The St. Louis Blues were reportedly gauging the market for their captain Brayden Schenn late last week, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.
This sent shockwaves throughout the hockey world as many thought the 33-year-old winger would be a longtime member of the Blues as he is the leader of the team and has a full no-move clause.
Schenn carries a very reasonable $6.5 million cap hit for three more seasons and will see his NMC drop to a 15-team no-trade list beginning next year. Many contenders would love to add a centre/winger like Schenn, who has a litany of experience after winning the Stanley Cup with the Blues just six seasons ago in 2019.
This move doesn’t seem likely however as Dreger noted they would expect a “mammoth” of a return. This was reiterated when speaking to Blues Insider for The Hockey News, Lou Korac.
“I spoke to one of my sources tonight that saw Dreger report and said no way Schenn gets traded unless he wants to,” Korac said “It’s a longshot at best.”
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He went on to say that Blues GM Doug Armstrong will most likely be disinterested in retaining any salary and that a return package would need to be in neighborhood of a young, high-end forward that could be plugged into an NHL lineup plus a high draft pick anywhere in the first to third round range depending on the forward.
The Blues are currently 25-26-5 heading into the Four Nations break and are deemed a longshot to make the playoffs with +1400 odds. It could be the right move for St. Louis to sell off one of their older assets and continue building towards the future. If they do make a deal we could look to their under for their regular season point line set with an over/under at 81.5 with the a middle of the pack strength of schedule.
The biggest contingent on a deal getting made is whether or not he would be willing to waive his no-move clause and that a deal would likely have to be done with a serious contender.
Teams that are likely interested in acquiring Schenn would be the Devils, Golden Knights, Red Wings and the Maple Leafs, who have already reportedly reached out to St. Louis.
The biggest contender among the interested parties appears to be the Golden Knights, who are always very active in trying to bring in any player they can to win another Stanley Cup and GM Kelly McCrimmon already has a relationship with Schenn after coaching him when he was a junior in the Western Hockey League.
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The Golden Knights are already a steal at +1200 to win the Cup and +550 to win the Western Conference. The addition of Schenn would likely propel them to the top of the board and make them favourites to win the West at minimum.
I would take some action on Vegas as they are prone to do whatever it takes to win as they already grabbed free agent Brandon Saad earlier this month and will likely make another move or two. They’ve regularly made big splashes around the trade deadline like how they added Tomas Hertl, Ivan Barbashev, Noah Hanifan or Jack Eichel.
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