We only ask, because according to Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest, the St. Louis Blues are high on Jason Spezza’s list of allowable trade destinations.
Per CapGeek, Spezza has a modified no-trade clause where he can submit to the Senators a list of teams to which he’s willing to be dealt. The 30-year-old center has one season remaining on his front-loaded contract -- with a cap hit of $7 million, but a salary of just $4 million in 2014-15 -- before he can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Blues do make sense as a potential trade partner, given their offensive struggles against the Blackhawks in the playoffs, plus the fact play-making center Derek Roy is a pending UFA and didn’t seem to be a great fit in St. Louis anyway.
That said, general manager Doug Armstrong made it clear after his team’s disappointing first-round exit that he wasn’t keen on “robbing Peter to pay Paul” in a trade, and that he didn’t think there was “a 31-year-old or 32-year-old veteran player that’s going to come in here and reinvent the wheel for the St. Louis Blues.”
Which doesn’t sound like a GM that’s ready to give up a ton for a veteran like Spezza, and that’s without even mentioning Spezza’s lengthy injury history.
PS -- If you’re wondering where all this Spezza trade speculation came from...