St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong has reportedly determined that something is afflicting the core of his too-talented-to-keep-failing-in-the-season's-most-crucial-moments team.
From David Backes, to Vladimir Tarasenko, to Alex Pietrangelo to Brian Elliott, talent permeates every level of the Blues roster and yet, seemingly time and again, they've wound up as one of the biggest disappointments of every NHL season over the last five years.
Because of this, Armstrong now enters an offseason wherein something drastic must be done. What that drastic thing will be is anyone's guess, but Allen Muir of SportsIllustrated.com believes the veteran GM must begin shifting the landscape in St. Louis by jettisoning forward TJ Oshie.
"A team that has betrayed high expectations with a first-round elimination in each of the past three seasons simply cannot stand pat," writes Muir. "And with his decision to re-sign coach Ken Hitchcock for one more year, GM Doug Armstrong has all but committed to making one or more changes to his core. Oshie seems to be the most likely to go, in part because of the tensions between himself and the coach but also because he's someone whose game could blossom in a different system. The trick will be finding a partner who is willing to return an NHL-ready asset."
Muir's assessment echoes a report from late last week that Armstrong was willing to deal players like Oshie, Backes, Patrik Berglund and perhaps even a few more.
Considering the ridiculous depth the Blues already boast and the deals they'll likely have to hand out in the not-too-distant future to players like Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera, perhaps an "NHL-ready asset" isn't the way to go in terms of trade compensation. Then again, the team did notify long-time defenseman Barret Jackman that he won't be back next season, so another young defenseman could be a good addition.
Either way, Muir believes a team like the Boston Bruins and newly minted GM Don Sweeney could very well be "in the mix" for a player like Oshie.
HNGN passed along a report in Dec. that the Bruins and then-GM Peter Chiarelli, desperately searching for a way to inject some grit and scoring touch into a lineup that had suddenly gone soft, were eyeing a deal for Oshie ahead of the NHL's March trade deadline.
It was then reported that the Bruins, despite their desire to land a high-quality player, were actually afraid of doing a deal for a guy like Oshie because he had term remaining on his deal and the uncertain cap for 2015-16 - recently pegged at $71.4 million - and the need to pay young players like Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Reilly Smith meant there wasn't a lot in terms of cap room to go around.
In the end, of course, nothing got done and Oshie remained with the Blues for yet another disappointing playoff series.
With Oshie set to enter the second-to-last year of a deal that pays him $4.5 million, it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for a Bruins team that, per NHLNumbers.com, has just over $12.1 million in space.
Of course, if the deal were actually to be done in the manner that Muir suggests, the Bruins could simultaneously make room by shipping out an expensive piece of their own. The trick will be finding a trade fit from amongst a group of Bruins players who are seemingly all either young and in need of a new contract, or older and carrying a major cap hit as they near the end of their last NHL deal.
