The St. Louis Blues are currently 10th in the Western Conference, only two spots away from playoff contention. Something hasn’t been working defensively as they have lost five of their last 10 games with little sign of improvement in specific areas of their game.
They’re able to score goals consistently, but the issue is they are finding difficulty in holding leads, keeping a good pace in the game, and pushing for more goal scoring when they need it. Here’s why adding a top-four defenseman to their lineup could help them with a post trade deadline playoff push.
Blues Getting Outshot a Lot
While they solved their special teams issues after the arrival of interim head coach Drew Bannister in December, the number-one thing they still seem to have a problem with is being outshot by opponents, whether they win or lose games. Through 59 games they have won 18 times while being outshot by opponents (top six in the league), lost 16 games while being outshot by opponents (top 10 worst in the league), and have three overtime losses when being outshot. For more comparison, when the Blues are outshooting their opponent this season, they’ve won 13 games, lost nine, and have yet to lose in overtime.
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So how does acquiring a top-four defenseman at the trade deadline help? In December, I mentioned five defensemen who could be good candidates to fix their special teams: Nick Seeler, Brett Pesce, Chris Tanev, Matt Grzelcyk, and Noah Hanifin. With the recent trade that sent Tanev from the Calgary Flames to the Dallas Stars, he’s off that list.
I would still stick to the other four guys on that list and maybe add a player like Jakob Chychrun, a player the Blues had been interested in since last season. Chychrun brings an offensive touch to his game and is just one of the top 10 defenseman in the league in shots (145). This could benefit them as the Blues have the eighth most shots against per game (32.0) in the league and could use someone who can provide more shooting options from the back end while also having someone for shot blocking (which Chychrun is in the top 50 in the league for.)
Blues Need to Add Depth to Their Back End
The main concern with the Blues defensively is the number of top-four defensemen on no-trade clauses and the lack of young defensemen within their top-four slots. All four of their top-four defenseman are at least 30 years old and it’s time they either expand their draft stock of talented young d-men or at least acquire someone young enough to last another five to six seasons. Even a rental depth veteran would be good for the Blues as a last resort
However, to acquire a solid top-four defenseman, the Blues would have to give up a top-six forward or at least a valuable prospect. Right now, the top forward is in talks of being traded at or before the March 8 deadline is Pavel Buchnevich. A Buchnevich trade could bring the Blues one step closer to adding a top-20 defenseman who can be useful to their needed areas of improvement. Specifically, they need a two-way defenseman who can work on all special teams lines; it’s possible they could acquire someone like that considering the value Buchnevich — who has 48 points in 58 games — holds.
Blues Need Defenseman to Make a Playoff Push With Tough Schedule Coming
The Blues have about $2.02 million of cap space which is a decent amount to play around with before the deadline, especially after Justin Faulk was cleared to play on Feb 26. If they grab another top-four defenseman it would bolster their blue line and could push them into a playoff spot (they are currently seven points out of a Wild Card spot with 65 points.) After the deadline, the Blues will face the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, and Los Angeles Kings, which are all tough matchups considering all those opponents are holding onto a playoff spot and two of them are ranked top five in the league (Bruins and Rangers). So, if the Blues want to make the playoffs, fixing the leaks on the defense should be their first focus, and after that, can seek some minor offensive depth as well.