Rumor: Scott Hartnell to St. Louis?

[cprice12]

This is from Eklund...so...grain of salt and all.

According to League Sources, the St. Louis Blues are adding a Scoring Forward, and Scott Hartnell to STL is Very Close/[e4]. The Deal is Reportedly Hartnell for a Pick and Prospect. Stay tuned. STL had prior interest in Hartnell when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers.

[glen a richter]

Not wild about this... I guess it depends on who the prospect is and where the pick is. Late pick, middling prospect, why not?

[SamJunior]

I saw some other rumors from Eklund about the Blues in the recent days.
According to him we are keeping an eye on the Flyers and Sam Gagner. I dunno, the guy struggles to reach the 50 point barrier which is not too impressive from a former 6th overall pick.
Another rumor was about a trade with the Rangers: Shatty for Yandle + high end prospect + pick. I'm kinda worried about Shatty right now. His name is popping up in rumors every other day. Do we really want to get rid of him? I mean, I've read all these speculations about the potential salary cap issues but damn, the guy can be the cornerstone of the Blues defense for the next decade, plus he's able to put up insane offensive numbers for a defenseman. If the return is not a proven - and fairly young - scorer I would say no to any offer for Shatty.

[dmiles2186]

Someone texted me about this last night and I wasn't aware it was Eklund 'reporting' it. My first thought was a flat, 'No.' Then I saw Hartnell had 16 goals and realized that would put him in 2nd or 3rd on the team (without looking) and re-thought that stance. I despise Hartnell, but this team needs a shakeup.

[cprice12]

Someone texted me about this last night and I wasn't aware it was Eklund 'reporting' it. My first thought was a flat, 'No.' Then I saw Hartnell had 16 goals and realized that would put him in 2nd or 3rd on the team (without looking) and re-thought that stance. I despise Hartnell, but this team needs a shakeup.

I'm not crazy about the idea of this move, but offensively he would be a slight improvement over a number of players...especially in the playoffs. It's not a sexy move, but it would likely help the team, depending on the move we would make to clear cap space for him.

And as far as playoff performance goes, Hartnell averages .52 ppg, which is light years better than Brouwer (.24 ppg) and a little better than Backes (.45 ppg) and Berglund (.45 ppg).

To put those stats into perspective...
Tarasenko - .85 ppg in the playoffs.
Stastny - .68 ppg
Steen - .45 ppg

I'd take him for a 3rd rd., pic and a prospect that isn't Barbashev or Schmaltz. A Blue Jackets fan suggested a 1st and Barbashev...I laughed...hard.
Columbus would be dumping salary here...they wouldn't be getting anything substantial in return.

[ecbm]

I'm not crazy about the idea of this move, but offensively he would be a slight improvement over a number of players

Yeah, not super-exciting but he'd be better than running Brouwer out in the top 6 every night. I guess this would make it clear that Fabbri won't see his TOI increase this season. If this move were made, I'd feel like Backes had one foot out the door. That would have next year's top 6 being:

Tank
Schwartz
Steen
Stastny
Fabbri
Hartnell

Not bad, and cost neutral. We'll see.

[Kerfuffle]

eh - last week Stamkos was coming to St. Louis, now it's Hartnell. Just internet rumors...

[gaijin]

eh - last week Stamkos was coming to St. Louis, now it's Hartnell. Just internet rumors...

Troof. To be honest, I'm not that excited about any of the names rumored to be potential trades.

Drouin- diva
Stamkos- too costly, probable rental only
Hartnell- not as much of an offensive upgrade as we need

But then that begs the question- what scorers are actually available and affordable? And which ones are the Blues (remember, this is the Blues) likely to actually pull the trigger on?

I have a sneaking feeling the roster we have now is the roster with which we'll be entering the playoffs (plus Schwartz, of course).

[glen a richter]

Okposo?

[goon attack]

eh - last week Stamkos was coming to St. Louis, now it's Hartnell. Just internet rumors...

Troof. To be honest, I'm not that excited about any of the names rumored to be potential trades.

Drouin- diva
Stamkos- too costly, probable rental only
Hartnell- not as much of an offensive upgrade as we need

But then that begs the question- what scorers are actually available and affordable? And which ones are the Blues (remember, this is the Blues) likely to actually pull the trigger on?

I have a sneaking feeling the roster we have now is the roster with which we'll be entering the playoffs (plus Schwartz, of course).

http://begthequestion.info/

[gaijin]

eh - last week Stamkos was coming to St. Louis, now it's Hartnell. Just internet rumors...

Troof. To be honest, I'm not that excited about any of the names rumored to be potential trades.

Drouin- diva
Stamkos- too costly, probable rental only
Hartnell- not as much of an offensive upgrade as we need

But then that begs the question- what scorers are actually available and affordable? And which ones are the Blues (remember, this is the Blues) likely to actually pull the trigger on?

