retool

Signing Chandler Stephenson for his age 30-35 seasons at 6 million per when he's been one of the worst defensive players all year and is not scoring nearly as much as he used to to justify it- gonna be a big yikes from be dawg.

This is where the "staying competitive" and the "building for the future" thing that the Blues are trying to do seems really incongruent. That's a contract you sign when you're in win-now mode, you just need a passable center to get you over the hump. But they can't afford to have 33 year old Chandler Stephenson taking up cap space for when Dalibor Dvorsky and Jimmy Snuggerud need his money and roster spot (especially if we're already still going to have Brayden Schenn taking up that money and a roster spot lower in the lineup).

I could agree with this. I almost want to do complete rebuild and trade everyone but Thomas and 1st / 2nd year players but don’t think Blues will ever do that.

The Blues will have $11M to do something with. Wouldn't be the worst thing if they didn't spend to cap next season...

So that's the thing- people are always like "oh well the Blues can't possibly afford to go through a rebuild financially" and I'm sure on some sense there may be truth to that given that the playoffs is where smaller market teams make most of their money. Even two home games can have a big impact on the bottom line.

But an easy way to make missing the playoffs multiple years in a row (as seems likely to be happening this year) much more affordable is not spending to the cap every year. Bank that 11 million for the future. For awhile this team NEVER spent to the cap, and so the Stillman group has made a big show of being guys that spend to the cap every year. And that's fantastic when the team needs to make big moves. But there are plenty of times when spending to the cap doesn't make sense, and I think unless they're getting payed in the form of picks or prospects to take on onerous deals from other teams right now is probably one of those times.

I liked their low-risk bets on Vrana and Kapanen, Hayes less so because of his term but like he's been fine. But it's hard to square "they have no money for a rebuild" with them spending 9 million on those three guys this year for basically no noticeable improvement in the standings compared to last year.