The St. Louis Blues may not be open for business, but they certainly seem willing to entertain whatever trade offers happen to come their way in the hours leading up to puck drop on the 2015 NHL Draft on Friday night.
An extremely talented team that has too often failed in the season's most important moments seems set for at least something of a shake up this offseason. While the Blues aren't likely to ship out their entire core, it certainly sounds like some pieces are at least available - for the right price.
"I know that Doug Armstrong is listening to the interest in T.J. Oshie. And you'd guess that there'd be a fair bit of interest in him," said TSN NHL Insider Darren Dreger, while appearing on Toronto's TSN 1050, via TodaysSlapShot.com. "He hasn't been in the game long enough where he's got warts or any sort of obvious flaws. Is he as high-end a player as what the Blues or some were hoping? Maybe not, but he's still young enough that there's hope and promise. On a lot of teams he can easily fit in their top-6. On a deeper team, man, he'd be a great top-9 forward."
Armstrong and the Blues are currently facing some salary cap issues, stemming from the explosive growth shown by Vladimir Tarasenko and the steady, sure-handed improvement from Jori Lehtera. According to NHLNumbers.com, they've currently got about $14.9 million in cap space, most of which will disappear quickyl with new deals for Tarasenko and Lehtera. It's a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.
As such, Oshie headlines a slightly older core of Blues players who could potentially be shipped elsewhere depending on how things shake out and what offers materialize.
"His name is out there. Berglund's name is out there. There's some who are hinting at David Backes. Not sure I'm buying that entirely.
"But I know this about Doug Armstrong. He's crafty. Look, when you just reject the idea of trade discussion on a certain player, then I don't think that you're doing your job because what happens is you may not want to trade that player and have no intention of trading that player, but often times it'll flip to another player just based on the dialog that's going back and forth."
It sounds like Dreger is suggested that while Oshie may be the name drawing interested GMs into conversations with Armstrong, the Blues may instead be looking to shift said conversation to other areas of their forward corps.
Still, it certainly sounds like the rumors of Oshie's availability have legs. He's been discussed as a potential trade candidate since the NHL trade deadline in March and again this offseason. The 2015 NHL Draft may finally be the time for Armstrong to pull the trigger.
"T.J. Oshie's name is definitely out there."
