Well, at least you didn't ask for retention. Still not gonna happen, bud.

Well, at least you didn't ask for retention. Still not gonna happen, bud.

Who in their right mind is offering more for Parayko? The term and injury risk alone makes that a very difficult contract to move.

No retention. What’s needed to make it happen?

That is a massive haul for him, even if he's not available I bet the blues strongly consider...

He's not available. Nobody is asking for more (and frankly this offer is one that would require them to do so). "He's not available" is not the same thing as asking for more. We keep saying this over and over. For years now.




It's not a question of value or this or that or whatever. He's not for sale.

Trading Parayko moves the Blues into a scorched earth rebuild status. Effectively wasting most of the careers of Thomas and Kyrou.

There is no effective way to replace what Parayko brings to the team unless it's via draft. And drafting and developing a top end shutdown guy isn't necessarily easy.

We mostly know that nobody is going to give us the pieces that we would need in order to move Parayko, that's why we largely say he's not being moved.

Armstrong's plan is to be competitive again in the 26-27 timeline. Parayko very much has quite a few good years of hockey left in him. It's often overlooked too that his contract was front loaded. If he does fall off a cliff towards the last couple of years 35+ years he can easily be bought out if necessary although I don't see how it will be if the cap keeps rising.

Trading Parayko moves the Blues into a scorched earth rebuild status. Effectively wasting most of the careers of Thomas and Kyrou.

There is no effective way to replace what Parayko brings to the team unless it's via draft. And drafting and developing a top end shutdown guy isn't necessarily easy.

We mostly know that nobody is going to give us the pieces that we would need in order to move Parayko, that's why we largely say he's not being moved.

Armstrong's plan is to be competitive again in the 26-27 timeline. Parayko very much has quite a few good years of hockey left in him. It's often overlooked too that his contract was front loaded. If he does fall off a cliff towards the last couple of years 35+ years he can easily be bought out if necessary although I don't see how it will be if the cap keeps rising.

you know front loading the contract means the cap hit for a buy out is higher than normal right?

I think you're mistaking front-loading for back-diving. As long as the salary owed is less than the cap hit (and no bonuses are present), the buyout is always cheaper.

The contracts you're referring to have been illegal since the last lockout.

if you look at his buy out is would regularly be just over 2 Million
since he had high base salary on the front end and lower on the back in those years his cap hit is 3.7M for the last 3 years of his deal.... so 1.7M more expensive to buy him out

Two things:

1. You're assuming the buyout happens at the end of this season? The math looks totally different than what you present: it's about $550k for two years, $2.2M for a season, $3.7M as you identify from 2027 through 2030, then drops to about $2.05M for six years. I get the point that you're making (more expensive versus conventional contract) but the uber-expensive buyouts that you're referring to were the back-diving deals like what Crosby, Ovechkin, Keith, and Weber were signed to many moons ago. AC14 sets up a scenario where it's likely to be only the +35 years that the buyout focuses on. I believe that sets up June 2028 as the timeframe to look at this buyout from.

2. The four years of Parayko's buyout in 2028 onward progress as:

2028-29: $3.3M
2029-30: $3.3M
2030-31: $1.6M
2031-32: $1.6M

As long as the buyout happens after 2026, there's no fluctuation to the cap hit Parayko's buyout holds.

Fair enough. But from a Blues perspective can I ask why he would not be available?

Two things:

1. You're assuming the buyout happens at the end of this season? The math looks totally different than what you present: it's about $550k for two years, $2.2M for a season, $3.7M as you identify from 2027 through 2030, then drops to about $2.05M for six years. I get the point that you're making (more expensive versus conventional contract) but the uber-expensive buyouts that you're referring to were the back-diving deals like what Crosby, Ovechkin, Keith, and Weber were signed to many moons ago. AC14 sets up a scenario where it's likely to be only the +35 years that the buyout focuses on. I believe that sets up June 2028 as the timeframe to look at this buyout from.

2. The four years of Parayko's buyout in 2028 onward progress as:

2028-29: $3.3M
2029-30: $3.3M
2030-31: $1.6M
2031-32: $1.6M

As long as the buyout happens after 2026, there's no fluctuation to the cap hit Parayko's buyout holds.

I don't think people realize how much weight he carries, even when he's not playing his best. He is currently playing the best hockey of his career (regular season anyway), making his AAV a bargain for the time being and there is no one in the organization to replace him. He's also a team leader and beloved in the community. And when I say beloved in the community, I mean BELOVED.