As your would expect, experts are lauding Blues general manager Doug Armstrong for making the much-anticipated Ryan Miller trade.
This team wants to win a Stanley Cup and goaltending is everything come playoff time. Jaroslav Halak has had great stretches in his NHL career, but his habit of allowing bad goals and suffering untimely injuries finally did him in as a Blue.
Solid veteran Brian Elliott got his chance to be a playoff hero here and failed. Armstrong knew that his goaltending situation wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good enough either.
Miller was the obvious fit – and the whole hockey world knew it. So Halak shuffles off to Buffalo, at least for the time being.
While Armstrong was wheeling and dealing, he added a classic playoff-caliber forward in Steve Ott while offloading Chris Stewart, who has been just taking up space both in the lineup and the payroll.
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(Stewart is under contract for next season at $4.2 million. While that is a plus for teams unwilling to trade for mere rentals, it was an issue for the Blues. This franchise would rather allocate that money to re-sign more important players.)
Armstrong got all this done without moving prized young forwards Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Dmitrij Jaskin and Ty Rattie – the sorts of players the rebuilding Sabres could really use. Armstrong did give up a first-round pick in 2015 and potentially the top pick in 2014 as well, should the Blues reach the NHL’s Final Four this year and/or Miller re-signs with the Blues.
He also gave up power forward prospect William (Aircraft) Carrier, a second-round pick in last year's draft. But with so many good young core players in hand, Armstrong was more than willing to make that sacrifice.
This was a win-win deal for the Blues for this spring. What happens down the road will be interesting, given Miller’s advanced age and outsized expectations for his next contract.
Jake Allen may yet be the future of Blues goaltending.
In the meantime the Blues are going for it and the Sabres gained two more assets the franchise can flip for prospects and/or draft picks before the trade deadline.
Here is what the expects are saying about all of that:
Scott Burnside, ESPN.com: “I think a lot of us figured there was a match to be made between the Sabres and Blues for Miller. As well as the Blues had played defensively this season -- they are third in goals allowed per game -- there was a distinct feeling that the tandem of Halak and Brian Elliott simply wasn’t capable of getting the Blues over the hump in the Western Conference. History suggested that was true and obviously Armstrong felt the same way as he went after a goaltender with a top pedigree in Miller.”
Craig Custance, ESPN.com: “For my money, the Blues already stacked up as one of the best teams in the West. They're deep up and down the lineup. In listening to Armstrong explain the trade Friday night, I think you can give one player in particular credit for inspiring this move: Jonathan Quick. The Blues ran into Quick and the Kings the past two seasons in the playoffs and he was a huge reason the Blues were sent home early . . . Now, in Miller, he has a goalie who can go toe-to-toe with Quick -- if that's the matchup at some point -- in the playoffs. The way those two teams are built, it almost seems inevitable.”
Allan Muir, SI.com: “No one will ever forget Halak’s surgical dismissal of the Capitals for Montreal in 2010, but he never managed to reach those heights again. Since joining the Blues, injuries have limited him to two postseason appearances and that nagging familiarity with the IR–along with a miserable turn between Slovakia’s pipes in Sochi–made it clear he wasn’t the bulwark that St. Louis needed him to be. For the Blues to take the next step, they needed an upgrade in the crease. Miller’s that and then some. The addition of Ott isn’t quite as glamorous, but he fills an obvious need for some sandpaper up front. Molded by Hitchcock when the two were in Dallas, he’s a versatile and defensively responsible forward who can bring menace and timely offense. An ace on the penalty kill and a strong and vocal presence in the room, he’ll make his presence felt every single night–and just imagine if he lines up alongside Vladimir Sobotka and Max Lapierre on what could be the most aggravating line in league history.”
Adam Proteau, The Hockey News: “The mammoth deal immediately vaults the already-impressive Blues to the very top of bona fide Stanley Cup frontrunners, but also serves the 30th-place Sabres well in their rebuilding project under new GM Tim Murray. Murray’s savvy decision to pair up Miller and Ott allowed him to maximize the return for the two biggest organizational cards he had to deal. But certainly in Stewart (who is under contract through next season) and perhaps in Halak (who will be an unrestricted free agent after this year), he has the ability to make further moves and bring in longer-term assets. And he adds another first-round draft pick to an arsenal that likely will include two first-rounders in the 2015 draft (their own, as well as the Islanders’, presuming the latter defers the first-rounder they owe them in the Thomas Vanek trade). As well, he also brings in Carrier, a 19-year-old Quebec Major Junior left winger the Blues drafted 57th overall last summer, to the team’s prospect pool.”
Harrison Mooney, Yahoo! Sports: “This is a great deal for both teams. The Blues got better. They're a team built around their goalie; their weakness is that they haven't had the goalie, and now they do. Miller is the upgrade in net they've been after, making a team that's already hard to score on even more impenetrable. And Ott gives them a versatile agitator and checking forward that will fit in a little better in Ken Hitchcock's system than Stewart did. Plus we salivate at the thought of a line featuring Ott, Max Lapierre, and Vladimir Sobotka. The three likeable guys, people will call them. The Blues may very well have started an arms race in the Western Conference as well. Will other teams feel more pressure to add now that they have? As for the Sabres, we applaud you, Tim Murray. Less than two full months on the job and you did the seemingly impossible: you found a taker for Ryan Miller (by pairing him with a much more moveable asset), and you got a pretty decent return in the process. The Sabres likely aren't done, either. There are rumblings that they might turn around and offer up both Halak and Stewart to the highest bidder.”
Shawn P. Roarke, NHL.com: “With the first-round pick obtained in the Miller trade, the Sabres have made or hold a total of 18 first- or second-round picks in a four-year span from 2012 to 2015. It could be 19 if Miller re-signs with the Blues or St. Louis makes the conference final. No team has made more than 15 selections in the first two rounds in a four-year span in the past two decades. The Washington Capitals had 15 from 2004-07 (and 19 in five years from 2004-08). The Colorado Avalanche also had 15 from 1997-2000, including an astounding seven of the top 53 picks in the 1998 NHL Draft. The assets from those picks, both in present prospects and futures, gives Buffalo incredible flexibility to move in any direction it desires. The Sabres are still a team to watch, even if they did unload their biggest asset five days before the deadline.”
