The NHL rumor mill has already kicked into high gear in the far-off land of St. Louis.
Right winger T.J. Oshie and center Patrik Berglund have both been widely rumored to be available for the right price for some time now.
But it seems we finally have the names of a couple of potential landing spots, at least for Oshie.
According to TheFourthPeriod.com, both the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators are interested in acquiring the 27-year-old Oshie's services.
Oshie is currently in the third year of a five-year, $20.875 million contract - annual cap hit of $4.175 million - with a no-trade clause that goes into effect on July 1, 2015.
The Blues have just under $3 million in cap space available, which isn't a problem now, but will become one as players like Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera come up for contract extensions. With the wholly unexpected development of players like Tarasenko and Lehtera, the Blues now have an over-abundance of talent at the forward position.
Moving Oshie, who has struggled this season - he's got only five goals and seven assists in 25 games - won't hurt from a scoring standpoint, though it's always a questionable decision to lose depth.
The Panthers (15-9-8) are a team nearly bursting at the seams with young talent at the AHL level. The only problem is the plethora of veterans currently keeping them from moving up in the organization.
While Oshie has struggled to score thus far this season, he's shown serious offensive prowess in the past, and for a team currently sitting at 28th in goals per game and 28th in power play conversion percentage, adding another offensive threat certainly couldn't hurt. They may have to move one or two of those veteran pieces first though.
Ottawa is at 20th in goals per game and 15th in power play percentage. Sitting in second-to-last place in the Atlantic - two spots behind Florida - their only hope for salvaging the remainder of the season may be to make a move or two, potentially starting with Oshie.
With over $22 million in available cap space, they're more than well equipped to bring him on board should they so choose.
