Did the Blues make a mistake not re-signing Pietrangelo?

[Azrael89]

The St. Louis Blues squad was only good enough for one cup. All the stars aligned for them to win that year, which is cool, but they weren't built strong enough to be the next Blackhawks or Kings powerhouse.

I keep saying this same thing. It’s a miracle they won that cup. The team they had that might have been a dynasty kept losing out to the Blackhawks dynasty.

 

[Holymakinaw]

Did the Blues make a mistake not re-signing Pietrangelo?

Every game is looking worse and worse. Lost to the Avs tonight. And if they make the playoffs they'll get steamrolled by the Avs and Vegas.

Curious what others think.

It wasn't just up to them, tho. The player has to want to re-sign. Perhaps that wasn't the case. Or perhaps he only would have re-signed for a truly obscene amount of money, which made it impossible.

 

[mriswith]

Schenn: 6.5M until 2027
Faulk: 6.5M until 2027
Krug: 6.5M until 2027
Binnington: 6M until 2027

The Blues are done as contenders until 2028.

 

[Esq]

I guess if you enjoy living in hell. Summers with 90+ Degree/humidity days are for the birds..

You do understand that you just described a decent percentage of USA, right?

 

[LGB]

Yes and no. Pietrangelo's current contract is a mistake, so blues made the right call on that. If they could have signed a shorter deal (i.e. 5 years) then it would have made sense, but Pietrangelo wasnt settling for that.

They avoided one mistake but made several more with Krug, Faulk, Binnington's contracts

Pretty much. Would much prefer If we overpayed Petro, but I think there must have been some outside factors involved. Maybe the Blues thought ROR was the better leader for the team or Petro just didn't want to stay in STL that much. Weird how Armstrong doesn't want to give out NMC's but has no problem giving NTC's all over the place. It's going to be very hard to re-shape the roster.

 

[BrokenFace]

I keep saying this same thing. It’s a miracle they won that cup. The team they had that might have been a dynasty kept losing out to the Blackhawks dynasty.

The Blues eliminated the Blackhawks as many times as the Blackhawks eliminated the Blues over the last decade plus.

Back to Pietrangelo, it didn't make sense for Army to give win-now contracts that would look bad halfway through their duration to Schenn and Faulk, let Pietro walk, then give out another one of those contracts to Binnington. If you're ignoring aging curves for these lesser players, why take such a hard line on your elite dman? And why replace Pietrangelo's contract with Krug's when the last few years of Krug's contract will be ugly anyway? I get that Pietrangelo is older than these guys, but he's also better.

 

[Paul4587]

Short term it’s a big mistake but long term that contract Pietro got is going to be an absolute anchor.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

They just won a Cup so it's probably wrong to wonder what their GM is doing but not paying Pietrangelo to give a contract to Krug and insane money to Justin Faulk seems like a bad decision. Why not just bring back Pietrangelo over them?

Their GM's ego was too big.

 

[Louie the Blue]

I keep saying this same thing. It’s a miracle they won that cup. The team they had that might have been a dynasty kept losing out to the Blackhawks dynasty.

They lost a playoff series to Blackhawks once in the postseason from 2012-present.

The only team that won a series against them twice during that time period? The 2012 and 2013 LA Kings.

The other PO exits were to the Wild, Canucks, Sharks, Predators.

 

[Lacaar]

He makes more money in the last year if the deal than he does the first. The pre-2013 back diving contracts with potential fake years at the end to keep the cap hit lower aren't around much anymore.

Wouldn't he still collect the whole kit an kaboodle if he gets an "Injury" and goes on ltir?

I don't think his plan is to retire.. just play it out until he doesn't want to or can't (quite honestly it's probably been off the record agreed upon between himself and the team, when they both agree on the time etc).. then claim a legit or quasi legit injury to go perma ltir.

Play in the NHL for 15 years and you could probably convince any doctor that you can't play NHL hockey no more. The game is hard on the body.
I'm sure Alex has something nagging that he could pitch to a doctor.

I do wonder how hard involved the insurance companies get and if his contract is insured at all. Perhaps that's the gamble?

 

[yada]

You ask this question now but what about in years 3, 4, 5 and so on. As a rangers fan ive seen plenty of bad contracts and now some of the tools that helped the rangers get rid of them dont exist amnesty buyouts, burying bad contracts in the minors, 10+ year contracts

 

[yeaher]

Did the Blues make a mistake not re-signing Pietrangelo?

Every game is looking worse and worse. Lost to the Avs tonight. And if they make the playoffs they'll get steamrolled by the Avs and Vegas.

Curious what others think.

I like it how they lost to the Avs is the premise, what is it 2016? They are toothless upfront and lost a lot of size with the departures of AP and Maroon. As as Avs fan that's what I noticed.

 

[thadd]

I don't think anyone in Vegas expects him to be playing at 38. The last couple of years at least will be ltir I'd predict. Inconvenient for the team but worth it for the first few years.

