Buyers or Sellers?
Buyers. The Blues are a good team who should make the playoffs, but that has been the story in St. Louis for years now. The team needs to pick up another decent scorer if it wants to advance past the first round in the postseason, and St. Louis is a team which has shown in the past that it is not shy about making deals.
Team needs
St. Louis lacks scoring options up front, so the Blues need to find a team willing to deal a decent offensive player. They could find a partner in the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team willing to sell pretty much anyone to jumpstart their rebuild. The Leafs have a few decent options on offense, including Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri. There is also always the possibility of taking a chance on beleaguered Tampa Bay forward Jonathan Drouin.
Key Players
Kevin Shattenkirk
Perhaps one of the most popular names on the rumor mill, Shattenkirk is an elite defenseman who would provide a huge boost on the blue line and power play to any interested buyers. Although losing Shattenkirk would be a difficult pill to swallow for the Blues, they do have some depth on D. Trading Shattenkirk would be a risk, but the reward he'd command could make the deal worth it.
David Backes
As a pending free agent, Backes is one of those players whose failure to reach an extension so far with the Blues could indicate that the team will simply trade him instead at the deadline. Backes likely wants a high-priced, long-term deal, and if the Blues do not want to offer that, trading him instead could get the team some interesting players in return. But all of this speculation is predicated on the idea that the Blues and Backes' agent don't see eye-to-eye, and it's impossible to know whether that is actually the case.
Arielle Aronson covers the NHL and special features for FOX Sports. You can follow her on Twitter @aharonson28.
