St. Louis Blues Should Roll The Dice And Keep Radek Faksa

[TBone]

I would rather trade Joesph or Texier to clear cap, but they may be untradable without attaching a draft pick.

That said, finding a way to keep Faksa seems like priority for the reasons listed in the remainder of this article.

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St. Louis Blues Should Roll The Dice And Keep Radek Faksa

By Todd Panula
May 19, 2025

In terms of offseason necessities, the St. Louis Blues don't have a ton they absolutely have to take care of. The team really only has three pending free agents. Radek Faksa and Ryan Suter are unrestricted free agents and Joel Hofer is a restricted free agent. Hofer isn't going anywhere unless the Blues really think that Colten Ellis is ready and the other two were brought in as stop-gap players anyway.

However, given the immense success of the Blues fourth line at the end of the 2024-25 regular season and into the playoffs, I make the case that the Blues should re-sign Faksa. Of course, this all rests on the idea that the price would be right for both the player and the team.

Faksa had a cap hit of $3.25 million this past season. That would need to come down for this to make any sense. If the Blues kept Faksa, they would also need to trade someone since they still need to make space for upcoming players, such as Dalibor Dvorsky. In my proposal, I would attempt to keep Faksa at a lowered price and trade Oskar Sundqvist.

https://bleedinblue.com/st-louis-blues- ... jvk3db1php

[blues2112]

I would rather trade Joesph or Texier to clear cap, but they may be untradable without attaching a draft pick.

That said, finding a way to keep Faksa seems like priority for the reasons listed in the remainder of this article.

-------------------------------------------------

St. Louis Blues Should Roll The Dice And Keep Radek Faksa

By Todd Panula
May 19, 2025

In terms of offseason necessities, the St. Louis Blues don't have a ton they absolutely have to take care of. The team really only has three pending free agents. Radek Faksa and Ryan Suter are unrestricted free agents and Joel Hofer is a restricted free agent. Hofer isn't going anywhere unless the Blues really think that Colten Ellis is ready and the other two were brought in as stop-gap players anyway.

However, given the immense success of the Blues fourth line at the end of the 2024-25 regular season and into the playoffs, I make the case that the Blues should re-sign Faksa. Of course, this all rests on the idea that the price would be right for both the player and the team.

Faksa had a cap hit of $3.25 million this past season. That would need to come down for this to make any sense. If the Blues kept Faksa, they would also need to trade someone since they still need to make space for upcoming players, such as Dalibor Dvorsky. In my proposal, I would attempt to keep Faksa at a lowered price and trade Oskar Sundqvist.

https://bleedinblue.com/st-louis-blues- ... jvk3db1php

Signing Faksa seems to be a no-brainer; would hardly call it a roll of the dice.

As for the boldface, Dvorsky is signed through 2026-27, and Sundvist'(poop) next year is $1.5 million. That's more than a fair deal for the Blues organ-eye-zation.

[DawgDad]

One-sided conversation. Faksa has the right to test the market as a free agent.

[Old_Goat]

Make a FAIR offer for both NOT too much $ and time; and see what happens. I suspect Faksa recognizes this could be a good place to finish out? If Faksa goes, then keep Sunqvist for his remaining year as a fill-in back up capacity.
Move on from these three this summer anyway possible in the following priority order: Texier, Joseph, Sunqvist -- again keep Sunqvist only if Faksa goes.
I don't care about occasional rookie mistakes...for the money some of these hungry kids can do just as well as Texier and Joseph -- I'm not talking about Dvorsky...he is a potential talent that needs to be developed differently. And Walker is capable as a 4th Line Center.
Have to make smart pickup of another 2nd line Center and another Top 4 Center with size and defensive reliability.
All a tall order, but we are not that far away.

[callitwhatyouwant]

I have a hard time believing the Blues would trade Sunny D on the contract he is on. Faksa will get an offer from the Blues, but I would hope its no more than 2-2.5. The reason being is that Sunny is a 4th liner but he's also a glue guy for the locker room. Blues aren't just going to get rid of a guy like that one such a team friendly deal. It creates a problem tho because they clearly want Faksa and both those guys should be 4th liners.

