The Blues still have a ton of questions to address this summer, but they already deserve some praise for how they handled Dmitrij Jaskin. The 23-year-old was going to be a restricted free agent following the 2015-16 season and though there was never any real doubt about whether he’d be back with St. Louis in 2016-17, the team still locked him up to a solid deal which should make both sides happy.
Jaskin’s new deal will pay him a total of $2 million over the next two years. That math boils down to an annual cap hit of $1 million per year (calculators were used for this equation) which represents both a small raise for Jaskin and an extremely affordable cap hit for the Blues. Jaskin previously made $775,000 last season and tallied 13 points in 65 games.
At the current time, Jaskin is a role player. He’s been called on to fill in on the third and fourth line when other more permanent fixtures go down with an injury. He’s been pretty solid, showing glimpses of offensive talent which the Blues could desperately use, but for the most part he hasn’t been too exciting. That’s probably a combination of the role he’s been placed in and the fact he still needs to take his game to a higher level.
His new two-year deal, like many other deals the Blues have handed out in recent memory, could be classified as a “prove yourself” contract. Jaskin has two years to prove he’s more than just a role player.
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