Trade talks INTENSIFYING... - Insider reveals SHOCKING trade update

Trade talks are intensifying as an NHL insider reveals a shocking trade update on the St. Louis Blues as Doug Armstrong continues to look at adding top six talent to this Blues team going into next season. We're going to break down all these reports coming from an NHL insider, the exact player that fits perfectly in this Blues lineup and so much more later on in this episode before we get into that Blues fans. If you're part of the 75% watchings and you haven't hit that subscribe button yet, we're trying to reach our goal of 4,000 subscribers. Make sure to go down and hit that free subscribe button. It helps us out a ton. And in return, we'll give you updates from all around the Blues from prospects, game recaps, trades, reports, anything you can think of you can find right here on Blues Digest. So make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of the content. But with that, let's just hop into it. Before we get into these trade reports, a recent article dropped by Dom ranking all the most improved and declined teams in the NHL. And this was a tiny bit surprise in my opinion, where they have the Blues ranked at a minus one ranking or net rating and 20th on this list. Now, the biggest thing is we know they lost some key players. They lost a 19 goal scorer in Zach. You move out fast and Nick Weddy going to the Sharks, Ryan Suter going to a new team. But overall, I think they did improve in a lot of spots. And I don't know if you feel any different areas. I think they improved and they got younger, which is something that's being overlooked in all of this. So, you know, for them to be ranked this low, I guess, on the list is a little surprising to me because you get one of the better prospects in Logan Mayhew across the league in terms of, you know, young offensive defenseman. Obviously, Bo Duke giving him up in that trade. That's tough. It looked like he was going to be a very good player. Still very young. Everyone tends to forget how young he still is and had potential to be a top six player. But look at the Blues top six. You got Snuguru in there now. Like they made some really good moves. They shored up their center depth to a point that if there is an injury, you're not even looking bad. Still, you're in a really, really good spot. So a little bit puzzled by how far down the rankings they were. You also moved off of Nick Weddy, who was making quite a bit of money, was getting older. Now you have an influx of, you know, younger players like a Tyler Tucker, who's going to be able to hopefully flourish in that role. Because the coach, like we covered before, Jim Montgomery, is a big fan of Tucker. I'm a big fan of Tucker. I believe in him. I think that he can step into that role pretty, pretty seamlessly. I don't know about everyday NHL-er in terms of like playing all 82 games. We'll see. Maybe he will this year. I don't know if they're done yet in terms of making moves, which we'll get to. But this one is a little weird to me. But Blues fans, if you want to read through this full article, we will have it down below. He does go briefly on some of their acquisitions in Suter, Bucs, which I do think are severely underrated. As Bucs, that was a 20-goal score. And Pew, Suter scored 25 goals last season. But that will all be down below. But with that, that gets straight into the fact that the St. Louis Blues are continually looking to add more top-six talent. Now we know Doug Armstrong is putting the go-fishing sign onto the wall. He said the teams are actively just not being more active around the NHL. And this leads straight into a report. Also, shout-out to Darius for making that. That is awesome. But going straight into it, we've seen Frank Cervelli on Bleach Report. Still in the market. Still in the mix for top-six boards. You can see a list of teams. But the Blues are also mentioned. Now going into the quote, we've seen Doug Armstrong going in to say hang the go-fishing sign on the door. We'll talk to teams and get prepared for August. Now this is a team that wants to continue getting better. We know every team in the NHL feels like that at this point. There are teams looking for the second-line center. And the Blues are still looking for that. But there is one name in particular. One team the Blues can call. And I think it makes the most sense. And that's the Pittsburgh Penguins. We know right now. Brian Russ. Ricard Raquel. Are two names that are actively being shopped. The Penguins are the only team that seems to be shopping. This entire article will be down below too. If you want to read the latest on two of them and how close they're being traded. But there is one name in particular. And that is Ricard Raquel. That fits this team perfectly. Now we know. Raquel had a career year last year playing with Crosby. 