Wishlist: Alexander Frolov

Ranked second on Yahoo’s top-30 forward list of remaining free agents not named Kovalchuk, Alexander Frolov is still lingering on the market. While I can’t see the Blues splashing out on a name as notable as Frolov’s, a blogger can dream, right?

The chances of the Blues landing Alexander Frolov is slim – extremely slim. However, the left winger is still searching for a team which means hope still remains. Let’s break down the case for Frolov.

Talent and Scoring
Frolov is definitely not lacking in the talent department. He has scored 20 or more goals in five of his seven season in the NHL and has recorded two seasons with 30 goals or more. Through his seven years skating with the Kings, he has scored 168 goals and 213 assists for a total of 381 points. This breaks down to an average of roughly 54 points each season.

Forecasters have often projected that Frolov still has a breakout in store that could see him challenge the 40-goal barrier, but so far he has yet to bring all the pieces together.

Power-play
At times Frolov has been brilliant with the man advantage, but at other times he seems to fade, and disappear from the play (we’ll hit on this more later). Still, in two of the last four seasons, Frolov has scored more than 25 points on the special teams unit. The Blues could certainly use his help not just during even strength play, but definitely on special teams.

The Negative
With the good comes the bad.  As mentioned above, Frolov has a tendency to disappear on the ice and fade away from games entirely. When he is on, he is really on, but when he is off you might have a tough time spotting him in the flow of the game.

The Blues can not afford another contract that doesn’t perform day in and day out, which does rule the possibility of Frolov coming here almost entirely out. His scoring can be immense, but it can also be invisible. The Blues might crumble if their risk didn’t pay off.

Overview
I’d love to have a dynamic forward like Frolov on the roster. He has been one of my favorites at the NHL level since he first came up with LA back in the 2002-03 season. He can score goals – lots of them. If he put all the pieces together, there is no reason to think he wouldn’t score 30-40 goals in a season and possibly more.

Unfortunately, the Blues aren’t in the best position to shell out a decent-sized contract for a player like Frolov. He scored just 19 goals last season and still has had issued with reliability and consistency. Perhaps the Blues could swing him in if they 1) had their ownership issues resolved and 2) had not just gotten wiped by two huge ugly contracts in the likes of Paul Kariya and Eric Brewer.