One of the biggest problems moving forward is that you have a handful of guys that you like as 4th liners. You have Faksa, Sunny, Torpedo, Walker, young guys like Dean. They all fit in that mold. Torpedo is the one that gets screwed over by the WTF line. While they are a good grinder line and possession, his scoring ability dropped tremendously due to their playstyle. This is the first year where we didn't see him have a stretch of 20-30 games where he was getting unusually hot. He stayed cool all year. Maybe that's what they want out of him, but that's going to hurt his check book.

[BrummerStealsHome]

One-sided conversation. Faksa has the right to test the market as a free agent.

Is that a fact-sa?

[DawgDad]

Per Army Dylan Peterson is about ready, too.

[DawgDad]

One-sided conversation. Faksa has the right to test the market as a free agent.

Is that a fact-sa?

Radek-al, dude.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Per Army Dylan Peterson is about ready, too.

I'm pretty sure Peterson, Dean, Stenberg, Alexandrov are all knocking at the door to being NHL ready. The balancing act of where those guys go is the question. Obviously Dvorsky should be getting his shot too since he's playing beyond his age in every league he's in. The fact that he put up .73 ppg 45/61 in his first season in the AHL is pretty impressive.

I think you have time with Peterson Dean and Stenberg, maybe 1 more season. But Alexandrov is going to need some decision making. Too good for the AHL, didn't show up last year for the NHL.

[seattleblue]

I am way more interested in this question than others on the roster because I really loved what Faksa brought. Armstrong was explicit in the presser when asked about this. Armstrong has a personal crush on the playstyle of Alxeander Kaskimaki, he said he plays the game like Steen. He literally said this when on the topic of bringing Faksa back. I think he is 100% torn between bringing back Faksa who probably would sign a solid offer here, and promoting Kaskimaki and Peterson, who he also cited as being near ready and in the 4th line Toropchenko playstyle (which he is). There's also Dean. He said he would have a series of conversations with his staff about what direction to go there.

If he can jettison Joseph and Texier, one of whom fit in a little bit here, then he could sign Faksa and promote Kaskimaki/Peterson.

[DawgDad]

I am way more interested in this question than others on the roster because I really loved what Faksa brought. Armstrong was explicit in the presser when asked about this. Armstrong has a personal crush on the playstyle of Alxeander Kaskimaki, he said he plays the game like Steen. He literally said this when on the topic of bringing Faksa back. I think he is 100% torn between bringing back Faksa who probably would sign a solid offer here, and promoting Kaskimaki and Peterson, who he also cited as being near ready and in the 4th line Toropchenko playstyle (which he is). There's also Dean. He said he would have a series of conversations with his staff about what direction to go there.

If he can jettison Joseph and Texier, one of whom fit in a little bit here, then he could sign Faksa and promote Kaskimaki/Peterson.

There really isn't a 3rd line wing opening for one of the bangers or depth guys anymore, either. Ideally DD is ready for NHL time at center but he needs to progress at his own pace. The only rationale I see for keeping Joseph or Texier around is they are (theoretically) better suited for top-6/9 offensive backfill than other options, but that may just be overcrowding at this point.

Being a cap league works against the fringe and depth veterans. Faksa has earned a raise and term but it's questionable how much value his position holds from the Blues perspective.

[Frank Barone]

I am way more interested in this question than others on the roster because I really loved what Faksa brought. Armstrong was explicit in the presser when asked about this. Armstrong has a personal crush on the playstyle of Alxeander Kaskimaki, he said he plays the game like Steen. He literally said this when on the topic of bringing Faksa back. I think he is 100% torn between bringing back Faksa who probably would sign a solid offer here, and promoting Kaskimaki and Peterson, who he also cited as being near ready and in the 4th line Toropchenko playstyle (which he is). There's also Dean. He said he would have a series of conversations with his staff about what direction to go there.

