The St. Louis Blues could be one of the most active teams at the trade deadline if Doug Armstrong has his way. They have a long list of names making the rounds in rumors, including: Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, and Jordan Binnington. A team can rarely get every rumor done, but if Armstrong does, that's nearly a full line of top talent heading out the door before Friday.
The Blues are last in the Western Conference, and their roster makeup is going nowhere fast. The team started the 2024-25 season slowly, but the midseason hiring of Jim Montgomery gave them a boost and put them in the eighth seed. The team was seconds away from advancing to the second round against the Winnipeg Jets, but they quickly came back down to earth after returning this season.
It's an interesting time for St. Louis. It's Armstrong's last year as general manager, with Alex Steen taking over next year. The longtime executive might be working to give the former Blue a clean slate in his first tenure as a general manager, and this has all the makings of Armstrong taking the heat for the tough decisions to ease pressure on Steen.
Blues' dream scenario is moving away from Jordan Binnington
It's important for the Blues not to fall in love with what Binnington has done during his time with the organization. He burst onto the scene in 2019 and won them a Stanley Cup, had a couple of good years, and had a resurgence in a Team Canada sweater at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off and this year's Winter Olympics. However, it simply doesn't look like it's going to work out with the Blues anymore, and the best Canadian goaltender on the roster and starter-in-waiting is Joel Hofer.
Armstrong should have no shortage of fellow general managers who look at Binnington's body of work with Team Canada over the past two years and convince themselves that he'll look better in their uniform for a playoff run. The Vegas Golden Knights, Montreal Canadiens, and Edmonton Oilers are all teams that need an upgrade as they head into the postseason, with the Golden Knights the most likely to pony up and make it happen.
If the Blues need to do it, they should even retain some of Binnington's salary to make it happen. If teams are willing to pay for Binnington's past big-game success rather than his current statistics, the return would be a great kick-start to Steen's tenure.
Blues can't trade Robert Thomas too abruptly at deadline
The initial trade rumors surrounding Thomas had people scratching their heads. He is a 26-year-old two-way center who will average a point per game in a healthy season and has a more-than-manageable $8.125 million cap hit for the next five seasons.
It's easy to assume the Blues aren't planning to rebuild over the next five seasons. The hope is they can get out of the Central Division's basement before that, and Thomas on that contract is going to be their first-line center when that eventually happens.
The return would be massive, likely a couple of first-round picks, a top prospect, and a current NHL roster player. It would entirely change the direction of the franchise, but sometimes general managers have to be careful about punting the ball down the road.
The Blues know what they are getting with Thomas. If the right deal comes along, they'll have to take it, but a nightmare would be trading him for pennies on the dollar when they don't necessarily need to.
