Confirmed Trade: [STL/DET] Nick Leddy and Luke Witkowski for Oskar Sundqvist, Jake Walman, and 2023 2nd

[Godfather]

Happy with this trade. Loved Sunny, miss the 2nd rd pick more. But, got to pay for the need of cap space.

 

[EastVillageBlues]

Happy with this trade. Loved Sunny, miss the 2nd rd pick more. But, got to pay for the need of cap space.

Yeah, same here;

Leddy has been very solid for us so far. Probably would not have done better (at least in terms of this year), if we paid a lot more for Lindholm.

 

[rumrokh]

Yeah, same here;

Leddy has been very solid for us so far. Probably would not have done better (at least in terms of this year), if we paid a lot more for Lindholm.

I expected Leddy to be better than the report from Detroit fans, but he's been way better than that. Significant upgrade on every defenseman who has seen ice this year other than Faulk, Parayko, and Krug. Big upgrade on Scandella, Mikkola, and Walman.

The real test will be the playoffs, but the trade is already paying dividends with keeping the Blues from falling into a wildcard spot.

 

[DatDude44]

I expected Leddy to be better than the report from Detroit fans, but he's been way better than that. Significant upgrade on every defenseman who has seen ice this year other than Faulk, Parayko, and Krug. Big upgrade on Scandella, Mikkola, and Walman.

The real test will be the playoffs, but the trade is already paying dividends with keeping the Blues from falling into a wildcard spot.

Couldn’t agree more. Even just the composition effect he has on our D-core giving our top two pairs legit transition puck moving and speed with veteran savvy and puck poise. The offense doesn’t die on his stick and Allows us to continue possessing offensively and wearing teams out. He helps us play to our identity and I absolutely luv it.

Stay hot army, stay hot

 

[drw02]

I expected Leddy to be better than the report from Detroit fans, but he's been way better than that. Significant upgrade on every defenseman who has seen ice this year other than Faulk, Parayko, and Krug. Big upgrade on Scandella, Mikkola, and Walman.

The real test will be the playoffs, but the trade is already paying dividends with keeping the Blues from falling into a wildcard spot.

Funny cause from Detroit pov Walman has been better than Leddy ever was in Detroit, adding a useful bottom 6 F and a 2nd is just icing on the cake. Win-Win I guess

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Happy with this trade. Loved Sunny, miss the 2nd rd pick more. But, got to pay for the need of cap space.

Is that why Sundqvist was moved?

I was a little curious as to why he was dealt as I thought he was a really good bottom 6er, but maybe that was a few years ago when the blues won the cup

 

[bleedblue1223]

Is that why Sundqvist was moved?

I was a little curious as to why he was dealt as I thought he was a really good bottom 6er, but maybe that was a few years ago when the blues won the cup

He's had knee and hip injuries since the Cup year.

 

[Dr Robot]

Is that why Sundqvist was moved?

I was a little curious as to why he was dealt as I thought he was a really good bottom 6er, but maybe that was a few years ago when the blues won the cup

He was injured in the off season and still getting his body back together. He's not bad this season but he's currently not the same player as 2019. He should be fine next year but we needed the cap space.

 

[rumrokh]

Funny cause from Detroit pov Walman has been better than Leddy ever was in Detroit, adding a useful bottom 6 F and a 2nd is just icing on the cake. Win-Win I guess

That's interesting, because I've seen plenty of Detroit fans also saying Walman is AHL-level and their wish is for defensemen of his caliber not to make the starting lineup next year.

Not saying you're wrong or those fans are right, but I have definitely seen fans of bad teams overreact to toolsy players. That was a Blues fan staple 15 years ago.

 

[drw02]

That's interesting, because I've seen plenty of Detroit fans also saying Walman is AHL-level and their wish is for defensemen of his caliber not to make the starting lineup next year.

Not saying you're wrong or those fans are right, but I have definitely seen fans of bad teams overreact to toolsy players. That was a Blues fan staple 15 years ago.

He's definitely been better offensively and in transition so far imo. He skates so well with pretty decent hands and plays with a lot more confidence and willingness to attack than Leddy ever showed. Defensively he hasn't been great by any means but neither was Leddy.

 

[Xerloris]

Honestly Leddy is surprisingly good so far with the team. He became especially valuable since Krug was injured right after we got him. We would have been in a world of hurt if we had not gotten him.

 

[Dotter]

Leddy was anemic in Detroit. Walman jumped in and started putting up points. He's Detroit's best skater and is more physical than Leddy was.

The Leddy STL has right now isn't the same one that was in Detroit. This probably just proves how bad Detroit is and how bad their coaching staff is. Leddy was overall insignificant and didn't help the team.

Good trade when everyone wins.

-Leddy chance to win a cup and playing for his next contract
-Walman and Sundqvist getting bigger roles
-Blues add depth to win a cup
-Detroit get's younger, adds future players and 2nd round pick to help their rebuild

 

[seafoam]

Leddy is good when he’s in a second pairing role.

He gets exposed in larger roles.

 

[Tetsuo]

I've been pretty pleased with Walman and Sundqvist so far. Walman especially has been a breath of fresh air with how terrible our LDs have been. Nothing outstanding but their both still young enough to hang around for awhile and help fill our depth. Getting the 2nd back after Leddy's awful play is just gravy.

I expected Leddy to be better than the report from Detroit fans, but he's been way better than that. Significant upgrade on every defenseman who has seen ice this year other than Faulk, Parayko, and Krug. Big upgrade on Scandella, Mikkola, and Walman.

The real test will be the playoffs, but the trade is already paying dividends with keeping the Blues from falling into a wildcard spot.

