All Quiet in the Gateway to the Western Front

Trade deadline day has come and gone, and the Blues’ roster is largely the same as it was 24 hours ago, much as was expected. With their recent slide out of the surprisingly competitive race for the Central, and little chance of catching a red hot Predators team, once again general manager rsyzygy was forced to look to sell off older pieces for futures. However, with only a handful of lower valued UFAs, there was never going to be any sort of blockbuster nearly on the scale of the team’s recent capitalization on the sky high value of Moritz Seider.

                In the end, only two moves were made on deadline day. The first saw the team ship out pending RFA Dryden Hunt to San Jose for center Linus Sandin and a pair of late round picks. Hunt, a 26-year-old left winger from Cranbrook, British Columbia compiled 25 points in 64 games for the Blues this year, riding an abnormally high shooting percentage to potting 12 goals this season. Sandin, a 25-year-old right wing from Uppsala, Sweden shows some amount of promise to be a bottom 6 grinder in the future, and will likely report to the Thunderbirds for the rest of the year.

                The other move of the evening saw Jumbo Joe Thornton sent down to Florida in exchange for a 6th round pick. Rather than trying to stand firm and get full value for the veteran center, general manager rsyzygy followed through on his promise to give the elder statesman a chance to chase a cup… or at the very least join the Panthers’ efforts to secure a playoff spot, rather than finishing out the season on another race for better lottery odds.

                Sources say there was some late interest in pending UFA Kris Russell, with at least one Western Conference team reaching out in the eleventh hour. However, the two teams were unable to come to terms before the midnight deadline passed. I can exclusively report that the reason for this failure to reach a deal was in main part due to rsyzygy being fast asleep at the time.

                And now, as with this time last year, the Blues’ attention turns downwards in the standings. However, this year they also have the added fun of scoreboard watching, cheering on the Maple Leafs and Kings to new depths as the team holds both of their first round picks. The absolutely putrid records of Montreal, Washington, and Chicago leaves the top odds out of reach at this point in the season, and Blues fans are happy to note that the team will avoid finishing in 31st for a 3rd straight season.

                As with every terrible team, the focus for the remainder of the year will be on running countless number of draft lottery simulation, hoping that the Wright combination of balls comes up for the Blues to secure that elusive first overall pick. (And that the balls stay that way, and there isn’t some sudden conspiracy to give the pick to Tampa instead. Although sources inside the Blues’ room say that the team was heavily considering taking William Eklund first overall, with one anonymous source saying “no way in hell we were strapping ourselves to another Sabres ‘can’t miss d-man’.”) As of this writing, St Louis would hold the 6th, 7th, and 9th best odds to pick first overall in the coming draft, good for a combined 19% chance for the Wright outcome, with a roughly 55% chance of earning at least one of the top 3 selections.