ST. LOUIS — In the end, the St. Louis Blues and Brandon Saad both got what they wanted. The Blues were able to remove Saad from their roster and he should be back in the NHL soon.
It took a shocking development, however, to get there.
On Tuesday, general manager Doug Armstrong said that the Blues were placing Saad on waivers, and if he cleared Wednesday at 1 p.m. CT, he would be assigned to the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Springfield, Mass.
“I talked to him and his representative (Lewis Gross),” Armstrong said Tuesday. “If he gets claimed, he’ll be on a new team. If not, he’ll go down to play in Springfield.”
If an NHL club had claimed Saad on waivers, the veteran forward would have joined them immediately and that team would have paid him the final 1 1/2 years of his five-year, $22.5 million contract.
On Wednesday at 1 p.m. CT, it was announced that Saad had cleared waivers, so he was expected to remain with the organization and be assigned to the AHL. But just an hour later, the developments took a dramatic turn when the Blues released a statement saying he would be placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination.
Unconditional waivers is typically the path that NHL clubs and players take when executing a contract buyout, in which a portion of the salary is still owed. For players 26 or older, it can be as much as two-thirds of the money left on the deal.
In Saad’s case, though, the two sides have mutually agreed to terminate the contract, so the Blues are off the hook for the $5.4 million left on his deal, according to PuckPedia, and rid of his $4.5 million cap hit for the rest of this season and in 2025-26.
Rather than report to the minors, the 32-year-old veteran of 14 NHL seasons with career earnings of $57.3 million, according to Spotrac, is walking away from an amount that would equal 11 percent of his potential earnings had he played out the final year of his contract.
Brandon Saad will be placed on unconditional waivers on Thursday for the purpose of contract termination.
DETAILS ➡️ https://t.co/EOUHsD6xKF https://t.co/EOUHsD6xKF
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 29, 2025
It was a jaw-dropper, but it probably shouldn’t have been considering Saad is a proud player who won two Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013 and 2015. For a veteran of 906 NHL games, who has 260 goals and 515 points, it would be extremely difficult to return to the AHL for the first time since playing for the Rockford IceHogs in 2012-13.
Additionally, Saad and his wife Alyssa welcomed their third child, daughter Lyra, last October. He would have been leaving them behind beginning Friday when Springfield plays in Iowa and, if not recalled by the Blues this season, he would’ve remained gone through the end of the regular season until April 19.
Instead, Saad could be on an NHL roster by Friday.
The winger, who has seven goals and 16 points in 43 games this season, will be placed back on waivers Thursday for the purpose of contract termination, and assuming he clears again on Friday, he will become a free agent.
Saad is expected to have several interested teams.
The Edmonton Oilers’ general manager is Stan Bowman, who was with him in Chicago. The Toronto Maple Leafs’ head coach is Craig Berube, who had him in St. Louis. The Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals are looking for wingers and the Dallas Stars have some injuries.
Why wouldn’t those clubs have claimed Saad on waivers? That goes back to the fact that he had one more season left on his contract, and while his actual salary drops to $3.63 million, his cap hit would still be $4.5 million.
This way, any club that signs Saad to a free-agent contract could get a seven-time 20-goal scorer for as low as the prorated amount of the league’s minimum salary ($775,000). If he becomes a free agent again next summer, he can likely be had for less than the $4.5 million salary he was slated to make in 2025-26.
So while Saad is forfeiting $5.4 million in St. Louis by terminating his deal, he should be able to recoup some — but probably not all — of those dollars.
The benefit of Saad being claimed on waivers Wednesday would’ve been keeping the full value of his contract, but by being unclaimed and terminating the deal, he’ll be able to pick his next destination.
If Saad mutually terminates his contract:
-He loses the $5.425M Cash owing to him
–#StlBlues will save his full $4.5M Cap Hit instead of just $1.15M if he was in minors
-With no other roster moves, they would finish $670K below cap, absorbing a portion of Suter’s $1.125M to…— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) January 29, 2025
From the Blues’ perspective, other than having Saad claimed on waivers Wednesday, which would’ve also freed them from his deal, this was the best-case situation for the club.
The indication from Armstrong Tuesday after talking to Saad’s camp was that the club was prepared to assign him to the AHL. He would have been paid his full salary in the minors and counted $1.15 million against the NHL salary cap.
Keep in mind, however, that with one more season left on his contract, the Blues may have been back in the same boat next season, assuming they had no plans to play him at the NHL level.
They are currently operating in long-term injured reserve but will exit LTIR when Saad’s contract termination is finalized. They will have $620,000 in salary cap space, but because of the time they’ve spent in LTIR this season, they will have $1.15 million in projected cap space, according to PuckPedia. That means they could fit an additional $5.2 million of players’ AAV at the March 7 NHL trade deadline.
With Saad’s $4.5 million AAV being eliminated in 2024-25, the Blues’ cap hit for next season is approximately $85 million, and with the NHL’s cap ceiling reported to be around $95 million, they would have about $10 million in space.
As the Blues’ retool continues, they may not be planning to spend to the cap ceiling as they did this season. But if they do, the surprising — if not shocking — decision by Saad will give them some unexpected extra dollars.
Such a move has rarely happened in the NHL.
In 2023, Filip Zadina had the remaining two seasons on his contract with the Detroit Red Wings terminated and walked away from nearly $5 million. The defenseman signed a one-year, $1.1 million deal with the San Jose Sharks and played 72 games with them in 2023-24. Now 25, he has left the NHL and plays overseas.
In 2018, former Blue Patrik Berglund had the final three seasons of his deal with the Buffalo Sabres voided as well and left $13 million on the table. The forward has since said that he decided it was best for him to return home to Sweden for his well-being, where he played for two seasons before retiring.
(Photo: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
