IsDurbanodoingtime wrote: ↑13 May 2025 11:39 am
Looking at potential 2c stopgaps - what about Claude Giroux on a one year deal (especially if schenn may not return) ? Savings on salary for probably a lateral move. Not excited to overspend on money and term for a meh candidate like gourde. Bennet will be an overpay by whomever signs him. Duchene /Granlund would be better candidates but will come at a premium and look likely to stay in Dallas.
Giroux has mostly been playing RW lately. He’s still amazing at faceoffs so still takes a ton but my understanding is that he would then shift to RW and Stutzle would actually play center on their top line. Could Giroux still play C? Idk. I don’t watch enough of Ottawa to have a great opinion on that. But if he could, and would actually be willing to sign here, a 1 year 35+ incentive based contract would be a great idea.
Granlund is pretty much exclusively a LW this season.
TheHighHat wrote: ↑13 May 2025 05:39 am
How many of you think the Blues are Cup contenders if they fill that 2C need?
I think the Bues are Cup contenders if they replace Faulk with someone at least as good as Parayko.
That to me is a Cup contender.
Not with Sunny as their 3rd center contending teams can roll three scoring lines and a very good 4th line which we already have. Blues need more a playmaking center for Bolduc and Neighbours, love Sunny, bleeds blue should retire here but hes out of position
I look at it like the top end RHD is THE piece, and we also need a Bozak as opposed to an ROR, and that you can be a Cup contender needing a Bozak midway through your season and add someone. Notice how many current "cup contenders" need more at C but they are still "contenders." I just see the 2C issue as solvable in multiple ways that the RHD is not.
This makes perfect sense. A top-4 RD, particularly one that would be considered a true #1 guy is the unicorn of unicorns in this league. We don’t need a true 1RD to be a Cup contender but I think it’s pretty clear we need someone better than Faulk. There’s just so few of them though. But agree this piece is the harder of the 2 to fill. 2C isn’t an easy position to fill but it is easier than a top RD, that’s for sure.
Army should be actively trying to fill both holes. My guess is he’s on it. I’ll be interested to see what all he’s able to accomplish this summer.
It's an endless battle to convince people who are attached to a known player at a position far easier to fill than RHD that RHD is turning into a unicorn position and so you might have to make what looks like a lopsided trade to fill it. Just intuitively when you look at a roster there are half the spots for D as there are for forwards, and almost always the top few D play the team's most minutes. Same reason why it's so maddening for a team like Edmonton to be held hostage by the relative NHL unicorn of solid playoff goaltender.
Only part of this I'd quibble with is that RHD is “turning into” a unicorn position. IMO, it’s been that way for a long time now. Remember years ago when people lambasted EDM for trading Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson “one for one”? Hall had a Hart Trophy but what was Adam Larsson? A RHD! And who would teams rather have today? Probably Larsson.
But yes, the simple truth is that for the Blues to take the steps they need to take to become a Cup caliber team again, it almost certainly will involve saying goodbye to some good soldiers and quality players. Not because they’re bad or no good but just that we need the “right” pieces in the right positions to take that next step. And we are overloaded at LW and LD in particular (organizationally) so that’s the ideal area to try to deal from.
You're right it's not "turning into," given that we spent a couple years looking for that piece on LHD where we realized we needed to improve the upper end of the LD to be contenders. They had Petro playing with Colaicovo. It's pretty much any top pair caliber D whichever side. And RHD does seem more difficult than LHD.
IsDurbanodoingtime wrote: ↑13 May 2025 11:39 am
Looking at potential 2c stopgaps - what about Claude Giroux on a one year deal (especially if schenn may not return) ? Savings on salary for probably a lateral move. Not excited to overspend on money and term for a meh candidate like gourde. Bennet will be an overpay by whomever signs him. Duchene /Granlund would be better candidates but will come at a premium and look likely to stay in Dallas.
Schenn will be back and will play with Kyrou and Holloway until that no longer works. You need an upgrade at 3C. Bennet will be way too expensive for that. Someone must have a candidate that needs to unload some money to make a run at Marner or another bigger fish.
leedog68 wrote: ↑13 May 2025 16:23 pm
Schenn will be back and will play with Kyrou and Holloway until that no longer works. You need an upgrade at 3C. Bennet will be way too expensive for that. Someone must have a candidate that needs to unload some money to make a run at Marner or another bigger fish.
I agree with this, they could look for a two way 200' #3C while Schenn sustains and Dvorsky develops
But I also think that IF they get Bennett we'll find ways to live with it quickly because we'll be suddenly 1 upgrade of Faulk away from a very serious Cup contender while having a lot of youth still flowing up throughout the lineup.
