Blues Won’t Rush to Sign UFAs O’Reilly, Tarasenko, Barbashev

The St. Louis Blues understand how important the leaders and top offensive players are to their roster, but the team is taking a different approach than many other NHL clubs have this offseason. While the Vancouver Canucks locked up J.T. Miller and the Calgary Flames inked Jonathan Huberdeau to an eight-year contract, the Blues aren’t rushing to sign names like Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Ivan Barbashev.

Lou Korac of NHL.com reports that word from St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong is that the Blues will see how this season plays itself out before rushing to sign new deals with their top pending UFAs. That means O’Reilly and others will have to either wait until the summer, talk during the season, or be moved by the club if there’s no intention to extend them after their current deals expire.

Armstrong did say that it wasn’t the latter he was interested in. While money is tight these days, he would like to keep his core pieces on the roster and noted, “The players I just spoke of are going to be very good players next year and the year after and we’re going to see if we can find a way to keep this band together, but I think we all know the salary cap is the salary cap. It is what it is.”

Blues Don’t Have Room To Get It Wrong

The Blues are not over the salary cap at this point, but like many teams, they are close to it with only $625K in space to maneuver. The team just inked Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou to identical eight-year deals worth $8.125 million per season. They are clearly investing in their future and prioritizing RFAs who are younger and will be core parts of the roster moving forward. That could certainly leave out someone like the 30-year-old Tarasenko or mean that 31-year-old O’Reilly may have to look elsewhere to get the best deal next summer.

Someone is probably going, it’s just a matter of whom.

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