THN.com/podcast. From The Hockey News Podcast: Reacting to a Wild Weekend of NHL Trades Colton Parayko. [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk2Mzg4MzEzNDk2NTYxNjAz/usatsi_20131212.jpg] Colton Parayko. The St. Louis Blues were among the busiest sellers leading up to last Friday's trade deadline. Colton Parayko was not among those shipped out by the Blues, but he surfaced in the rumor mill leading up to deadline day. TSN's Pierre LeBrun [https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/insider-trading-could-the-st-louis-blues-also-move-a-defenceman-1.1920387] reported on Feb. 16 that he was drawing interest in the trade market. Two days later, The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford [https://theathletic.com/4223174/2023/02/18/blues-trade-ryan-oreilly-leafs/] wrote there was talk of the Blues looking into making a cost-cutting deal involving a defenseman such as Parayko. The Blues have $77.6 million invested in 18 roster players for 2023-24. That leaves roughly $5.8 million for the rest of the roster if the salary cap rises to $83.5 million. CapFriendly [https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/blues] indicates Parayko and fellow defensemen Torey Krug and Justin Faulk each have annual cap hits of $6.5 million, while Nick Leddy's is $4 million. Parayko's in the first season of an eight-year contract which also carries a full no-trade clause [https://www.capfriendly.com/players/colton-parayko]. On March 1, Rutherford speculated this situation could carry over into the off-season if Blues GM Doug Armstrong couldn't find a suitable deal before the deadline. He also cited a source [https://theathletic.com/4261419/2023/03/01/blues-colton-parayko-trade/] close to Parayko claiming the St. Albert, Alta. native would only waive his NTC to go to Edmonton. Following the deadline, Jim Thomas and Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [https://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/as-trade-deadline-passes-most-of-blues-roster-appears-set-for-next-season/article_a6107e26-3865-5ca9-bd43-4026c6a2600e.html] reported Armstrong declined to get into specifics about the trade rumors but did defend Parayko. However, that's unlikely to silence the conjecture about the blueliner's future in St. Louis heading into the off-season.
