Jordan Kyrou Trade Offer Turned Down By Goal-Starved Team

The vultures began circling again this season when Jordan Kyrou was a healthy scratch a few weeks back for the St. Louis Blues. He has seen his minutes and his line assignments fluctuate, from the first down to even the third line. Rumors about his availability in a trade have swirled since the end of last season.

Is he on the market? "I always think there's a chance there, because he's always the guy that gets benched first," insider Elliotte Friedman noted on the Kyper & Bourne podcast on Sportsnet. Then, he went one step further, confirming that Kyrou was, in fact, offered in a trade at the NHL Draft in June, but it was turned down.

On Draft Night, he could have gone to Seattle for the 8th-overall pick. And Seattle said, 'No.' They decided not to do it.

What makes this so surprising is that the Kraken were, and are, a team starved for offense, sitting 29th in the NHL in goals per game. They could have obtained a legit sniper, who's in his prime, and locked up on a very reasonable contract (in this day and age of the soaring salary cap), with five more years to run after this one, at an $8.125M cap hit.

Instead, the Kraken kept their pick and went for center Jake O'Brien out of Brantford in the OHL. The elite playmaking center is having another sensational year in junior hockey, with 31 assists and 40 points in 21 games.

As for Kyrou, the offensively-gifted forward is coming off three straight 30+ goal seasons with the Blues, but as Friedman noted, he's once again the whipping boy for Blues' head coach Jim Montgomery. The 27-year-old center/winger is having a slow start to the year, with six goals and 13 points through 22 games. In addition to his benching in one game earlier this month, he has been limited to under 15 minutes of ice time in five other contests, even as low as 12:42 just two games ago.

Expect teams to continue to hotly pursue the Toronto-born speedster. The Montreal Canadiens are one team that has been strongly connected to having interest in Kyrou.