ST. LOUIS — The 2020 NHL Trade Deadline officially came and went on Monday afternoon.
While many teams around the league were making last minute moves, the St. Louis Blues remained silent for another year.
It’s the second straight year the Blues acquired a defenseman roughly a week before the trade deadline in exchange for draft picks, but silently fled the scene afterwards. In 2019 the Blues acquired defenseman Michael Del Zotto from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a 2019 sixth-round draft pick.
About one week ago the Blues acquired defenseman Marco Scandella from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2021. In addition, the team placed defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on long-term injured reserve. The Bouwmeester move helped clear the necessary monetary space to make this acquisition possible.
Let’s be clear. There’s not too much these two defenseman have in common despite their position on the ice.
The Blues picked up Del Zotto to make sure there was defensive depth in the midst of potential injuries in the push to the playoffs. The Blues acquired Scandella with the motive of making him an everyday defensive player with an immediate impact on the team. They intended on him being a crucial piece to the puzzle, and so far, he’s been just that.
Since his first game in a St. Louis sweater on Feb. 20, the Blues have won three straight. This adds onto their previous win on Feb. 18 against New Jersey. Those four wins came right after the team had lost five straight.
Scandella can’t get all the credit for the recent wins since joining the roster, but he deserves a large portion of it.
Before the four wins, the Blues had allowed three goals on average in each of the previous 12 games. They’ve allowed two goals in three games with Scandella on the ice. Defense is much stronger with his presence in the core.
But the addition of Scandella wasn’t a conversation prior to Bouwmeester’s cardiac episode. The original conversation made public by the Blues front office surrounded offense. Blues general manager publicly commented on the idea of the Blues scouting the market for a top-six forward.
This conversation arose after the Blues failed to produce consistent offense for nearly three weeks following the 2020 NHL All-Star game.
It was a rather ironic situation given that the Blues refused to discuss this idea at all ahead of the 2019 trade deadline when St. Louis was still clawing its way out of the bottom of the league. Nevertheless, it showcased the organization’s desire to win again.
The question then became whether or not Vladimir Tarasenko would be returning to the lineup in a timely fashion.
When Tarasenko first underwent surgery in October, the timetable was made so that he would be re-evaluated in the first week of April. Let’s be clear that re-evaluation doesn’t equate to Tarasenko being game ready. Armstrong kept the conversation public after Tarasenko began skating with the team in February.
Rumors have circulated that Tarasenko will be re-evaluated sooner than originally documented, but nothing has been officially confirmed with a timestamp on it. Armstrong also made it clear that no trade of significance would or could be made if it was looking likely that Tarasenko return to the lineup sooner than anticipated in time for the end of the regular season.
The reason? Cap space and room in the lineup. It simply wouldn’t have made sense.
Since no trade ended up taking place, it is clear that the team is anticipating a Tarasenko return.
"Getting Vladi back is gonna be like getting a new player in," Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist said. "So, I don't feel like we need any changes. I mean, we're starting to find our game, and we're a tight group in here."
It also didn’t hurt that the Blues began figuring things out to go on a winning streak in the four games leading up to the deadline.
"We were in first place, and we went on a stretch there, and we're still in first place," Blues forward Brayden Schenn said. "We're fighting for first place. So, I'm sure they feel in that office that, we have a chance to do it again. And, it's not easy, but we're a veteran team that's finding ways to win."
Quite frankly, the issue the Blues have now is figuring out who to remove from the lineup when Tarasenko is healthy. Not a bad problem to have.
It most likely wouldn’t be a veteran presence, which narrows the options down to players like Zach Sanford and Jordan Kyrou who have been crucial pieces to the team’s offense in recent games.
The silence showcased the organization’s confidence in Tarasenko, in his return, and in the team’s current roster.
"It's a great team" Blues head coach Craig Berube said. "I think Scandella's been a great addition. He's looking really good out there. He looks like he fits in with Parayko very well. So it's a nice addition to have. And ya know, we've got good depth."
If there wasn’t a need to shake things up at the deadline in 2019, then there definitely isn’t a reason to do it in 2020 as the Blues sit at first place in the central division.