I have a sneaking feeling the roster we have now is the roster with which we'll be entering the playoffs (plus Schwartz, of course).

http://begthequestion.info/

Hey, I never said I was smart.

[Oaklandblue]

If one is going to spend actual resources (Shattenkirk, Stastny, whatever have you) and spend serious cap money, get Stamkos and pay the man. He's the real deal.

[glen a richter]

Well Stastny plus Bouwmeester pretty much equals what they'll have to pay Stamkos. This trade, however, will never happen. Yzerman isn't dumb.

Okposo has been mentioned in the past as a guy the Islanders may want to move, and Hamonic will probably be moved too... three way deal between us, the Isles and the Oilers? Working out the details in my head so it's not facebook quality.

[ecbm]

Okposo?

Good suggestion. If the Blues are seriously interested in a scoring forward, I'm sure they will have inquired. Wonder what the asking price would be.

[glen a richter]

Okposo?

Good suggestion. If the Blues are seriously interested in a scoring forward, I'm sure they will have inquired. Wonder what the asking price would be.

I'm not really up on the status of the Sound Tigers, but I'd imagine if they're eventually trading Hamonic, they'd want an NHL ready defensive replacement for him. That's in no way suggesting that Bouwmeester for Okposo straight up would get the deal done, but based purely on each players respective salary, this actually sheds about a million off our cap hit. I'd imagine they'd want a defenseman and a prospect or a defenseman and a pick. In any event, Okposo would be a great top 6 on this team. I always liked the kid. When he was injured last season for a little while, the Islanders started playing like shit and I directly correlated the two events. He's a guy who makes things happen out there.

[WaukeeBlues]

As always, the price paid has to make sense. It also makes a lot of sense as to why they'd move Hartnell. He's probably taught their "kid" players all they're going to get from him and he's an older commodity on a team looking to add to defense. They'd probably be interested in a younger D-man in our corps. I could part with Vanelli or Schmaltz to get Hartnell. I wouldn't trade Edmonson or Parayko though. Especially Parayko.

But I would almost guarantee that's the direction they'd be looking to bolster their shelf of young defensemen.

I would gladly add Hartnell. Bit of grit with scoring and, as noted, pretty successful in the playoffs, which is exactly what this team needs.

DO IT LEEEEERYYYY

[theohall]

Were it not for injuries, I doubt Edmunson would be getting the ice time he's gotten lately. Right now, he's the weakest link on D.

With Walman, Schmaltz, and Vanelli in the pipeline, Edmunson, Gunnarson, and Bouwmeester should all be up for trade.

[glen a richter]

Edmundson is such a weak link on this team, no one can spell his name right. I wouldn't care one way or the other if they traded him. His skill set is replaceable with Lindbohm and Edmundson has an injury history that Lindbohm doesn't have. As far as Schmaltz and Vannelli (and Dunn and Walman, later on) they're all going to get their fair shot. Vannelli's been stunted a little because he's been injured since the seventh game of the season so it's tough to do a fair assessment, but I think Schmaltz is close and Walman next after him. We're so deep in D, there's so many ways to fashion a trade without doing irreparable damage to the future blueline. If they're looking for cheap young scoring next season (if they spent to the cap and need to fill a roster spot) Samuel Blais should get a look.

[theohall]

Good news for D prospects - several of them shoot left which is the issue now - too many righties and not enough lefties.

[Robb_K]

Someone texted me about this last night and I wasn't aware it was Eklund 'reporting' it. My first thought was a flat, 'No.' Then I saw Hartnell had 16 goals and realized that would put him in 2nd or 3rd on the team (without looking) and re-thought that stance. I despise Hartnell, but this team needs a shakeup.

I'm not crazy about the idea of this move, but offensively he would be a slight improvement over a number of players...especially in the playoffs. It's not a sexy move, but it would likely help the team, depending on the move we would make to clear cap space for him.

And as far as playoff performance goes, Hartnell averages .52 ppg, which is light years better than Brouwer (.24 ppg) and a little better than Backes (.45 ppg) and Berglund (.45 ppg).

To put those stats into perspective...
Tarasenko - .85 ppg in the playoffs.
Stastny - .68 ppg
Steen - .45 ppg

I'd take him for a 3rd rd., pic and a prospect that isn't Barbashev or Schmaltz. A Blue Jackets fan suggested a 1st and Barbashev...I laughed...hard.
Columbus would be dumping salary here...they wouldn't be getting anything substantial in return.

I wouldn't give up Dunn and a 3rd for Hartnell (not even mentioning that his current contract is fairly high, considering it extends 3 more years into his late 30s, at a fairly high rate).