I absolutely hate this

Why? You fix long term problems by adding a few short term problems. Blues aren't contenders next year so there's no reason to pay a team to take guys like Krug or Leddy. In the Krug trade you get Granlund who can bounce back and be a very quality player I mean he was a good player on Nashville and then you get Carter who would be gone after the year. In the Leddy trade you get Peterson who used to be good and could rebound for the Blues. On top of that it gives Hofer some more time in the AHL to develop which would be nice. If Peterson sucks after the year he has a very friendly buyout option. The Bortz trade is to free up a roster spot for Tucker/Rosen who are simply better.

The Blues are not trading Leddy and Krug to add cap in both deals. Obviously. And Peterson is an absolute non-starter from hell. Never in a million years.

Not a single current top-4 D on that left side. Looks better if we put Durzi on the left side as he's played there before, and just hope Tucker steps in there comfortably. I'll take the Pens trade without Carter attached, even take a pick downgrade for it. Maybe use that space to add a top-4 LD, dump Scandella as well. It's not the worst on second thought, just looks REALLY ugly. Would definitely have to have an exit for Petersen by next year. I would rather make anything else work to just not take him on at all. They can dump him separately.

So you would rather pay a first to move Krug? Or a second to move Leddy? Because that's what it's going to cost... Or just eat players contracts for one year before you can either buy them out or let them walk as free agents? We won't be contenders next year so what's the point in giving up assets to move bad contracts when you can just take bad contracts with a lesser term that go along with our time to be contenders.

I have high faith in Tucker I think if he was given a top 4 spot he would run with it. And yeah Durzi could probably play with Faulk and that could be a good pair I wouldn't want to put him with Paryako. With Scandella I'm not a fan of his but I don't think it's worth buying him out when you could just let him walk in free agency. Or on the bonus he has an average season and you can flip him at the deadline for something.

I'm a believer in Tucker stepping into the top-4 soon as well. If we dump Leddy and Krug, I wouldn't mind keeping Scandella, but I would rather give Tucker and Perunovich their opportunity.

That Kings trade is absolutely brutal for the Blues.

Editing to explain why.

You’re moving a 1st and taking back an actual camp dump for one less year. Leddy played 20 minutes a night this season. 4m is pretty much market value for him. It’s not a great contract but it’s not a full on dump. He’s serviceable.

Having Peterson and Binnington does one of two things. Completely blocks Hofer, or it is a full dump for one less year at pretty much the same cap hit as Leddys without having a d man to replace the minutes he played.

Durzi is ok, but moving out Krug and eating more salary while getting pretty much a similar if not worse player in Durzi back is a nightmare when you’re adding cap when it’s all said and done.

I don’t dislike the Pittsburgh trade on its own, or even moving Bortuzzo somewhere regardless of what the return is. Granlund isn’t great, but he could serve a purpose on our roster. Carter can be scratched, or play on the 3rd line or 4th line if Neighbors isn’t fully ready. I don’t think he fits our identity for our 4th line, but getting some games in for him isn’t the worst thing in the world. Those are also contracts that expire after next season and we can replace Krug internally with Perunovich, that is if he can be healthy for any portion of time during the season.

From my viewings, I am pretty firm in believing that Leddy is a much more useful player than Scandella, so we’re downgrading there pretty largely, and we’re relying on Tucker to play 20+ minutes a night and have a positive impact? That smells of stagnating and making no progress at all towards getting back to winning with no plan in place, while losing a 1st doing so.

While re-looking just noticed that Granlunds contract does have an extra season on it. Would want more than just a 2nd to take him and Carter for Krug. Krug is a useful player. The issue is you need a cap structure that can accommodate for him being heavily sheltered, or in a 3rd pairing role while also allowing him to run your powerplay. I think Pittsburgh could have that. But we don’t have the cap structure or managerial desire to be awful for 2-3 years yet.

If you look at it like Leddy for Petersen (with one less year of term and a managable buyout) dumps for each other and then Durzi for a late 1st, it's not so bad, but yeah I would rather just avoid Petersen altogether.

Leddy is serviceable. With having Binnington, Peterson is a straight up dump for more cap.

I don’t think Leddy is a great contract at 4m. But he is better than any other option we currently have and 4m isn’t exactly damming especially if we can keep him on a 2nd pair and not rely on him as our top 3.

