Who the Hell Are These Guys?

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year once more, that special day where we all sit back, crack a beer, and ask ourselves, “wait, when the fuck did Andy Greene become a Blue?” If you’re like me, you pay way too much attention to every little thing, down to what brand of toothpaste Rasmus Dahlin uses (Crest, if you’re curious), and still when the puck drops on opening night, you can still have forgotten exactly how that guy ended up in St. Louis, so here’s a handy guide to all the new guys who will be donning a Blues jersey this year and how they got here.

Andreas Johnsson, LW, 26 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Johnsson from the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2021 3rd round pick and prospect Mitchell Gibson

Morgan Rielly, D, 27 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Rielly from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2021 3rd round pick and prospects Kevin Bahl and Lassi Thomson

Matt Murray, G, 27 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Murray from the Los Angeles Kings for a 2021 4th and 5th round pick, and prospect Ilya Konovalov

Cedric Paquette, C, 28 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Paquette from the Anaheim Ducks for a 2021 5th round pick

Nick Leddy, D, 30 & Jordan Oesterle, D, 29 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Leddy and Oesterle from the Edmonton Oilers for a 2021 2nd round pick

Nick Jensen, D, 31 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Jensen from the Washington Capitals for a 2022 5th round pick and prospect Robin Salo

Lars Eller, C, 32 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Eller from the San Jose Sharks for a pair of 2021 6th round picks

Boone Jenner, C, 28 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Jenner from the San Jose Sharks and a 2023 5th round pick for a 2022 2nd round pick

Andy Greene, D, 38 – Trade, St. Louis acquires Greene from the San Jose Sharks for Sasha Mutala and cash

All of that… and a big old nothing in free agency. They managed to get Murray signed to a new contract, as well as last season’s big acquisition Brendan Saad, but other than that, not a single UFA put his name on the dotted line.

So there we have it, ten new players coming in from nine separate trades, including four of the defensemen dressing on opening night making up a new look blue line that only sees Rasmus Dahlin and Kris Russell returning. For a team that finished 31st overall the past two years, the new players will certainly be welcomed as rsyzygy looks to lead this team out of the basement and back into contention, which they’d better do after trading away eight picks in this year’s draft and a handful in future drafts in order to bring in all these players. A 4-2 preseason likely points in a positive direction, though the 0.875 save percentage put up by starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky certainly didn’t. Blues fans will have to hope that the nine points in six games scored by new first line center Lars Eller is more indicative of the future than the sieve that Officer Bob turned into is. But only time will tell.