[Jeremy Rutherford] Au cours de la dernière semaine, Armstrong a ajouté trois attaquants à Kapanen, Vrana et Blais qui peuvent jouer dans les neuf premiers et compteront un total de 6,825 millions de dollars par rapport au plafond en 2023-24. En raison de leurs situations individuelles, tous les trois doivent également être extrêmement motivés.
In the last week, Armstrong has added three forwards in Kapanen, Vrana and Blais who can play in the top nine and will count a combined $6.825 million against the cap in 2023-24.
Because of their individual situations, all three should be extremely motivated, too.#stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 3, 2023
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STLBooze3
12 Comments
This could turn out great, or it could turn out poorly. All of these players have the potential no doubt, but there is a reason their former clubs wanted to get rid of them (and Kappy and Vrana both went through waivers so you assume their teams tried to trade for assets but no one wanted to give up assets to acquire).
I like these moves for us, low risk high reward. All some people beed is a change of scenery to get out of a rut. Good moves doug
Basically we have journeymen players with short cheap contracts until we find some stability.
It’s a high ceiling-low floor thing overall though. I’m also a Caps fan and can tell you that Vrana is a dude. Jake was a fan favorite and most fans still hate that Mantha trade that sent him to Detroit. If he can get his issues (whatever they are) fixed by start of next season, this will be a steal. His potential is a top-6 player easily.
Love this as a low-risk gamble. If he can score, it’s a really good player and easily moved a year from now.
It is pretty funny that between Kyrou, Kapanen and Vrana, the Blues now have some outrageously bad defensive wingers. We may see Craig Berube’s head literally explode before season’s end.
Potential deadline fodder for next year to reload again if the team still struggles on defense.
The draft will be interesting if DA keeps the picks.
I’d love to get a solid 3rd line out of them.. We need to roll 4 lines for cup but we’re barely running 2. Hoping they fix this in the future.
KK has looked good in both games. Hope he maintains that level of play as he is clearly a talent.
Like Panger said last night, Blais took a haircut on salary. 1.5M back to 1M which is HUGE and to me means he’s got faith in the team and himself.
Vrana and Kap may be similar situations where they just didn’t fit in the puzzle of their respective old teams. If they do perform, I think it not only motivates DA, but also the team to accelerate the retool and get back in the ring next season.
Love these moves by Armstrong. As a re-tooling team, this is exactly what he should be doing. Taking chances on guys who are ~26 who have had success in the past, and are still young enough to revive their careers and reach their ultimate potential.
We have a lot of young talent up front now in the organization.
I mean…any forward can « play » in the top 9, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be there. Kapanen and Vrana for sure are those guys, but Blais is most definitely a 4th liner with the ceiling of a shitty 3rd liner as a fill in. Only times he played higher was just so he could hit people to wear them out for guys like ROR.
Maybe I’m more pessimistic but we took a defensively poor team who needs to outscore their problems and added… more scoring. Well, not even. Blais, Kap, and Vrana all struggle (Blais the most but others too) with production. I just don’t see how anyone can be optimistic about a quick ‘retool’ turnaround to go back to playoff performance with this core. Especially when losing ROR who was a real defensive forward.