ST. LOUIS — It’s fitting that with many around the NHL turning their attention from the Olympics to the March 6 trade deadline, the St. Louis Blues’ first game back from the break is against the Seattle Kraken.
Seattle has been rumored as a possible destination for one of the Blues’ top tradable assets, Jordan Kyrou. And on top of that, the Kraken’s general manager is Jason Botterill.
For those not making the connection right away, Botterill was the GM of the Buffalo Sabres in 2018, when Blues GM Doug Armstrong pulled off the blockbuster deal that brought Ryan O’Reilly to St. Louis for a package of players.
The Blues and Sabres, as it turned out, both got what they wanted — a Stanley Cup to St. Louis that season, and as part of that package, Buffalo got a now-star in Tage Thompson, who recently won a gold medal with U.S. men’s Olympic team.
Eight years later, Armstrong is the one looking to move veteran players, including one or two in the primes of their careers, for high-end prospects and picks.
On The Athletic’s recently released trade board 7.0, the Blues’ Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou appear at Nos. 22 and 41, respectively, and there’s other aging veterans on the list in Justin Faulk (No. 4), Jordan Binnington (No. 10) and Brayden Schenn (No. 13). Those five aren’t the only ones who could be sent packing in the eight days left before the deadline, but they could yield the biggest returns.
It’s up to Armstrong and incoming GM Alexander Steen to make the most of what they’re willing to part with on the roster, as Buffalo did in 2019.
After interviewing multiple league sources, who were given anonymity to discuss the Blues’ situation freely, here’s what I’m hearing about the players the Blues could trade.
Earlier this week, upon returning from his role as GM of Team Canada at the Olympics, Armstrong met with Blues players who possess some form of trade protection.
To recap, the list of those who have a full or modified no-trade clause is Thomas (full), Kyrou (full), Colton Parayko (full), Pavel Buchnevich (full), Faulk (15-team no-trade), Schenn (15-team no-trade), Binnington (14-team no-trade) and Cam Fowler (four teams he can be traded to).
The type of meeting Armstrong held is common leading up to the deadline, and it’s done collectively because it’s a generic conversation with players who might be asked to waive their NTCs. If it’s presented to the group, they’re more apt to understand that it’s about the situation, and they’re not being isolated.
According to a league source, the message from the GM is, “This is what we’re faced with, this is where we find ourselves at this time, and we’re all big boys. We all know this is part of the game, and as we go into the next 10 days, these things are going to be on the table … and we’ll see what it is.’”
The fact that Armstrong has to address the players shouldn’t be understated, because in the past four years, two Blues players — Torey Krug in 2023 and Schenn last season — have had the final say in whether they wanted to be moved.
For now, though, other than “modest conversations” between the Blues and these players about the potential of being traded, none have been asked to waive their protection.
So, where do things stand between the organization and the names that are littering The Athletic’s trade board?
To get a grasp of that, we need an explainer on where the Blues have been the past couple of seasons and where they plan to go in the next few seasons.
Two seasons ago, the Blues entered what they defined as a “retool,” opting to avoid a full “rebuild.” They wanted to remain competitive, make the playoffs, keep fans in the seats and eventually turn over the roster to the rising group of prospects.
After a fall-off in the early half of the 2024-25 season, that plan appeared to be re-aligning properly when the Blues made a run into the playoffs after the 4 Nations Face-Off, even with their excruciating first-round loss to the Winnipeg Jets. With the team’s best players playing so well down that stretch, especially Thomas, the prevailing thought was that adding center depth in Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad could keep them in the wild-card conversation.
Instead, they sit in second-to-last place going into Thursday’s game, and all of the talk on the outside is about landing the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft this summer.
This has left league sources wondering: Do the Blues still think they’re in a one- or two-year retool, or is this now a three- or four-year rebuild? If it’s the latter, that’s a significant shift from what the club has said publicly. It’s understandable, based on how the season’s unfolding, though.
Why does it matter in the immediate future? Because it could affect whether the Blues keep or trade the most valuable asset on the roster: Thomas.
According to league sources, the Blues have expressed that they are willing to trade their “older players,” and some sources said specifically that means anyone 25 and above. That would include Faulk (33), Schenn (34), Binnington (32), Parayko (32), Buchnevich (30) and Fowler (34) — as well as Kyrou (27) and Thomas (26).
With the players in their 30s, the expectation is that the Blues will try to trade them at some point, perhaps before the deadline.
Faulk and Schenn, in particular, would not be opposed to staying in St. Louis but also recognize what the situation is and would be willing to waive their trade protection to facilitate a deal with a contending team.
With Binnington, the feeling is similar, but in-season trades with goalies are challenging, and you have to consider that to waive, he’ll want to be in a situation where he can prove himself worthy of a contract extension beyond the one season that’s left on his deal. How many teams that need goalies fit that bill? The Edmonton Oilers are easy to speculate about, but are they desirable to Binnington? I wouldn’t be so sure.
So while trades may likely be made for Faulk and Schenn by next week, Binnington’s situation seems more likely to linger into the summer.
That brings us back to Thomas and Kyrou.
Are they truly too old to be in the Blues’ preferred age range for players, or does the team simply want to move on from one or two of its core pieces?
And who’s making the decisions: Armstrong or Steen?
It’s clear that the Blues want their future to be in the hands of Philip Broberg, Jake Neighbours, Jimmy Snuggerud, Dalibor Dvorsky, etc. But it’s “an interesting dynamic,” according to one league source observing the organization, that the transition of the team into a potentially longer retool coincides with the transition from Armstrong to Steen. It could complicate matters, at least as far as decisions that need to be made now.
Can the club be clear enough with Thomas, who has five seasons left on his contract, about its projected timetable of competing again so that he can make a decision on whether he wants to stick around or pave the way for his exit? Perhaps the Blues don’t know themselves because they don’t know how long their up-and-coming players will take to be ready, but the situation is vague at the moment.
In the meantime, Armstrong has made it clear what the asking price is for Thomas: three first half of the first-round assets. For example, that could mean an established young player, a drafted prospect and a draft pick who were all selected or could be taken in the first 15 or so picks.
That type of return would be the single-most pivotal move to expedite the retool, but, again, if Thomas doesn’t have a firm picture of the team’s direction, how can he respond to whether he wants to waive his no-trade clause?
That’s not to say he won’t get a detailed layout of the future over the next week. If he’s told it’s going to be another three to four years, maybe he decides that he will waive his no-trade clause. But between that and another team coming up with the assets that Armstrong is asking for, it seems unlikely to be pulled off before the deadline. Similar to Binnington, it could be an offseason priority.
With Kyrou, whether the Blues are trying to trade him isn’t clear, but the team’s leading goal-scorer from the past three seasons might want to be moved, as he’s currently sixth among forwards on the team in average ice time (16:12, down from 17:28 last season and 18:19 the season before that).
There’s a lot riding on what happens in the next week for the Blues, and after Armstrong met with many of the players earlier this week, it’s time to find out if he’ll find a home for them — if not by next week, then it will be four more long months.