The time has passed, and obviously, everybody is already behind that Stanley Cup Final loss.
Or maybe not so much. In June, the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins matched up for a thrilling Stanley Cup Final, which featured a Game 7 to decide the winner for the first time in eight years.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, it was the Blues who hoisted the Stanley Cup at TD Garden on June 12. At the end of the day, the Blues are pretty content with the way they built their team and how they managed to defeat the Bruins.
However, there is one area where they try to look up to the Bruins and take notes from them. The Blues have some tough contract situations ahead. Recently, they signed forward Brayden Schenn to a long-term extension, while acquiring and extending defenseman Justin Faulk.
The next man up for the reigning Stanley Cup champions is their captain Alex Pietrangelo. The Bruins won’t appear this time to snag the former Blues captain in a free agency. They shouldn’t have done it in 2016 either.
Nevertheless, the Blues salary cap situation is, well, tight. So, how all this affect the Bruins? The Bruins have been able to sign their top players to team-friendly deals and contracts regularly. St. Louis would love to repeat that.
“The fact that he looks at a team like the Boston Bruins who have everyone buying into what everyone can fit their contracts under a cap. He believes the Blues have that type of culture,” cited TSN’s Pierre LeBrun on the philosophy which the Blues GM Doug Armstrong intends to construct his team.
LeBrun added that, for example, Pietrangelo would get a better contract on the open market, but he won’t get the same one from the Blues. Still, St. Louis is eager to re-sign their captain. The model of how to do it for the Blues is the Boston Bruins and their recent history with bargain and team-friendly contracts.
Don´t read anything into that. Can the Blues beat the Bruins in the Cup Final, and then come to copy their success with managing the tight salary cap? Or do read something into it after all.
