������Ƶ

As the Blues enter the final season of Doug Armstrong’s tenure as general manager, they’ll do so in a different position than the one they entered a year ago.

The Blues returned to the postseason for the first time since 2022 and came within seconds of knocking off the Jets in the first round. They hired a difference-making coach in Jim Montgomery and uncovered two gems from Edmonton in Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. The Blues’ retool, reset, retrench has ended, Armstrong said, and it’s time to return to regular contention.

In order to do that, the Blues will have to fortify their roster. They likely need another scoring forward and potentially a minute-munching defenseman.

That brings us to cap space. How much do the Blues have and what can they do with it? Let’s take a look:

Projected cap position

The NHL’s salary cap is expected to jump $7.5 million next season to $95.5 million, the largest year-to-year increase since the cap was implemented in 2005 and a welcome deviation from the flat-cap era from 2020 to 2024 as the league recovered from the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That should give the Blues more room to work with, right? Well, they’ve largely used a lot of that space already. Pavel Buchnevich’s cap hit will rise $2.2 million from $5.8 million to $8 million due to the extension he signed last summer. Jake Neighbours will receive almost a $3 million raise coming off his entry-level contract, with a $3.75 million cap hit beginning next season.

Goaltender Joel Hofer is also due a raise, and we’ll get to him in a few moments.

While Radek Faksa ($3.25 million cap hit) and Ryan Suter ($775,000 cap hit) will become unrestricted free agents, Suter will still leave behind an impact. Thanks to his performance bonuses this season, the Blues will have to account for $2.153 million in bonus overages next season.

The cap increase will most affect teams with many pending UFAs, minimal raises on extensions and zero bonus overages. The Blues have none of those things.

With 13 forwards, eight defensemen and one goaltender under contract, and with the bonus overage accounted for, the Blues are projected to have $5.912 million available in cap space. Here is the breakdown of that:

Signing Hofer

The Blues only have one NHL player set to become a restricted free agent this summer, and that’s Hofer. Neighbours would have become an RFA, but the Blues signed him to an extension in October.

Hofer, who turns 25 this summer, figures to come in between $2 million and $3 million a season, at least based on previous comparable deals for young backup goaltenders. Dan Vladar might be the closest comparison, and he signed a two-year contract that began at age 25 in 2023 worth $2.2 million annually.

Connor Ingram (three years, $1.95 million cap hit), Pyotr Kochetkov (four years, $2 million cap hit) and Stuart Skinner (three years, $2.6 million cap hit) are other examples in that ballpark, albeit with different circumstances and experience.

On the higher end, there’s Jeremy Swayman’s previous contract (one year, $3.475 million) after splitting time with Linus Ullmark, and Filip Gustavsson’s three-year deal averaging $3.75 million after platooning with Marc-Andre Fleury.

For round numbers, let’s say Hofer ends up around a $2.5 million cap hit. That would leave the Blues with $3.412 million in cap space.

What to do with Krug?

Now, that number can change depending on what the Blues decide to do with injured defenseman Torey Krug. At his season-ending news conference, Armstrong said that he believes Krug’s career is over, which would allow the Blues to place him on long-term injured reserve and allow St. Louis to exceed the salary cap.

How the Blues want to utilize LTIR would be up to them.

If they use it in the offseason to chase acquisitions, they would have the ability to use all of Krug’s $6.5 million cap hit. Add that to the $3.412 million estimate from before, and the Blues could have $9.912 million to work with in the summer. The downside of that? The Blues would begin the season with $0 in cap space and could only create space by making moves to their roster (loans, trades, etc.).

If the Blues choose to use in-season LTIR with Krug, they would not have excess money (in addition to the estimated $3.412 million) to use in the summer. But they could construct a season-opening roster with Krug on it and do so as close to the $95.5 million cap in order to use as much of his $6.5 million cap hit. Every dollar the Blues are away from the cap is a dollar from Krug’s cap hit that they cannot use.

St. Louis went this route in the 2024-25 season, allowing them plenty of cushion to work with throughout the season.

A third option would be to trade Krug to another team in order to get rid of his contract and allow the Blues to operate without the many restrictions of LTIR. Krug has two years left at a $6.5 million cap hit and is owed a total of $12.5 million in actual cash.

Dvorsky’s inclusion

In theory, the Blues could have a low-cost option available to them at forward with Dalibor Dvorsky still on his entry-level contract. Because he did not play in 10 NHL games this season, Dvorsky’s contract slid to next season, which also lowered his cap hit to $886,666.

The Blues could use Dvorsky on the roster, allowing them to spend elsewhere due to the savings he would provide. But history has shown that the Blues are not willing to rush Dvorsky, and including him on a roster already with Zack Bolduc and Jimmy Snuggerud would be something the Blues haven’t done in quite some time.

Only twice in franchise history have the Blues played three forwards age 22 or younger at least 60 games in a season. Once was 1987-88, with Todd Ewen, Tony Hrkac and Herb Raglan. The other was in 1978-79 with Bernie Federko, Wayne Babych and Brian Sutter — and that was the worst team in franchise history.

Since the pandemic, only two franchises have played three forwards age 22 or younger at least 60 games while also making the playoffs: the Rangers and Hurricanes.

Creating space

There are always levers that teams can pull in order to try and create more cap space. Last summer, the Blues traded a second-round pick to Pittsburgh to dump Kevin Hayes’ contract. During the season, they got out from Brandon Saad’s deal through mutual contract termination.

While Armstrong has never bought out a player during his tenure, there is a prime candidate this summer: Alexandre Texier. At 25 years old, Texier’s buyout would cost one-third of his contract (at 26 years old, it increases to two-thirds) and he only has one year left at a $2.1 million cap hit.

If the Blues bought out Texier, his cap hit would be $350,000 for the next two seasons. It would save the Blues $1.75 million this upcoming season and cost them $350,000 in 2026-27, which is less than half of a league-minimum contract.

Texier played just 31 games for the Blues this season as a combination of injury, illness and ineffectiveness cost him playing time. He played just three of the team’s seven playoff games vs. Winnipeg.

Mathieu Joseph ($2.95 million) and Nick Leddy ($4 million) were each healthy scratches at points this season, while trade protections for Justin Faulk ($6.5 million) and Brayden Schenn ($6.5 million) decrease this summer.