It's the new economy of the NHL. Superstars sign into their late 30's knowing they'll ltir the back half at some point. When they become inefective or what not.
The real losers are the younger players that aren't superstars (basically 90% of the player base). These contracts chew into their escrow and regular joe likely won't get to make that up in the retirment/ltir contract.
In the end Alex is going to be paid from the player that replaces him (and the rest of the players) salary. Alex probably believes he'll play that long so doesn't feel all too bad. Hell he may. But if I had to put money on it.
I'd bet he comes down with a unplayable injury, especially if vegas falls off competitively as he'll lose his motivation and his contract is likely unmoveable.

For 8M, you think he's retiring?
You kidding me? No way he's leaving that much money on the table.
If the contract was front loaded you'd have a case for him retiring early, but it's the opposite.

 

[topshelf15]

The Blues will make another run next year and if it doesnt work they will start to unload some vets and retool

 

[BlueKnight]

I can't say I'm surprised at the responses, Thanks for answering everyone, And for the record I'm a Blues fan and I'll say I'm glad the Blues won when they did cause they aren't winning another one anytime soon. Yes I would've liked to see the Blues win another cup, I really would but for a team that was win now with a open window, That window shattered when they didn't re-sign their captain.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

You do understand that you just described a decent percentage of USA, right?

It doesn’t get worse than regions of the Midwest/south. Everywhere else is rather tolerable.

 

[aufheben]

I mean it essentially shut down their Cup window.

On the other hand, hasn’t been Pietrangelo been, like, not...great for Vegas? That is not a good sign for a 31-year-old defenseman in Y1 of a $61,000,000 contract with a NMC for the entirety. Like at all.

On the other other hand, Vegas has such a good team that they probably don’t even need him to be all that great anyway.

 

[Louie the Blue]

It doesn’t get worse than regions of the Midwest/south. Everywhere else is rather tolerable.

By all accounts he was fine with the area, his wife is from the area as well and he didn’t sell his house.

If that was such an issue, why do the Blues have one of the largest alumni orgs in the league as well as have many alumni stay in the area?

 

[theslatcher]

I mean it essentially shut down their Cup window.

On the other hand, hasn’t been Pietrangelo been, like, not...great for Vegas? That is not a good sign for a 31-year-old defenseman in Y1 of a $61,000,000 contract with a NMC for the entirety. Like at all.

On the other other hand, Vegas has such a good team that they probably don’t even need him to be all that great anyway.

Petro was not great at the start of the season. But that has changed.

 

[KingJoffrey]

ALEX PIETRANGELO #7

Vegas Golden Knights

Alternate Captain

Right Defense

Cap Hit: $8,800,000
Daily Cap Hit: $75,862
Accumulated Daily Cap Hit

: $7,586,207
Remaining Daily Cap Hit

: $1,213,793
Estimated Career Earnings

: $52,718,222
BORN:January 18, 1990
BIRTHPLACE:King City, Ontario, Canada
NATIONALITY:Canada
HEIGHT:
6'3"191cm
WEIGHT:
210 lbs95kg
SHOOTS:Right
AGE:31
ELC SIGNING AGE:18
WAIVERS SIGNING AGE:18
DRAFT YEAR:2008
DRAFTED OVERALL:4
DRAFT ROUND:1
DRAFTED BY:

STL

SEASON	CLAUSE	CAP HIT	AAV	P. BONUSES	S. BONUSES	BASE SALARY	TOTAL SALARY	MINORS SALARY
2020-21	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$3,000,000	$2,000,000	$5,000,000	$5,000,000
2021-22	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$3,000,000	$2,000,000	$5,000,000	$5,000,000
2022-23	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$7,000,000	$1,000,000	$8,000,000	$8,000,000
2023-24	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$8,000,000	$4,300,000	$12,300,000	$12,300,000
2024-25	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$8,000,000	$4,500,000	$12,500,000	$12,500,000
2025-26	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$6,000,000	$4,000,000	$10,000,000	$10,000,000
2026-27	NMC	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$0	$0	$8,800,000	$8,800,000	$8,800,000
TOTAL		$61,600,000	$61,600,000	$0	$35,000,000	$26,600,000	$61,600,000	$61,600,000

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

That doesn't look like a mistake.
Why the hell would teams sign this contract?
Rear loaded contracts are toxic.
He'll be 38 at the end of this contract.
The dude does a pretty good job of staying healthy and he's consistently productive, but he's on the wrong side of 30 and this contract looks totally dumb from a sane GM's perspective.

It looks bad only if Vegas don't win. If Vegas wins a cup or two in following years, nobody cares how badly Pietro will play at 37.

 

[Foppberg]

I imagine he just didn't want to stay there.

 

[Lacaar]

For 8M, you think he's retiring?
You kidding me? No way he's leaving that much money on the table.
If the contract was front loaded you'd have a case for him retiring early, but it's the opposite.

I think you had that thought in mind because you completely misunderstood that post. LTIR is completely different. Not sure if you’re aware, they still get paid.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

By all accounts he was fine with the area, his wife is from the area as well and he didn’t sell his house.

If that was such an issue, why do the Blues have one of the largest alumni orgs in the league as well as have many alumni stay in the area?

I can only speak for myself and my preferences.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I get the feeling the Faulk deal/signing only happened because Pietrangelo indicated he wanted to test free agency

 

[SensontheRush]

Armstrong wanted to close the door himself instead of having it close on his way out.