Blues rumoured to be working on extension for Schwartz; could Hoffman be an option for Toronto?

The St. Louis Blues, despite losing Alex Pietrangelo in the offseason and playing most of the season without sniper Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder), have managed to post a 14-8-4 record through their first 26 games of the season and currently sit in 2nd in a very tough West Division.

As a top team in the West, it is somewhat unlikely that they would suddenly become sellers at the trade deadline, but given their current situation, with a high volume of contracts expiring at the conclusion of this season, it is certainly possible that GM Doug Armstrong ships out a body or two to focus on new deals from some key players.

Obviously, pending RFA defenseman Vince Dunn's name has been out there from the early parts of this season, so he could be one of the pieces to go at or before this year's trade deadline. Other pending RFA's in need of new deals include Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Zach Sanford, Jacob De La Rose, Steven Santini, Dakota Joshua and Evan Fitzpatrick.

While most or all of these players are likely to be qualified and retained for cheap, with the exception of Kyrou, Thomas and Sanford who should all be in line for sizeable salary increases, a trio of pending UFA's could cause problems for the Blues in a flat cap world. Goaltender Jordan Binnington, along with wingers Mike Hoffman and Jaden Schwartz, are all big ticket players for the Blues who are set to become unrestricted free agents in July.

Obviously, you have to ink your number one guy in Jordan Binnington. With a $4.4M cap hit this season and last, you'd have to imagine that the conversation starts somewhere between $5M and the $6.25M AAV that fellow Stanley Cup winner Matt Murray commanded when he signed his 4-year deal with the Ottawa Senators in the offseason.

According to The Fourth Period, the Blues have begun preliminary discussions with Schwartz on a new deal, and given the fact that he has a 15-team no-trade list, moving him could prove to be a challenge. Schwartz is in the final season of a 5-year, $26.75M deal, which carried a $5.35M AAV.

So that leaves Mike Hoffman. With several teams looking to beef up their top-six ahead of the April 12th trade deadline, Hoffman seems like a prime candidate to find a new home, as the Blues are not likely to re-sign him in the offseason. The option is there to use him as an "own rental", but his value is probably higher as a trade chip at this point when you consider the emergence of Kyrou and the return of Tarasenko. Also, Hoffman does not have any form of trade protection, such as a no-trade or no-move clause.

You'd have to imagine that a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have been in the market for a top-six winger, would be interested in adding a legit finisher like Hoffman to bolster their top-six and provide an upgrade on the wing for John Tavares and William Nylander. With a $4M cap hit, it is unlikely that St. Louis would have to retain much salary, if any, in order to make a deal work.

If the Leafs did bark up that tree and offered, say, Alexander Kerfoot and a conditional draft pick or a prospect as a sweetener, it could be enough to get a deal done. Also, with Kerfoot, the Blues would be receiving a player with term remaining and a reasonable cap hit ($3.5M AAV for two more seasons past this one).

At this point, there is no indication that the Leafs are interested in Hoffman, but there certainly could be a potential fit there.

With just one month remaining until the trade deadline, things should be ramping up here shortly, especially when you consider the fact that any potential cross-border trades would be accompanied by a mandatory 14-day quarantine period. I'd expect a splash sooner than later.

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