All the rumors and reports during the lead up to the first-round of the 2015 NHL Draft concerning the St. Louis Blues and GM Doug Armstrong's interest in altering the makeup of his team's core focused on the forward position and the Blues ample depth upfront and thus, their likelihood of dealing from what is considered a position of over-abundant strength.
While names like TJ Oshie and Patrik Berglund likely were available then and just as likely remain available now, it seems Armstrong's potential overhaul may not extend to his forwards only.
"Blues' Kevin Shattenkirk may be apparently available. Would they trade him to Edm for No. 16 pick?," Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal tweeted on Friday. Of course, the Blues and Armstrong never dealt Shattenkirk for a first-round pick, but the fact that he may have been available is extremely interesting.
Shattenkirk, 26, has had one of the second-pairing spots for the Blues locked down for some time now. Prior to this past season, Shattenkirk had appeared in 81 regular season games, two years running. He totaled nine goals and 34 assists in 2011-12 and 10 goals and 35 assists in 2013-14. Injuries in the 2014-15 season robbed him of a fair amount of ice time and production.
"Shattenkirk was on his way to posting career-high numbers when sidelined for 25 games by abdominal surgery. He still managed to collect 44 points in 56 games, with eight more in six playoff games," writes Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News. "Shattenkirk also has two years remaining on his contract at an annual cap hit of $4.25 million and lacks a no-trade clause."
The lack of a no-trade clause makes the notion of Shattenkirk ending up elsewhere to start the 2015-16 NHL season seem much less farfetched, but the parting of ways with long-time Blue Barret Jackman and the unrestricted free agent status for trade deadline pickup Zbynek Michalek would seem to bring the whole thing crashing back to earth.
Yes, Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester take up a significant portion of St. Louis' cap space, which could be fueling the speculation that Shattenkirk is available, as Matheson notes in a separate tweet, but it just doesn't seem like a smart play for Armstrong to jettison a young and still-developing player at a position of not necessarily considerable depth - even if Jordan Schmaltz and Tommy Vannelli are likely headed up the NHL pipeline sooner rather than later.
Of course, the fact that Oshie and Berglund have reportedly drawn little in the way of trade interest thus far this offseason mean it's not exactly surprising that Armstrong would being exploring other potential avenues for change.