I really can’t decide what scenario I like best as far as moving out 2 of Leddy/Krug/Scandella. I think Scandella is the cheapest/shortest term and most fitting as a 3LD but also the thought of Krug in a sheltered PP1 role kinda intrigues me as well. Leddy is just in the middle of both of them and doesn’t stand out anywhere. Either way I would rather none of them be in the top-4 and maybe we acquire somebody that can be there and also hope Tucker steps up there. They are all 3LD to me.

I’m comfortable with Faulk and Leddy as a 2nd pair assuming we don’t try to heavy matchup with the Parayko pair.

I liked Tuckers game, but there is no indication to think that he is ready, or will ever be capable of handling 20 minutes a night successfully.

The issue is you can only have Leddy as a 2nd pair guy and Krug as a 3rd pair guy if you have a legitimate first pairing LD in front of them. There aren’t many that will most likely be available, and if we’re scrounging the UFA market for them, chances are we won’t like the contracts any more than what we currently have.

It’s beneficial to move Krug because of our LD depth. I’m not going to be naive enough to think that Perunovich will step right in to the PP1 or even be healthy enough to do so. But it gives us the cap to take a shot at a UFA LD that has proven to be able to play 20+ a night positively and at the very least flexibility. Tucker in my mind is a fine 3LD right now, he won’t get that chance, and he may not be ready for a full season in that role. But we have alot of depth in terms of guys that can fill in there: Rosen, Tucker, Perunovich, Malmstrom. Which is why spending the luxury on a Krug for us doesn’t make sense unless we have the rest ironed out.

I’d agree Leddy isn’t necessarily a stand out by any means with any part of his game aside from his skating. But he’s not a glaring liability in any zone either. His strength has always been transitioning the puck, which personally I felt would be great for Parayko since his weakness is making a clean exit (he’s good at exiting, but it’s mainly his skatiing that does that). It’s just not a good combo when you ask Parayko and Leddy to play heavy defensive usage when Leddy isn’t necessarily adept at puck retrievals, clearing the crease, or 1 on 1 defense. He’s pretty average at everything there.

Humor me, would you agree the absolute best case scenario (though least likely) would be moving out all 3, acquiring a top pairing LD, Tucker steps up unexpectedly into the top-4, maybe as Parayko's long sought after partner fit, and Perunovich comfortably steps into PP1 with sheltered minutes? Like I implied, a lot of cards would have to fall into place, but imagine.

Best case sure. But I mean best case is a lot of prayers.

You don’t go into a season having all unproven players. I realistically just don’t see where you get top pairing guy from unless for some reason Chabot or Hanifin are available. Second rate would probably be taking a chance in Provorov, which personally I’m okay with.

I just think dumping a bunch of guys and not fully removing cap, or paying to do so right now is unwise.

There’s no reason that Krug doesn’t return more towards his career norms. Also, Leddys production this season wasn’t that bad given his primary usage was with Parayko who had some of the toughest usage in the league.

There’s a lot better of a chance our defense is a strength next season than assuming that Tucker and or Perunovich both step into roles next years and do so successfully.

In all honesty, some, not all of our defensive woes do have to do with Kyrou being an all or nothing player. Which is fine, and i think he’ll make smarter plays too going forward and slowly grow into a more reliable player (same with Thomas to a degree, he’s not as prone to the mistakes).

But yes for the hypothetical we are absolutely best off if two players exceed what past history shows we should expect from them.

But we’re also not in as soon and gloom of a situation as you would think. The issue is we have a major hole and ample cap space or options to fix it.

Now, if there’s another down season yeah we absolutely need to shave off everything with term and try to build something completely different. Getting a personnel change right now also should probably be looked for if we can’t find a top end guy we can fit in cap wise.

Okay, you have a lot packed in here, let me break it apart to answer...

1 - I never said any such thing. I've said repeatedly I'm not paying a 1st to move Krug. Playing a 2nd to move Leddy I could certainly do if there's a killer replacement lined up.

2 - I don't know that to be the case, nor does anyone. Krug was getting calls at the deadline, and none of us know what teams offered.

3 - No, I'm not interested in waiting until they go UFA. Not a great fan of buyouts, either. But our options are not limited to the few you have mentioned.

4 - I have no idea why people keep saying this as if it's established fact. It ain't. This team is quite capable of playing far better than they did this season. I see no reason why they can't bounce back with renewed focus, lessons learned and a couple shrewd roster alterations.

Any way you want to slice it, doing things like paying a 23 1st AND taking Peterson is a silly overpay just to move Leddy. Peterson is a bigger cap dump than Leddy by nearly every measure, and that's despite having one less year on his deal. It's not time to panic, the draft hasn;t even gotten here yet. All sorts of time to play it smart.