Forward was acquired in trade with New York Islanders on March 6 that sent Brayden Schenn to Long Island; would be first Blues buyout since before Armstrong became GM in 2010
ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues will buy out Jonathan Drouin's contract if the forward goes unclaimed on waivers.
Drouin, 31, has one year remaining on his contract with a $4 million cap hit after being acquired from the New York Islanders on March 6 as part of the Brayden Schenn trade.
With Alexander Steen set to officially take over as Blues general manager on Wednesday after the Blues introduced the 42-year-old at a press conference on Tuesday, it will go down as the first buyout by the Blues since before Doug Armstrong took over as GM in 2010.
“Obviously a tough decision. We waited a lot,” Steen said. “I think ‘Dru’ is a very defined player and at the end of the day, we didn’t feel like we were going to provide him with a position to excel, so we landed at that decision.”
The Blues will but themselves some cap space, and under the current structure in the CBA, are responsible to pay 2/3 of Drouin's remaining salary.
If Drouin, who had a goal and two assists in nine games in St. Louis, goes unclaimed, the Blues will owe him $1,333,333 million over the next two seasons.
Asked whether this was to give more of a defined role to someone like Otto Stenberg, a first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, Steen said, " What our management group is really high on is internal competition, so we’ll be looking at everything. We’re happy with where our team’s positioned right now, but that would be something that we’d explore if it presented itself to us. This is going to be a highly-competitive camp."
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