Blues-Flyers reported blockbuster trade on hold ... for now

When the St. Louis Blues announced they signed defenseman Scott Perunovich to a one-year, one-way contract extension for $775,000 on Saturday, was done by coincidence or with a calculated purpose?

Put the pieces together, and there was some purpose in announcing it just as rumors started to gain traction throughout the day that the Blues and Philadelphia Flyers were on the verge of possibly announcing a blockbuster trade.

Put the pieces together, and there was some purpose in announcing it just as rumors started to gain traction throughout the day that the Blues and Philadelphia Flyers were on the verge of possibly announcing a blockbuster trade.

The first name to drop according to multiple reports was Flyers center Kevin Hayes, who has three years remaining of a seven-year, $50 million contract he signed on June 18, 2019 ($7,142,857 cap hit), according to PuckPedia.

The Blues couldn't afford that contract, not with just under $6 million in cap space remaining and having to sign players to fill out their roster left, so naturally, the Flyers were absorbing a good majority of Hayes' AAV to make it work, right? The Blues would sweeten the pot by offering up, perhaps one of three first-round picks they have in the 2023 NHL Draft that begins Wednesday in Nashville to make it work?

Hayes, 31, who had 54 points (18 goals, 36 assists) in 81 games last season, carries a modified no-trade list that includes 12 teams, and the Blues, a source told The Hockey News, aren't part of it.

Then multiple reports began trickling in, and at the end of the night Saturday, the proposed deal involved multiple NHL players, and one going from St. Louis to Philadelphia reportedly would have been defenseman Torey Krug, but there's one problem: Krug has a full no-trade clause in his seven-year, $45.5 million contract *$6.5 million he signed with the Blues on Oct. 9, 2020 for another two seasons before a modified no-trade clause with 15 teams on it 

The Blues have been widely rumored as having to part with one of their top four defenseman, including Krug, Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and Nick Leddy, but each carries a full no-trade clause for at least the next two seasons except for Parayko, whose full no-trade clause remains for five of the final seven years remaining on his $52 million contract.

Multiple sources told The Hockey News that Faulk, Parayko and Leddy were each not asked to waive, which would leave the 32-year-old Krug as the player the Blues asked to waive his NTC.

The holdup on the trade, which multiple reports also indicated that Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim was part of the package going to St. Louis, was that the Blues defenseman -- presumably Krug -- had not signed off on waiving his NTC and would not approve a move to Philadelphia.

So the deal could either fall through completely, or or could be modified to fit in another way, but there's also the chance that should Krug waive his NTC, the Flyers would then flip him to a more desired destination. That all could unfold on Sunday.

If the trade manages to get completed, Hayes would bring the Blues a veteran locker room presence, which has always been key for their success along with the ability to play a second- or third-line center ice role to play behind Robert Thomas and Brayden Schenn, a position of need after trading Ryan O'Reilly to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 17.

The 27-year-old Sanheim, who signed an eight-year, $50 million contract extension on Oct. 13, 2022 and had 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 81 games last season, carries a $6.25 million cap hit and would immediately jump into the Blues' top four, replacing Krug.

And as for the Blues, the pieces fit that Krug is the player, and the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Perunovich would fit into Krug's offensive roles more specifically, since each is practically the same player, with the specialty being a quarterback on the power play but Perunovich being eight years younger (24).

Perunovich played in 22 regular-season games with the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League last season and had 20 points (two goals, 18 assists); he also recorded eight points (one goal, seven assists) to go along with a plus-6 rating in 10 games with the USA World Championship team last month in Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia.

But Perunovich, a second-round pick in the 2018 draft, has played in just 19 NHL regular-season games (six assists) and seven Stanley Cup playoff games (four assists) in 2021-22 because of various injuries, including most recently a fractured left shoulder that forced him to miss the majority of last season before being sent to the AHL.

Stay tuned on Sunday should more of this develop further prior to everyone convening on Nashville on Monday.