70 points. He's a multi-20 goal scorer. Putting up very good numbers. Threw his career with the Anaheim Ducks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Darius. What is your thoughts on this Penguins team selling? And how does Raquel fit within this Blues lineup? Well it does make some sense for the reasons that you brought up. The Pittsburgh Penguins are the only sellers in the entire league. Which is almost unprecedented. Or hasn't happened in like 30 years at this point. Where every other team is trying to actively get better at this point in time. Like I don't even know if there's so many teams trying to tank. Heading into next year. Although there will be. They will emerge. But the Pittsburgh Penguins are actively trying to sell. And Raquel like you brought up. Had a career year last year. And first cap hit at $5 million. And the fact that he has term left on it. The fact that he's only 32. He could really help a team. I mean listen. You're adding 70 points possibly. To your lineup. And he did that on a bad team. And yes at times he was playing with Sidney Crosby. And also on the power play. All of these things were true. But he spent a lot of time with Evgeny Malkin on the second line as well. Malkin was dealing with some injuries and whatnot. So Raquel did put together a really good season. You know on his own as well. Right? This is not just a subject of or by way of Sidney Crosby. Or anything like that. Yes of course playing with Sidney Crosby is going to help you. You're going to produce some points. But you know he had a career year at 32 on a bad team. I think that's very telling. So for the St. Louis Blues side of things. $5 million is very affordable. They freed up some cap space with some of the moves that they've made. And of course we can't forget that they did some of these moves. Because you don't want to go into overage before the season. You can only go 10% over the cap during the offseason. And they have the LTIR kicking in with Torrey Crew when the season starts. Right? So when that does happen. You may be actually able to afford a guy like Raquel at that cap hit. So I think that's very interesting. Even if you have to make more of a minuscule move. If you want to make this work you can absolutely do that. But the other thing is that you have to consider with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yes they want to sell these players. But they view them as assets. They're not trying to cap dump or anything like that. So you're going to have to give up something pretty good and worthwhile for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Because they feel like with Brian Russ, with Ricard Raquel, with even Eric Carlson. Which I'm not linking him to the Blues at all. But I'm just saying with all three of those. They view them as assets. So they're going to want something pretty nice in return. And I'm not saying you're going to have to give up your best prospect. If you're the Blues or anything like that. But you're going to have to give up a pretty significant package. For a guy who just had a career year making $5 million. And I mean look around the league right now. What people are making around the league. $5 million for 70 points is great value. Especially because he's locked up beyond this season coming up. So could be an interesting move there for the Blues to kind of shore up more of the top 6. And obviously the top 9 in by way of that as well. Because I think the big thing is with the cap rising so much year after year. It's going to 4.5, 5, 6 million each single season. This is the perfect way of getting in on a $5 million contract. Which is going to get smaller and smaller against the cap. When you're going further into the future. So by the final year. Yes you're going to have a 36 year old Ricardo Raquel. But this contract is going to look a lot smaller than it currently does going into next year. But the big thing with Raquel. You can add a 60 point hitter on this team. You can add someone that scored 20 goals multiple times. He isn't the best on the faceoff. But early career with Anaheim Ducks. He was kind of successful. So if you want someone that could slide in to that position. Maybe down the road or if you need to. If an injury does occur. You can fit him into that center. He's not going to take over a second line center position. But if you need to fill a void on center at a certain point. Yes you can do this. The cost is going to be a lot. This could be something like Dvorsky. We don't know what Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins are asking for. But after covering so many of the Blues prospects for you guys. You can slowly see how many great prospects are in this system. So Doug Armstrong does have a cupboard of prospects. Where if he wants to move one or two out. Plus a draft pick. To acquire a player. There isn't going to just kind of extinguish their full prospect pool. They still have so many options. What are you guys thoughts on Raquel? Do you think Raquel or Ross Vinson. If you wanted to cover Ross too. We can do a full video on that as well. While you're down there leave a like. Subscribe. Share this with your friends. Leave a comment on anything you wanted to cover. We've seen so many prospects down there. We're going to get to all of them. Because we love covering the Blues. And covering it for you guys. So you're not going to want to miss that. But I've been your host Mark. With my co-host Darius. Thank you so much Blues fans. And take care.