You Are The Blues GM, So Would You...?

With the St. Louis Blues being very quiet during free agency, I wanted to create a fun article to get the hockey minds working.  I will ask hypothetical questions about some Blues players and good ol’ hockey debates.  Remember, none of these are  based off of any rumors and are all made up. So lets play NHL 13 Be A GM Mode and you choose the Blues.

Would You Trade Brian Elliott? With Elliott being average in the playoffs against the Los Angeles Kings,  it seems to be that a healthy Jaroslav Halak will keep the starting job.  However, Elliott’s stock rose tremendously over this season with his 1.56 GAA and .940 save %, while also making the All Star game.  His cap hit is also considerably low at $1.8 million with 2 years left.  So would you trade Elliott if it meant getting a top 4 or possibly a top 2 defenseman?  Halak will be the starter, but Elliott stepped up in a huge way when Halak went down with injuries.  What would you want for Elliot?

Would You Trade TJ Oshie? Oshie was just locked up for 5 years at a great rate of $4.175 million per year.  The young forward prospects of Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Ty Rattie could possibly challenge him for a spot in the coming years.  Oshie can play center as well as wing which boosts his value that much more.  Oshie could be swapped straight up for a top defenseman, or could be worked into a deal for Bobby Ryan.  So IF one of those prospects are able to play on the 1st or 2nd line, can Oshie be traded?

Would you trade Kevin Shattenkirk? Alex Pietrangelo proved to be the offensive defenseman the Blues need, and can also play solid defense.  Shattenkirk also is growing into a stud offensive defenseman, but Pietrangelo’s defensive game is a bit better.  The Blues are lacking a big shutdown D-man so could the Blues swap their smooth skating offensive defenseman for a big, hard hitting top 2 defender?

I am not saying that I am for any of these crazy proposals, but just throwing them out there to create a debate.  Follow me on twitter @TonyMoreno20 and throw out some ideas to me.

Share