ST. LOUIS — Doug Armstrong might not have a lot of movable assets that will yield much of a return at the NHL trade deadline on March 7, but the St. Louis Blues general manager might have to pick a direction to go with his defensive group for the final few months of the season.
Nick Leddy returned to the Blues’ lineup in Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers. He was making his first appearance since Oct. 15, having missed the last 49 games with an undisclosed injury.
Leddy’s presence provided the club with a wealth of experience on the blue line, with the six defensemen combining for 5,309 NHL games and 78 seasons in the league.
Ryan Suter led the way with 1,497 games before puck drop against Edmonton, and he’s just one of three Blues defensemen with 1,000-plus games in the league, including Leddy and Cam Fowler.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery hadn’t had the luxury of working with those extensive resumes yet because Leddy was injured before he took over in November and Fowler didn’t arrive in a trade from the Anaheim Ducks until mid-December.
“As a coach, it’s very comforting because all of them have played so much because they are good and they’ve handled so many situations,” Montgomery said. “All of them have been top-pairing defensemen, shutdown defensemen, and a majority of them have been relied on to run the No. 1 power play.
“So it’s a situation where they all have been through so many different scenarios, and they’re all team-first guys. It’s going to be exciting to have that kind of veteran leadership back there and depth and intelligence and savvy and poise.”
All of that is true.
Except, if the Blues find themselves falling further out of the NHL playoff picture — they’re 6 points back of the second wild card in the Western Conference after earning a point Tuesday — do they need to keep all of that aging depth on defense? In what remains a retool, would it make more sense to give the ice time to Tyler Tucker and Matthew Kessel?
Tonight, the Blues will have a defense with a combined 5,309 NHL games played and 78 NHL seasons.
Suter: 1,497 (20)
Leddy: 1,015 (15)
Fowler: 1,014 (15)
Faulk: 951 (14)
Parayko: 711 (10)
Broberg: 121 (4)#stlblues— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) February 4, 2025
Suter, 40, is the only pending unrestricted free agent on the blue line, and with the most regular-season games of any active player who hasn’t won the Stanley Cup, he might prefer to be traded.
He might not be tops on many wish lists, but he has played in all 54 of the Blues’ games this season, averaging 20:33 of ice time per game, and contenders are always looking for inexpensive depth on defense at the deadline.
Furthermore with Suter, the one-year contract he signed last summer has a base salary of the league minimum ($775,000) but includes bonuses. He has already reached three of the bonuses worth $1.25 million and has two more remaining: $500,000 if he plays in 60 games, and $500,000 if the Blues make the playoffs and he plays in 60 games. They wouldn’t be trading him if they felt good about making the playoffs, but the club has nine games left before the deadline, so he could collect the $500,000 if not moved.
According to PuckPedia, with no more roster moves this season, the Blues would finish with a cap hit of $87.4 million, which is about $600,000 under the cap. That means more bonuses could lead to a salary-cap penalty that’s carried over to the 2025-26 season.
Suter won’t bring the Blues much in a trade, but they could avoid the potential cap penalty and, more importantly, give his ice time to the young blueliners.
But why stop with him?
Is there any type of market for Leddy now that he’s back in uniform? It’s unlikely. He’s coming off an injury that he didn’t want to provide much detail on after playing Tuesday night.
“I don’t really care to go into specifics,” he said. “It was a little bit of an annoying thing, and just when you thought it would be a little better, it took a step back.”
Any club interested in Leddy, who will turn 34 on March 20, would have access to the injury information. Though he said Tuesday that he has moved past the injury and isn’t concerned about it cropping up again, there are no guarantees.
The defenseman also has one year left on the four-year, $16 million contract he signed with the Blues in 2022. The $4 million cap hit might not be much considering the NHL recently announced that the ceiling projects to go up $7.5 million to $95.5 million next season, but with his age, his injury situation and having another year left on his contract, he would seemingly be tough to move.
Again, it’s a situation like Suter’s where the Blues wouldn’t be expecting much, if anything, in return. In Leddy’s case, they might be happy if they could just avoid retaining any salary or attaching any draft picks to such a deal, but that might not be possible.
Then there’s Justin Faulk, who might prove an even harder challenge for the Blues to move. He’s had another underwhelming season, turns 33 on March 20 and has two more seasons left on his contract with a cap hit of $6.5 million. If the Blues could somehow find a taker for him, it would likely require them to retain salary or include assets.
And don’t forget about Torey Krug, who has resumed skating after his potentially career-threatening ankle surgery and might try to return in 2025-26. He’ll turn 34 on April 12 and, like Faulk, has two seasons left on his contract with a $6.5 million cap hit.
Adding more difficulty to the situations for Leddy, Faulk and Krug is that all three players have full no-trade clauses until July 1, after which they become modified. It’s moot with Krug until he proves he can play again, but Faulk and Leddy will have the power to veto trades to about half the league. But that flexibility won’t be available to the team until July.
For the Blues to find playing time for Tucker, Kessel and perhaps others in the organization, sending out a couple of veterans is something they’ve assuredly already considered and perhaps even tried to execute. It’s complicated, and in the case of Faulk, it might be something that isn’t possible until the offseason. But with the team looking like more of a long shot to play in the postseason, it has to be on the table.
(Photo: Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)
