The Magnus Paajarvi era with the St. Louis Blues may have just ended. The Blues placed Paajarvi on waivers in order to make room for goaltender Brian Elliott. Paajarvi has been a spectator for most of the year so far, appearing in just 10 of the team’s 35 games. Despite several clear opportunities to use him, the Blues have opted for other options. By sending Paajarvi through waivers, the Blues are ready to turn the page.
It’s rare that you hope a player is claimed on waivers, but the Blues would be pretty appreciative if Paajarvi and his $1.2 million contract were picked up. Crunched against the salary cap and with needs to address, the Blues would welcome the savings.
As for Paajarvi, you have to feel kind of bad for the guy. He has played in 65 games for the Blues since arriving in St. Louis in the trade which sent David Perron to Edmonton and he never seemed to find a regular, consistent role. In 2014-15, Paajarvi was always making cameos which disrupted any kind of rhythm a player may have. Fans expected a lot considering he was the biggest piece returning in the Perron trade, but he never really panned out and never really found his role.
The Blues have a spark plug in Chris Porter and they’ve decided to give Dmitrij Jaskin more time instead of splitting things up with Paajarvi. Adding in the fact the Blues need to role with three netminders until Elliott proves he’s healthy, the decision to waive Paajarvi is pretty logical.
Ken Hitchcock commented on this exact situation, as seen in the Post-Dispatch:
“I don’t believe Doug is prepared to go down to two (goalies) until he’s assured that Brian is coming back and then when he does play, he comes out of the game healthy. It would be prudent for us to stay with three, knowing that Brian is not going to go from playing a hockey game to awful sore and not able to participle for another few days. So I think he wants to really guard on that sense and I don’t blame him a bit for doing that.”
Finally, Hitchcock offers a blunt comment on why Paajarvi was placed on waivers:
“We’ve gotten more energy from other people.”
We’ll have to wait and see how Ivan Barbashev pans out as the final remaining piece from the Perron trade, but for now it’s all but time to officially close the book on Paajarvi.
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