The St. Louis Blues have made a move to reinforce their current roster, landing Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish in exchange for the 15th and 29th overall selections of tonight’s first round, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Both St. Louis and Anaheim have officially announced the deal.
Owning four first rounders entering the draft, capped off with taking in #16 from Washington for Jordan Kyrou three days ago, outgoing general manager Doug Armstrong was intent on helping out his group sooner rather than later. Just this morning it was reported that McTavish had interest from both the Rangers as well as the Blues, and with New York snagging Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas, it’s Armstrong who closes the deal for the 23-year-old, leaving the new Alexander Steen regime with a player who fits nicely into their youth movement.
Rather than pour on to what is already a strong prospect pool enhanced by their selections of Tynan Lawrence and Maddox Dagenais, the Blues bring in the former third overall selection in McTavish (2021), using picks acquired from trades involving a pair of 34-year-olds from the previous era; Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk.
The young center is already locked up for the foreseeable future, as the Blues take on McTavish’s $7MM cap hit which runs through 2030-31. On the other hand, already among the teams most rich in cap room, Anaheim now jumps up to over $44 million in space set to be players on virtually any top free agent as well as the trade market.
More to come…
