Confirmed with Link: Resigned BORTUZZO 2 Years 950K AAVk

[Linkens Mastery]

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[Tvillewr419]

No complaints here.

 

[Stealth JD]

Ok, I guess. he's a solid #6/#7 who can sit for a month and not miss a beat when he does draw back in. We've certainly had worse guys in the role, so happy to keep big Bortz around for relatively modest dollars.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Good. He's still someone that is useful on 3rd pair and PK, and with this caphit, he can comfortably be in the #7 role if younger players start to outperform him.

 

[TheDizee]

great signing and hes a great teammate too

 

[Brian39]

Another good deal from Army. Every penny of this deal comes off the cap if he is sent to the AHL. I don't think he would clear waivers right now, but if his play falls off in a year and needs to be replaced on the NHL roster, we will have zero cap headaches.

This deal and Brown's deal are exactly how a cap-strapped team with good ownership makes it work. You commit real dollars to depth guys and ensure that they will make their full NHL salary even if they lose their NHL job. Bortz very well may lose his NHL job by 2024, but giving him this 2 year deal ensures that he gets paid no matter what. Army just committed $1.9M and $750k of real dollars to two depth guys that will cost zero cap dollars if they become expendable and are sent to the AHL (and go unclaimed off waivers).

No looming cap issues were solved today, but locking up Bortz for $425k less than his current cap hit should help build the rest of the blue line. That savings is almost half of Parayko's raise. Every dollar is going to count next year and this just shaved a few of them. The odds of upgrading Bortz in UFA for $950k (or less) are very low and you absolutely aren't getting a sure upgrade at that price. We don't have an internal upgrade for the 6/7 D, his strengths are the current weaknesses of the rest of the blue line and this contract carries literally no cap risk.

 

[puckerdude10]

Army coming through! Really like this signing for the price. Keeps cheap depth and preserves team chemistry. Hopefully this is the beginning of Army's dominoes for setting up the deadline and solidifying next years roster!

 

[ort]

$950 seems cheap. For what he brings, this is a great deal.

Plus, you know...

 

[Blueston]

Love this. Borts is one of my favorites, even though he isn’t very good at most hockey things. This deal seems perfect.

 

[BlueOil]

good signing. can't replace or upgrade for any cheaper and he's a good 6/7 guy. hoping he becomes more a 7 than 6, but the blues haven't got anyone to step in there yet.

 

[PocketNines]

Very good signing for this price.

Without subtracting Tarasenko's salary (meaning I know the Blues could have more room) if the cap goes up 1M to 82.5M then I count 9.575M remaining to pay for 7 players & Bozak consequences:

– Bozak overages from this season
– the player in Bozak's spot next year, UFA
– Husso (750K), UFA
– Perron (4M), UFA
– Mikkola (787.5K), RFA has arbitration rights
– Perunovich (925K)
– Kostin (863.3K)
– warm body at D or F to supplant Walman (725K), RFA arb rights

Mikkola I think we need to see the whole season first to know what that number should be. He will get a raise.

I love David Perron as much as any Blue who has ever played and I hope he takes the Bozak route here for a couple more years and then retires and takes Bernie Federko's spot.

Husso they should keep up to 3.5M on a two year deal IMO. Lower if they can.

Perunovich, Kostin and Walman are just whatever. Non factors to be replaced with replacement level players or kept, whatever.

Overall it looks pretty doable.

 

[ort]

I'm guessing he is leaving money open the table to stay with the Blues. I don't know how much more he could have gotten elsewhere, but I'm sure a team out there desperate for depth could have topped this deal, either in term or annual amount or both.

 

[ort]

 

[bleedblue1223]

Very good signing for this price.

Without subtracting Tarasenko's salary (meaning I know the Blues could have more room) if the cap goes up 1M to 82.5M then I count 9.575M remaining to pay for 7 players & Bozak consequences:

Yeah, with a slight bump to cap, we can probably make next year work with Tarasenko returning and giving Husso a solid raise. If Perron is open to a cheap deal, it can be done if Scandella is moved, which hopefully happens at the deadline. Things might get complicated if we acquire a long-term solution at LHD, but we can probably still get that done.

If we move Scandella and don't bring Perron back. We should be able to acquire Chychurn, keep Tarasenko, give Husso a decent raise, and still round out the roster with decent players. If Tarasenko relationship can maintain for another season, this would obviously be the ideal scenario. Two Cup runs with cheap Thomas/Kyrou/Barbie, Tarasenko, an acquired Chychurn, and Binnington/Husso.

Edit: Perron has 2 goals in his past 26 games, so decent chance he won't require a ton to bring back. Dude has really bad luck when it comes to when he's due for a new deal.

 

[Mike Liut]

The ideal #6 or 7 Dman. Love Bortz

 

[BlueDream]

Good team guy to keep around. Locker room leader, loved by his teammates, and is gonna do all the dirty work to help win games - hit, block shots, PK and stand up for guys when needed.

I think he will be good as our #6 again next season. By 2024 he probably falls off and becomes the #7 as guys like Tucker pass him up, but that's perfectly fine to keep him around as a vet for chemistry reasons.

 

[Brian39]

Yeah, with a slight bump to cap, we can probably make next year work with Tarasenko returning and giving Husso a solid raise. If Perron is open to a cheap deal, it can be done if Scandella is moved, which hopefully happens at the deadline. Things might get complicated if we acquire a long-term solution at LHD, but we can probably still get that done.

If we move Scandella and don't bring Perron back. We should be able to acquire Chychurn, keep Tarasenko, give Husso a decent raise, and still round out the roster with decent players. If Tarasenko relationship can maintain for another season, this would obviously be the ideal scenario. Two Cup runs with cheap Thomas/Kyrou/Barbie, Tarasenko, an acquired Chychurn, and Binnington/Husso.