If he can jettison Joseph and Texier, one of whom fit in a little bit here, then he could sign Faksa and promote Kaskimaki/Peterson.

Can Peterson be a center in the NHL or is he strictly viewed as a RW at this point? I understand Kaskimaki played LW all year in Springfield.

[callitwhatyouwant]

I am way more interested in this question than others on the roster because I really loved what Faksa brought. Armstrong was explicit in the presser when asked about this. Armstrong has a personal crush on the playstyle of Alxeander Kaskimaki, he said he plays the game like Steen. He literally said this when on the topic of bringing Faksa back. I think he is 100% torn between bringing back Faksa who probably would sign a solid offer here, and promoting Kaskimaki and Peterson, who he also cited as being near ready and in the 4th line Toropchenko playstyle (which he is). There's also Dean. He said he would have a series of conversations with his staff about what direction to go there.

If he can jettison Joseph and Texier, one of whom fit in a little bit here, then he could sign Faksa and promote Kaskimaki/Peterson.

There really isn't a 3rd line wing opening for one of the bangers or depth guys anymore, either. Ideally DD is ready for NHL time at center but he needs to progress at his own pace. The only rationale I see for keeping Joseph or Texier around is they are (theoretically) better suited for top-6/9 offensive backfill than other options, but that may just be overcrowding at this point.

Being a cap league works against the fringe and depth veterans. Faksa has earned a raise and term but it's questionable how much value his position holds from the Blues perspective.

Those decisions have the luxury of being made pretty late tho right? Like they are allowed to run over 10 percent thru camp and preseason. I have a feeling that unless someone wants those guys (I have no idea who would), they will be on the roster until the end of preseason and then if the young guys play well you would see some guys get waived. But the Blues cap is in such a way that they are golden. The only issue is what they want to do with Faksa. Faksa directly correlates with Sunny being a filler, and how much we are going to spend on a 2/3C. Texier and Joseph aren't as big a deal because again, they can waive them and mitigate some of that cap hit to the main roster. I don't think the Blues should give up on Joseph yet tho. We were clearly better with him in the lineup for whatever reason. And he showed more skill in Ottawa than he did here, so he might have a better year 2.

[dhsux]

Is Dean healthy?

Also, was he not traded for to be in a top 6 role back then? Is he a true 4th line guy and willing/able to play that style of hockey?

[TheJackBurton]

I would rather trade Joesph or Texier to clear cap, but they may be untradable without attaching a draft pick.

That said, finding a way to keep Faksa seems like priority for the reasons listed in the remainder of this article.

-------------------------------------------------

St. Louis Blues Should Roll The Dice And Keep Radek Faksa

By Todd Panula
May 19, 2025

In terms of offseason necessities, the St. Louis Blues don't have a ton they absolutely have to take care of. The team really only has three pending free agents. Radek Faksa and Ryan Suter are unrestricted free agents and Joel Hofer is a restricted free agent. Hofer isn't going anywhere unless the Blues really think that Colten Ellis is ready and the other two were brought in as stop-gap players anyway.

However, given the immense success of the Blues fourth line at the end of the 2024-25 regular season and into the playoffs, I make the case that the Blues should re-sign Faksa. Of course, this all rests on the idea that the price would be right for both the player and the team.

Faksa had a cap hit of $3.25 million this past season. That would need to come down for this to make any sense. If the Blues kept Faksa, they would also need to trade someone since they still need to make space for upcoming players, such as Dalibor Dvorsky. In my proposal, I would attempt to keep Faksa at a lowered price and trade Oskar Sundqvist.

https://bleedinblue.com/st-louis-blues- ... jvk3db1php

If they want to trade Texier there won't be any shortage of teams that are willing to take a shot on him.

You won't get much back, but you wouldn't have to attach anything either

[seattleblue]

Is Dean healthy?

Also, was he not traded for to be in a top 6 role back then? Is he a true 4th line guy and willing/able to play that style of hockey?

Dean came back healthy at the end of the year and looked good, however he has only been projected as a 3C/4C never a top 6 role. Definitely projects as a center as of now.