Drunk Blues

Team: 2023-24 St. Louis Blues

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 23, 2023

Published: Jun. 23, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Gohome Bluess your drunj

Alternatively: We are trying to serve two somewhat conflicting goals: Restore the team to competitiveness now while adding foundational pieces for the future. To that end, we need to fix the defense, and to do so, we cash in Jordan Kyrou for a defensive fix in Miller. The Rangers get a 30-plus-goal scorer at a certain cost for max term, while the Blues get a left-shooting defender who can slot on their top pairing. Because this creates a logjam at left defense for the Blues, we move Nick Leddy for the Penguins' cap problem. This is attractive for two reasons - First, Granlund grades out well with rush offense and high-danger passing, two qualities the Blues covet. Second, the Granlund contract ends a season before the Leddy deal. The third significant move is to trade Brandon Saad for a lottery ticket in Cruz Lucius. This gives the Hurricanes depth scoring at reasonable cost, and it opens cap space for the Blues to sign a second-line center.

We end up with a team that looks similar to the 22-23 Blues, but with better goal prevention and additional draft capital from the Leddy deal. This team can make the playoffs if it gets league-average goaltending and will add 11 Top 100 picks over the next two years.

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