as a rookie, but it’s also a huge red flag that needs to be addressed moving forward or he won’t be an NHL D. He did improve later in the year, but not enough to overcome the glaring deficiency.

 

[Ranksu]

Mikkola might have been our worst offender. He gets somewhat of a pass from me as a rookie, but it’s also a huge red flag that needs to be addressed moving forward or he won’t be an NHL D. He did improve later in the year, but not enough to overcome the glaring deficiency.

I would put Mikkola playing 100/100 times at d-zone start end of game vs. Krug or Faulk.

 

[BlueOil]

I would put Mikkola playing 100/100 times at d-zone start end of game vs. Krug or Faulk.

mikkola will have to get himself in the line up to be eligible for a d-zone start, much less an important one

mikkola is looking like lindbohm 2.0 so far, really needs to step up this year or he'll lose his spot to walman and others. he's a 7/8 guy currently.

 

[Reality Czech]

Friedman mentioned on the most recent 31 Thoughts Podcast that he could see St. Louis as being on the short list of teams being interested in Chara IF he decides to play another year. I suggested the Blues sign him to a 1-year deal last year since it would be low-risk and he could provide a lot of what this team needs on the back end in a limited role.

So, what say you Blues fans? We have a big hole to fill on our left side D, and there isn't a bigger guy out there that could possibly fill it. He only made $800K last year with the Caps, so I don't think money will be an issue. Plus, having him around to mentor our young players would probably be worth his salary alone.

 

[kimzey59]

Friedman mentioned on the most recent 31 Thoughts Podcast that he could see St. Louis as being on the short list of teams being interested in Chara IF he decides to play another year. I suggested the Blues sign him to a 1-year deal last year since it would be low-risk and he could provide a lot of what this team needs on the back end in a limited role.

So, what say you Blues fans? We have a big hole to fill on our left side D, and there isn't a bigger guy out there that could possibly fill it. He only made $800K last year with the Caps, so I don't think money will be an issue. Plus, having him around to mentor our young players would probably be worth his salary alone.

I have a hard time seeing ways to keep his ice time in line.
The reality is; we already have a guy who fills the role Chara would provide on the ice in Scandella(3rd pairing PK guy who can play up a slot or 2 if needed). What we need is somebody who can legitimately solidify a shut-down pairing next to Parayko. Chara just doesn't have the legs for that anymore.

IF we sign Chara, it means Scandella is playing in the top 4; and I'm not sure he is good enough to be a regular top 4 guy(really good 3rd pairing guy, but questionable in the top 4).

 

[Bluesnatic27]

Getting Chara would be a novelty, but I don't think it would accomplish much in the end.

 

[Majorityof1]

Friedman mentioned on the most recent 31 Thoughts Podcast that he could see St. Louis as being on the short list of teams being interested in Chara IF he decides to play another year. I suggested the Blues sign him to a 1-year deal last year since it would be low-risk and he could provide a lot of what this team needs on the back end in a limited role.

So, what say you Blues fans? We have a big hole to fill on our left side D, and there isn't a bigger guy out there that could possibly fill it. He only made $800K last year with the Caps, so I don't think money will be an issue. Plus, having him around to mentor our young players would probably be worth his salary alone.

He is still an NHL player but a shadow of his former self. I don't think he fixes our top 4 LD issue. He may provide some benefit to us a a 3rd pairing LD who can PK. I'd rather develop a younger D in that role that could be of longer term benefit.

 

[bleedblue1223]

If we do sign Chara, which I wouldn't be opposed to, I would want it as a Scandella replacement, I wouldn't be a huge fan of rolling with Krug/Scandella/Chara on the left. I'd be really worried about teams like Colorado torching us down that wing with their speed.

While Walman and Mikkola have their issues and maybe won't ever be anything more than a 6/7, I think we need to figure out which one has a future or if they both have futures. Walman has the skating ability to be a decent 3rd pairing puck-mover, and Mikkola played well in the playoffs IMO.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

If we can dump Scandella+ to get a legitimate Top-4 LHD and use Chara as a bottom-pairing-top-4-in-pinch-type defenseman, then I'm good. Otherwise, just let the kids play since we aren't going anywhere deep without that all-important Top-4 LHD.

 

[The Note]

Yeah, Chara does not move the needle at all for me at this point.

 

[Reality Czech]

I have a hard time seeing ways to keep his ice time in line.
The reality is; we already have a guy who fills the role Chara would provide on the ice in Scandella(3rd pairing PK guy who can play up a slot or 2 if needed). What we need is somebody who can legitimately solidify a shut-down pairing next to Parayko. Chara just doesn't have the legs for that anymore.

IF we sign Chara, it means Scandella is playing in the top 4; and I'm not sure he is good enough to be a regular top 4 guy(really good 3rd pairing guy, but questionable in the top 4).

Sure, ideally we can acquire a LHD upgrade instead of a stopgap like Chara but I thought it might not be the worst backup plan. I do agree with bleedblue that lack of speed would be a concern, but then again he also managed 18 mins a night playing for a fairly strong Washington squad. I was thinking of him as more of a Gunnarsson replacement, a role that he could certainly fill.

Anyone have any ideal guys to target for that top 4 LHD role? Someone like Larsson, Suter or Oleksiak would have been ideal, but those ships have sailed. There isn't much left on the UFA market (I mentioned Gudbranson and Coburn as potential extra bodies, but they aren't more appealing than Chara), so I guess it would have to be via trade. Just glancing at some possible options: Hanifin (would fit well but wouldn't come that cheap), Simek from San Jose (not an exciting name but better than most options I saw), Lindholm/Fowler from the Ducks (also wouldn't be cheap) or possibly one of Seattle's defensemen like Soucy or Haydn Fleury (can they keep all the D they drafted or will they look to move a couple like Vegas did?).

Honestly, I'm not even seeing that many realistic trade options out there that would be a clear upgrade on Scandella, which is why I threw Chara's name out there.

 

[execwrite1]

At this point would definitely sign Chara. Good stop gap move.

 

[MissouriMook]

Sure, ideally we can acquire a LHD upgrade instead of a stopgap like Chara but I thought it might not be the worst backup plan. I do agree with bleedblue that lack of speed would be a concern, but then again he also managed 18 mins a night playing for a fairly strong Washington squad. I was thinking of him as more of a Gunnarsson replacement, a role that he could certainly fill.

Anyone have any ideal guys to target for that top 4 LHD role? Someone like Larsson, Suter or Oleksiak would have been ideal, but those ships have sailed. There isn't much left on the UFA market (I mentioned Gudbranson and Coburn as potential extra bodies, but they aren't more appealing than Chara), so I guess it would have to be via trade. Just glancing at some possible options: Hanifin (would fit well but wouldn't come that cheap), Simek from San Jose (not an exciting name but better than most options I saw), Lindholm/Fowler from the Ducks (also wouldn't be cheap) or possibly one of Seattle's defensemen like Soucy or Haydn Fleury (can they keep all the D they drafted or will they look to move a couple like Vegas did?).

Honestly, I'm not even seeing that many realistic trade options out there that would be a clear upgrade on Scandella, which is why I threw Chara's name out there.

Lindholm from the Ducks or Soucy from the Kraken would probably be my top targets, though Lindholm might have to waiting until closer to the TDL to make it work.

Not a fan of the idea of adding Chara to our blueline, but my opinion is that we suffered more from a lack of speed and quickness on the back end last year than a lack of size.