Even with terrible news such as Robby Fabbri being ruled out for the entire 2017-18 season by the St. Louis Blues, there can, conceivably, be a silver lining.
Or maybe it’s more like a gray-haired lining?
Blues GM Doug Armstrong admitted that the team has at least discussed the possibility of signing inexplicable* free agent Jaromir Jagr, though he provided himself plenty of wiggle room not to.
Army on Jagr: He's a great player, someone we've talked internally about, and we'll have to talk about how players complement our style.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) September 28, 2017
Interesting.
Blues fans can chime in here, but on paper, it seems like St. Louis might be able to find veteran/slower linemates who might make sense with Jagr.
Generally speaking, the Blues were a bruising team that still tried to significantly out-chance opponents under Ken Hitchcock. In a small sample size under Mike Yeo, they didn’t necessarily evoke the Pittsburgh Penguins’ attacking style in 2016-17, either.
The question is: would Yeo believe that Jagr could fit in to what he wants to do in 2017-18? With all of those injuries, there are at least seems to be some daylight for Jagr to assume the sort of role he likely craves: decent time on the power play, possibly some quality linemates. If nothing else, a Paul Stastny - Jagr combo would probably be dynamite for puck possession.
Actually, there’s one other question: money.
Cap Friendly pegs the Blues’ current cap space at $2.2 million. The final year of Fabbri’s rookie deal means he was carrying a cap hit just under $900K while Zach Sanford comes in at $875K. If Alex Steen and Jay Bouwmeester go on IR even for a limited time, that would open up a ton of money, temporarily.
In other words, they could probably squeeze Jagr in, though it could be a little tight. Most of us can agree that Jagr is probably worth the headache, and the Blues might just agree strongly enough to give the legend a contract.
* - OK, there are some hangups that make his free agent status possible to explain, but the consensus is that Jagr still deserves a chance.