NHL Rumors: St. Louis Blues, Salary Deferrals, and Some Teams Looking to Add

If the St. Louis Blues are out of the race at the deadline, three possible trade candidates

Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: (mailbag) If the St. Louis Blues are out of the playoff race at the trade deadline, could see forward Brandon Saad getting some interest. He has a year left on his contract at $4.5 million.

Goaltenders don’t net much return at trade deadlines, so moving Jordan Binnington then might not make sense.

Defenseman Nick Leddy has a year left at $4 million and without retaining salary, he might be hard to move.

Salary deferrals likely won’t become a pattern

TSN: Darren Dreger thinks deferred salaries will be a topic in CBA negotiations but he doesn’t think it’s going to become a pattern as one agent says it’s for a very specific type of player.

“Jake McCabe is approaching the latter stages of his career. The back-and-forth of the negotiation to extend wasn’t moving until he was willing to defer some salary. That got his AAV up to a point that he could live with and a cap hit that works for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Conversely, you look at Seth Jarvis, a younger player with the Carolina Hurricanes. This one is a bit of a head-scratcher for a lot of agents because the big chunk that he deferred to 2032 is $15.67 million. So there are some tax benefits for these things, but I don’t think it’s going to happen often. ”

Trade talk picking up as some teams are looking to add

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: Trade talk has started to pick up as patience is running out for some. Pressure on coaches is also increasing.

Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams is looking to add and not sell.

The Colorado Avalanche are looking for forwards.

The Montreal Canadiens are looking at forwards with an edge but don’t want that player to block any youngsters in the next two years.

Several teams weren’t interested in term and passed on Timothy Liljegren and Matt Benning, who were traded for each other.