St. Louis Blues defenseman slated to miss most of this season; could the Leafs be a potential trade partner?
The St. Louis Blues have been a busy team this offseason. They brought back Defenseman Nick Leddy, they brought in veteran Goaltender Thomas Greiss and gave massive extensions to young forwards Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. The organization is hoping that they can improve upon last season, which saw them finish 3rd in the central division with a record of 49-22-11, with a second round playoff loss to the Colorado Avalanche, who went on to win the cup. Unfortunately for St. Louis, their wish to improve took a bit of a hit Tuesday Morning, as the club announced that Defenseman Marco Scandella will miss at least six months after undergoing right hip surgery after an injury while training in late August.
Scandella is an NHL veteran who has played 699 games split between the Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and, currently, the Blues. The Montreal, Quebec native has registered 48 goals and 160 points in those games, though he is known more for his defensive prowess and physical play. This news definitely hurts the blueline for St. Louis, but they are hoping players such as Niko Mikkola and Scott Perunovich can slide into the lineup and hold down the fort on the back-end.
This may also open up the possibility for the Blues to acquire or sign another player. According to CapFriendly, St. Louis has $625,000 in cap space. Once Scandella is placed on LTIR, this would give them roughly $2.5M in LTIR space to work with should they decide to use it. It will be interesting to see what the Blues do, and hopefully Scandella has a speedy recovery.
One has to wonder whether or not the Leafs might make for a logical trade partner for the Blues. Once Timothy Liljegren and Pierre Engvall return, the Leafs will be tight to the cap after they have finally signed RFA defenseman Rasmus Sandin. Perhaps offloading Justin Holl to the Blues makes sense for both sides.
| POLL | ||
20 SEPTEMBRE | 273 ANSWERS St. Louis Blues defenseman slated to miss most of this season; could the Leafs be a potential trade partner? Should the Leafs and Blues swing a deal involving Justin Holl? | ||
| Yes | 231 | 84.6 % |
| No | 42 | 15.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
