St. Louis Blues Rumors: Defenceman Staying Put Through Trade Deadline

As the St. Louis Blues have traded almost every upcoming unrestricted free agent they had on their roster before the trade deadline and try to set the stage for a retool in the offseason, they have been rumoured to be shopping one of their top-four defencemen.

Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, and Torey Krug all have a cap hit of $6.5 million AAV for at least four more years each while Nick Leddy has a cap hit of $4 million AAV for the next three years. Seeing as the defence hasn't been great, it puts the Blues in a tough spot. They are paying the defence group more than they would like to, especially for the mediocre results.

There have been far too many no-trade clauses and modified no-trade clauses given out in St. Louis and it has gotten them to this point. The team has six players with large salaries and no-trade clauses that last until at least 2025. Some are longer and some just switch over to modified no-trade clauses. Parayko is one of these players, except his no-trade clause is in effect until 2028 and he's signed until 2030.

Parayko was brought up the most in trade rumours coming out of St. Louis as the defenceman the team would trade. He is just in his first year of an eight-year deal, so it wouldn't look the best, especially if the team has to ask him to waive his no-trade clause. Darren Dreger reported that it is more than likely Parayko will stay with the Blues through the deadline since trade talks have cooled down. There have been some movement defensively around the league and there are some teams that are still in need of defencemen with lots of cap space to utilize. Don't count out an offseason move.