Was Faulk to the Blues the most pointless and puzzling trade ever?

[JT Kreider]

He had a pretty brutal first year in St. Louis with only 5 goals and 16 points, had the lowest TOI of his career behind Parayko and Pietrangelo and now his $6.5 million contract is clogging their cap space and could be the difference between being able to afford to extend Petro or not.

Unless they traded and extended Faulk knowing Pietrangelo is a goner.

I really don't think Faulk's game was the best fit for the Blues to begin with. And they have Perunovich on the way coming off his Hobey Baker and he seems to be more of an offensive defenseman as well.

Seems like a really puzzling trade, unless again the plan is to let Petro walk. And if they chose Faulk over Petro...yikes.

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[CanadienShark]

Yeah it was a stupid trade from day one, unless they know or assume Pietrangelo won't re-sign.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

He had a pretty brutal first year in St. Louis with only 5 goals and 16 points, had the lowest TOI of his career behind Parayko and Pietrangelo and now his $6.5 million contract is clogging their cap space and could be the difference between being able to afford to extend Petro or not.

Unless they traded and extended Faulk knowing Pietrangelo is a goner.

I really don't think Faulk's game was the best fit for the Blues to begin with. And they have Perunovich on the way coming off his Hobey Baker and he seems to be more of an offensive defenseman as well.

Seems like a really puzzling trade, unless again the plan is to let Petro walk. And if they chose Faulk over Petro...yikes.

I’m not sure what Armstrong imagined Faulk’s role would be. If Pietrangelo telegraphed that he was waking, it will make sense. But I don’t believe that it be the case. It could be viewed as insurance, but that’s still hard to reason through.

Faulk had a tough year. But he also had a very inconsistent role. Played left side or right side. Who was his partner? He had a lot less PP time than he was used to.

He was starting to look decent paired on Pietro’s left toward the end of the season.

Assuming the Blues re-sign Pietro, I think Faulk will look better next year with a consistent role. He will be exposed to the expansion draft and will be a slightly overpaid but otherwise attractive piece for Seattle (under team control for several years, in his prime age years.

Still, if love an honest explanation of what Armstrong was thinking.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

The trade itself wasn't bad imo, the extension was baffling. No idea what Armstrong was thinking.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

9/11/19: Peter Chiarelli is hired as a special consultant to Doug Armstrong

9/24/19: The Blues trade for Justin Faulk

 

[NYR94]

Strange trade and signing. Why didn't they keep Edmundson?

Is Bouwmeester retiring? Maybe there's a chance Faulk plays a bigger role moving forward especially if Pietrangelo leaves.

 

[TheGoldenGod]

It was a weird move and I hated it from day 1. If I had to guess, I think the idea of the deal was supposed to give Armstrong a combination of leverage and insurance. A) If Petro wants to stay, he will have to sign a more team-friendly deal because of the now limited amount of cap space. B) If Petro leaves, DA already has his replacement in house. Also, at the time, it was believed that the cap was going to go up to 84-88 million, which would've gave Armstrong a lot more cap flexibility come free agency time. Now that it's likely stuck at 81.5, its going to take a lot creativity to get something worked out.

 

[Dr Salt]

Carolina had them from day one. Justin Faulk wasn't very good to begin with and the fact Carolina even got as much value as they did is pretty good.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

No. The Sabres sending the Blues ROR for some already scratched lottery tickets and pocket lint was the most puzzling and pointless trade ever. And that would be without what happened last year.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Puzzling and pointless is a guiding principle of a lot of GM tenures.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I remember back when people thought Faulk was actually good.

 

[BlueDream]

Strange trade and signing. Why didn't they keep Edmundson?

Is Bouwmeester retiring? Maybe there's a chance Faulk plays a bigger role moving forward especially if Pietrangelo leaves.

Well Edmundson kinda sucks too. He’s a UFA this year and the Blues wouldn’t have brought him back if he was still on the team.

Bouwmeester will definitely retire. But we now have Scandella to fill his role (and he was good in his short time with us).

So yeah, it’s a weird trade. Unlikely that Faulk ever lives up to the contract. I gotta think one of Pietrangelo or Dunn is gone either this year or next. I’m just not seeing the room to keep all 3 of these guys. Unless we got lucky and worked out a trade for Seattle to take Faulk...lol.

 

[simon IC]

Quite possibly the worst transaction of Armstrong's tenure with the Blues, and this is coming from a fan of Doug Armstrong. I hated it from the moment I read about it. What perplexes me most, is that Armstrong is usually very good at determining what kind of player will fit the Blues system. He was way, way off with Faulk. I cannot for the life of me fathom why Faulk was a target at all. If the Blues lose Pietrangelo and their cup window closes, I can see Armstrong losing his job over this one.

 

[Voight]

I think it was a contingency plan with Piets being in a contract year, but after captaining the team to its first cup you'd figure he would want to stick around.

Either way, he could have waited to get a guy like Faulk in the off season when he knows 100% if Piets is leaving or not.

 

[LokiDog]

The trade itself wasn't bad imo, the extension was baffling. No idea what Armstrong was thinking.

This is how I saw it. I was a bit puzzled by the trade because of the right side depth, but I figured Faulk was just them loading up to go for the repeat. Couldn’t fault that. The extension I just couldn’t wrap my head around. Makes no sense.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

The extension is the biggest head scratcher

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think they made the trade thinking that it would stack their blueline and give them options. Worst case: they lose Faulk for nothing to Seattle

 

[OtherThingsILike]

I think they made the trade thinking that it would stack their blueline and give them options. Worst case: they lose Faulk for nothing to Seattle

Why do you assume Seattle would want to take him?

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Why do you assume Seattle would want to take him?

In the last expansion draft, teams were bending over backwards to protect any D better than Faulk. He'd probably be the best D available to them

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I think they made the trade thinking that it would stack their blueline and give them options. Worst case: they lose Faulk for nothing to Seattle

That Seattle team is sure gonna be an expensive disaster:

Lucic - Duchene - Benn
Okposo - Abdelkader - Ryan
Kessel - Skinner - Neal
Ladd - Turris - Eriksson

Seabrook - Faulk
Alzner - Subban
Jack Johnson - Erik Johnson
Boychuk

Bobrovsky
Quick
Lundqvuist

 

[AhoLottaLove]

People thought Vegas would take bad contracts too and they didn't.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

That Seattle team is sure gonna be an expensive disaster:

Lucic - Duchene - Benn
Okposo - Abdelkader - Ryan
Kessel - Skinner - Neal
Ladd - - Eriksson

Seabrook - Faulk
Alzner - Subban
Jack Johnson - Erik Johnson
Boychuk

Bobrovsky
Quick
Lundqvuist

Of these guys, I could see them taking Duchene, Skinner and Kessel.

Vegas did take some good players with contracts their teams didn't want anymore. Specifically, Marc-Andre Fleury, Reilly Smith, Cody Eakin

 

[archangel2]

Yeah it was a stupid trade from day one, unless they know or assume Pietrangelo won't re-sign.

Blues may know something the rest of do not know

 

[absolute garbage]

Should've been obvious that Faulk was going to have a "disappointing" season considering the inevitable decrease in TOI and especially PP time. Defensemen production is directly tied into their role and especially PP usage.

I have a hard time believing they make this move if Pietrangelo is staying. They had to know he's gone. I don't know though, maybe I'm overrating them as we all know NHL front offices tend to be really dumb more often than not.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

They just won the cup and looked to get better, not stay complacent. The move itself wasn't bad, the extension is what puts a lot of pressure on Faulk to perform.