Both can be true. eddy can be an upgrade on Walman and Walman can be an upgrade on Leddy. Leddy was bad for us, but it never looked like he had fallen off a massive cliff or anything - a change of scenery from our horrible defense would probably do anyone good. I'm glad that this isn't lopsided, however, because trades don't have to be a zero sum game. Both sides should, in theory, benefit.

 

[saintunspecified]

Literally no surprise that Leddy is better in an environment when he is not a main focus of attention. It's nothing against him - it's just the kind of player he is, especially now. Leddy at 17-18 TOI, running the 2nd unit PP, is good. Leddy playing 22 minutes +, running PP#1, and up against top competition is not good.

I just hope that people remember that during the UFA period, and he doesn't get true top-4 money.

 

[STEVIE RAY BLUES]

Literally no surprise that Leddy is better in an environment when he is not a main focus of attention. It's nothing against him - it's just the kind of player he is, especially now. Leddy at 17-18 TOI, running the 2nd unit PP, is good. Leddy playing 22 minutes +, running PP#1, and up against top competition is not good.

I just hope that people remember that during the UFA period, and he doesn't get true top-4 money.

While I do agree that Leddy is probably not a first pairing D anymore I do think it's interesting how much better a player looks when he doesn't have to do the job of playing his position and covering for 3 other guys who just decided backchecking wasn't in their skill set. Right now Detroit is not a very good team and their defensemen pay the price for so so play up front.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

I expected Leddy to be better than the report from Detroit fans, but he's been way better than that. Significant upgrade on every defenseman who has seen ice this year other than Faulk, Parayko, and Krug. Big upgrade on Scandella, Mikkola, and Walman.

The real test will be the playoffs, but the trade is already paying dividends with keeping the Blues from falling into a wildcard spot.

Detroit fans were unfairly critical of Leddy while ignoring the negative impact that being paired with Hronek has on his partners. Leddy was put in a role he shouldn't have been on in Detroit and was next to Hronek for most of the season because DeKeyser - Hronek was disastrous. So to mitigate that disaster Blashill split up Leddy - Seider (which was overall a decent pair the first 10 games) and put DeKeyser with Seider.

DeKeyser looked slightly better next to Seider. Leddy looked terrible next to Hronek. But I think it was from having 2 puck moving, offensive leaning guys on the same pair and only having so much puck to go around. One of the things that Hronek is just flat out no good at is utilizing his partner without giving the damn puck away and there were a lot of really egregious chances against that started with a Hronek miscue.

On top of that, aside from Larkin and Raymond Detroit's forwards have just not been good at all defensively, constantly missing their assignments or treating the puck like a hot potato on a breakout. I think it was probably around January or so when Leddy just seemed to give zero shits because he was put in a pretty crap situation and knew he would get moved. I'm glad to see Leddy doing much better on another team, though.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Literally no surprise that Leddy is better in an environment when he is not a main focus of attention. It's nothing against him - it's just the kind of player he is, especially now. Leddy at 17-18 TOI, running the 2nd unit PP, is good. Leddy playing 22 minutes +, running PP#1, and up against top competition is not good.

I just hope that people remember that during the UFA period, and he doesn't get true top-4 money.

Leddy is running #1 PP unit and playing over 21 minutes with us. Krug got hurt in Leddy's debut. Leddy is still the same player he was in New York, Detroit was just a terrible fit for him and how they used him.

 

[Reality Czech]

Leddy is running #1 PP unit and playing over 21 minutes with us. Krug got hurt in Leddy's debut. Leddy is still the same player he was in New York, Detroit was just a terrible fit for him and how they used him.

It must be tough for a veteran guy to get traded from a team where he had been for years, and a team that had been knocking at the door of the finals, to a rebuilding team that had no playoff aspirations at the beginning of the year. Let alone in a contract year where he was hoping to maximize his value for free agency. Obviously every athlete should always give 100%, but it's not hard to imagine he had kind of checked out in Detroit.

He's still the same player he always was, which seems to be a steady, reliable, puck carrying d-man capable of playing 20 minutes a night. Leddy is easily our 4th best d-man with a healthy roster and has been a godsend after losing Krug.

 

[Dotter]

It must be tough for a veteran guy to get traded from a team where he had been for years, and a team that had been knocking at the door of the finals, to a rebuilding team that had no playoff aspirations at the beginning of the year. Let alone in a contract year where he was hoping to maximize his value for free agency. Obviously every athlete should always give 100%, but it's not hard to imagine he had kind of checked out in Detroit.

He's still the same player he always was, which seems to be a steady, reliable, puck carrying d-man capable of playing 20 minutes a night. Leddy is easily our 4th best d-man with a healthy roster and has been a godsend after losing Krug.

Wouldn't he first have to check in?

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Think Leddy’s issues in Detroit had more to do with his own attitude than system or teammates.

The time he got to play with Seider and still sucked ass kinda throws that reason out the window.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Leddy playing well in St. Louis is kind of unsurprising to me. I know that his analytics were a little scary in Detroit, however, so much of analytics is team-driven, and in terms of defensive results, Detroit was utter garbaggio.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Think Leddy’s issues in Detroit had more to do with his own attitude than system or teammates.

The time he got to play with Seider and still sucked ass kinda throws that reason out the window.

He didn’t suck with Seider. The analytics showed that it was a top 10ish pairing in the first 10 games.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

He didn’t suck with Seider. The analytics showed that it was a top 10ish pairing in the first 10 games.

Now go to DeKeyser’s waiving once Leddy didn’t give a shit anymore.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Now go to DeKeyser’s waiving once Leddy didn’t give a shit anymore.

The whole team didn't give a shit then, to be fair.