Edit: Perron has 2 goals in his past 26 games, so decent chance he won't require a ton to bring back. Dude has really bad luck when it comes to when he's due for a new deal.

I agree that it would be worth holding Tarasenko and letting him walk in UFA if we can make a couple Cup pushes with a guy like Chychrun brought in to shore up the LD. But if we don't trade for Chychrun (or another top 4 LHD with 2-3 years of cheapish term), would you prefer to keep Tarasenko for next year or trade him in the summer? Without a legit fix to the LD, I'm starting to lean toward moving Tarasenko in the summer.

Perron is such a huge question mark surrounding all this. That 26 game slump started in ROR's first game in COVID protocol. It continued after ROR got back and was looking off himself. Perron got hurt just before we started bumping ROR's minutes to his normal workload and then Perron has looked off since his return. I have no idea how much of the slump is bad luck and how much is a sign of things to come. Hopefully Perron stays healthy for the rest of the year and we get a better idea of where he appears to be moving forward.

 

[stl76]

 

[bleedblue1223]

I agree that it would be worth holding Tarasenko and letting him walk in UFA if we can make a couple Cup pushes with a guy like Chychrun brought in to shore up the LD. But if we don't trade for Chychrun (or another top 4 LHD with 2-3 years of cheapish term), would you prefer to keep Tarasenko for next year or trade him in the summer? Without a legit fix to the LD, I'm starting to lean toward moving Tarasenko in the summer.

Perron is such a huge question mark surrounding all this. That 26 game slump started in ROR's first game in COVID protocol. It continued after ROR got back and was looking off himself. Perron got hurt just before we started bumping ROR's minutes to his normal workload and then Perron has looked off since his return. I have no idea how much of the slump is bad luck and how much is a sign of things to come. Hopefully Perron stays healthy for the rest of the year and we get a better idea of where he appears to be moving forward.

I think it depends. I like working from the assumption that Army will fill that hole on defense as I get the sense that Army is keyed in on filling it. If it's Chychrun, I'd prefer to keep Tarasenko. Lets say it's Lindholm, and we are able to extend him where at a minimum it's a Krug/Faulk/Parayko deal, then it's a lot harder to keep Tarasenko and still be as happy with the team on the ice. Maybe we are able to keep him, let Perron walk, and still have enough space to round out the roster.

If we assume we can't upgrade the D, and we are basically working with what we have, then I'm less sure, but I'd probably lean towards keeping Tarasenko because we'd want as much offense as possible. I'd have to know what our plan for that cap space would be. His deal expiring when we need to give raises to Thomas/Kyrou and whatever Barbie ends up being, is ideal. If we move Tarasenko, will his replacement be on a 1-year deal or a multi year deal. Will that multi year deal complicate the raises we have to give out, or will the cap increase enough where it's no big deal?

Without knowing what Tarasenko could return, it's tough to really say. Or without knowing the dynamics of the current relationship. Tarasenko could be good to finish out the contract, but he could also see this season as, I'm going to play great, hopefully win another Cup here with St. Louis, but in the off-season, I'll have great trade value, so a trade should happen.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

No complaints here

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I agree that it would be worth holding Tarasenko and letting him walk in UFA if we can make a couple Cup pushes with a guy like Chychrun brought in to shore up the LD. But if we don't trade for Chychrun (or another top 4 LHD with 2-3 years of cheapish term), would you prefer to keep Tarasenko for next year or trade him in the summer? Without a legit fix to the LD, I'm starting to lean toward moving Tarasenko in the summer.

Perron is such a huge question mark surrounding all this. That 26 game slump started in ROR's first game in COVID protocol. It continued after ROR got back and was looking off himself. Perron got hurt just before we started bumping ROR's minutes to his normal workload and then Perron has looked off since his return. I have no idea how much of the slump is bad luck and how much is a sign of things to come. Hopefully Perron stays healthy for the rest of the year and we get a better idea of where he appears to be moving forward.

Sad to say it, but I think the correct business move is to let Perron walk. He'll command more salary than he'll be worth on his next contract. Its a lot like allowing Schwartz to move on.

It just really stinks more in Perron's case because he has shown loyalty to the team/city and I would really hate to see him don another uniform. But I don't see a correct move for Armstrong that includes re-signing Perron.

 

[Stealth JD]

Sad to say it, but I think the correct business move is to let Perron walk. He'll command more salary than he'll be worth on his next contract. Its a lot like allowing Schwartz to move on.

It just really stinks more in Perron's case because he has shown loyalty to the team/city and I would really hate to see him don another uniform. But I don't see a correct move for Armstrong that includes re-signing Perron.

Incoming Perron re-signing for 3 x $3M.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Incoming Perron re-signing for 3 x $3M.

3x3 or 2x3. I really wouldn't be surprised to see him take less either. Perron seems like the person who values where he wants to be more than the money he makes.

 

[Majorityof1]

3x3 or 2x3. I really wouldn't be surprised to see him take less either. Perron seems like the person who values where he wants to be more than the money he makes.

If the Blues sign Perron for $3M, I am done with this team. I don't care if he comes into Armstrong's office and volunteers for league minimum, you give him a better contract than that. At the very least he deserves the $4M he currently makes if not more. You don't throw hand grenades at the guys who are willing to jump on the hand grenade for the team.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

If the Blues sign Perron for $3M, I am done with this team. I don't care if he comes into Armstrong's office and volunteers for league minimum, you give him a better contract than that. At the very least he deserves the $4M he currently makes if not more. You don't throw hand grenades at the guys who are willing to jump on the hand grenade for the team.

Oh, I completely agree. Even with his "slump" he's had this season, he's still over producing better than his 4 Mil price tag.