Joel Edmundson Agrees to Terms on One Year Deal With St.Louis Blues

Via Wikipedia

NHL 

Blues bring back Edmundson; avoiding arbitration and staying under the Cap.

Defenseman Joel Edmundson has decided to stay put in St. Louis for another season. The contract signed is worth $3 million over the 2018-19 season. Since the term is only one year, Edmundson will remain a restricted free agent at the end of this coming season. If either side would have held out on signing for 24 more hours, the case would have been taken to arbitration.  Had Edmundson’s contract been assigned by an Arbitrator he likely could have had a contract worth $4 million plus.

What This Means For the Blues

This means more than one thing for the St. Louis Blues.

1. St. Louis’s three defensive lines will likely remain the same. All the defensemen the Blues used last season on opening night are returning to the team for the 2018-19 season.
2. With the deal only worth $3 million, the Blues remain to pull off magic like moves to stay under the Salary Cap. Had the arbitrator been needed, Doug Armstrong (Blues GM) would have needed to move a player roster player to stay under the $79.5 million Cap ceiling. As it sits, St. Louis has $284,845 left in Cap space making the Blues the most expensive team (by player contracts) out of all 31 teams.

How the Blues Stack Up Right Now

Heading into the 2018-19 National Hockey League seasons, the St. Louis Blues look like a very good hockey team (at least on paper). According to CapFriendly, the Blues have 24 players on the 23 player limit of the Active Roster and an average age of 27.7. With the amount of space left for the Blues, it is about 60-75% likely to see the Blues sit back and lay low for the rest of the offseason. If the Armstrong does decide to sit with what he has accomplished this offseason, this is what the lines could possibly look like:

Forwards

F1: Jaden Schwartz–Ryan O’Reilly–Vladimir Tarasenko

F2: Patrick Maroon–Brayden Schenn–David Perron

F3: Alexander Steen–Tyler Bozak–Robert Thomas* (or Jordan Kyrou*)

F4: Robby Fabbri–Ivan Barbashev–Dmitrij Jaskin

Defenders

D1: Joel Edmundson–Alex Pietrangelo

D2: Colton Parayko–Vince Dunn

D3: Jay Bouwmeester–Carl Gunnarsson

Goalies

Starter: Jake Allen

Backup: Chad Johnson

Extras

Chris Thorburn

Nikita Soshnikov

Robert Bortuzzo

*Whoever makes the team out of training camp.

Future Impact

To conclude the signing, Joel Edmundson is smart to sign short term to help the Blues stay under the Cap rather than signing long-term and pinning his team’s arm behind their back. This signing for General Manager Doug Armstrong shows just how good he can be at negotiating to players about the future. Without Armstrong’s magic, the big defenseman in Edmundson may have signed now for three years at around $4.25 million and the Blues would have had to move someone like Jaskin or Borutuzzo to stay under the Cap. At one year, $3 million, Edmundson can prove he is worth more and at the end of this coming season when Gunnarsson and Bouwmeester come off the books, the Blues can pay him.

 Other News in St. Louis

• According to stltoday.com, former Blue (and a blue that was a scratch in the season opener last year) Wade Megan has signed with the Red Wings in Detroit.
• According to nhl.com, Blues defenseman Jordan Schmaltz does not have a hearing with an arbitrator. This means St. Louis did not qualify the rights for RFA Schmaltz.
• According to icethetics.com, the St. Louis Blues are expected to release a third jersey for the 2018-19 season. May it be the 2017 Winter Classic jersey?