This is the time of year when many contending teams will be looking to augment their depth down the middle. At a minimum, many will look to add at least a bottom-six middleman to help on the penalty kill, win faceoffs, or generally just serve as extra insurance if injuries arise.
But not all contenders are set a little higher up the lineup. Some will be looking to add more of a second-line option, either to boost their current second line or to give them a deeper third line. While depth centers are generally acquirable at this time of year, more impactful ones are generally harder to come by and when they do move, they typically command a strong return.
To that end, it appears the Blues may be testing the market for one of their better pivots. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported in the latest Insider Trading segment that St. Louis might be gauging the market to see what type of interest teams would have in veteran center Brayden Schenn.
The 33-year-old has been a strong two-way player for the bulk of his career, one that is just six games away from reaching 1,000. While he isn’t as much of a scoring threat as he was earlier on, he still has 11 goals and 19 assists in 54 games this season heading into tonight’s action. And with three straight years of 20 or more goals before 2024-25, there’s still a recent enough stretch of goal production for a contending team to think he can come in and still be an impact contributor.
Of course, Schenn’s physicality also will endear him to potential suitors. He’s averaging just over 2.5 hits per game this season and while he’s not deployed shorthanded quite as much as he used to, he’s still capable of taking a turn on the penalty kill as well. Those elements will also be endearing to teams looking to make a bigger splash down the middle.
Schenn is signed at a $6.5MM price tag through the 2027-28 season so his acquisition would certainly be a lot different from the rental moves we typically see made at this time of year. With a big jump coming for the next three seasons in the salary cap, absorbing the higher cap charge will become a little more palatable than it might have seemed a few weeks ago. It’s worth noting that Schenn’s salary drops to $4.3MM in 2026-27 and $4MM in 2027-28 which could make him a bit more appealing to any buyers that are operating under more of a stricter budget.
That said, it would be surprising if St. Louis was willing to retain a part of Schenn’s salary as that would cost them one of their three annual retention slots for three-plus seasons. While a few teams have taken on a multi-year retention charge, it’s still pretty uncommon. If they don’t want to do so here, then it will be harder for a lot of contenders to take on the full freight of the contract without sending a player or two the other way to offset some of the money. Not all teams will be willing to move what would likely be an impact piece for fear of disrupting chemistry late in the season but some would undoubtedly take that chance.
Even if the Blues were to find a suitable trade, Schenn holds plenty of control here. He currently holds a full no-trade clause which gives him full veto power if he doesn’t want to go to the team St. Louis works out a swap with. That said, his trade protection drops this July down to a 15-team no-trade clause so the Blues would potentially have more options to move him at that time.
Presumably, it would take a substantial return for St. Louis to seriously consider moving Schenn. But this is the time of year when teams might get a bit more desperate which could play into their favor. With the deadline now just four weeks away, GM Doug Armstrong has some time to assess if this is the right time to cash in on Schenn or whether they’re better off holding onto him for at least a little while longer.