The St. Louis Blues caught us all by surprise by making a trade on a quiet Saturday morning/afternoon leading up to their game against the Washington Capitals. The team has sent defenseman Jordan Leopold to Columbus in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2016.
Well that was unexpected! After rattling off wins in nine of their last 10 games, a trade seemed fairly unlikely. Of course, some fans would have loved to see Patrik Berglund packing his bags, but you usually don’t rock the boat if the team is winning games.
Obviously the Blues believe they spotted an opportunity. Columbus has been in dire need of a change and you could make the case the Blues have had an extra defenseman after watching Ian Cole take a step forward in the early going. Chris Butler will be recalled and the club will move forward with Cole firmly in the third pairing and Butler ready to chip in as needed.
The Blues will save some money too by trimming Leopold’s $2.25 million contract from the books.
The #stlblues will retain $500,000 (pro-rated) of Leopold's $2.25 million salary.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 15, 2014
Armstrong says the move will immediately create $1.1 million in cap space for the #stlblues and that will grow moving closer to deadline.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) November 15, 2014
How will history remember the Leopold era in St. Louis? Honestly, most people will probably forget he was ever here in a few years time. Leopold quietly did his job. He wasn’t great, but he was rarely bad or memorably bad. You didn’t hear his name too often during a game and that’s not a bad thing when it comes to defensemen.
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